20th century boys 1: Beginning of the End

• Running time: 2CD 1h 13' x 2
• Vintage: 2008-08-30
• Director: Yukihiko Tsutsumi
• Total size: 2CD 698MB x 2
• Casting:
Airi Taira as Endo Kanna
Etsushi Toyokawa as Occho
Toshiaki Karasawa as Endo Kenji
• Sub: Eng-sub
Imdb review:
Could 20th Century Boys be the Japanese Watchmen? Like in the case of Alan Moore's masterpiece, Urasawa's sprawling story covers the cultural myths and obsessions of the past century: from the nuclear catastrophe following the war to the western cultural influences, conformism and totalitarian tendencies, the demilitarized, defenseless Japan, the economic boom of the sixties . Even a touch of mecha and the pervasiveness of media in society.

Judging the movie, however, can be more difficult: its competently shot and acted, but like most transpositions, it makes its manga origin very clear, which can be appalling for the manga-illiterate in the audience, which at the projections I was sighed, left early or giggled in all the wrong places. Sound editing was awful, but it might be a result of the copy I saw.

Where the film could use some help is in the editing. Fans will appreciate the attempt to be faithful to the original source, but movies simply work in a different way: act II is too long, and the final climax and resolution is reduced to a few choppy scenes. It might definitely look better when parts 2 and 3 are released.

20th century boys 1: Beginning of the End