20th Century Boys' movie adaptation Part II Blu-Ray Disc breaks sales records

The Blu-Ray Disc version of "20 Seiki Shounen - Chapter 2 - Saigo no Kibou" released on 28 August 09 by VAP broke DVD sales records as announced in Oricon's latest DVD / Blu-Ray Disc charts dated 7 September. The title's BD version sold 7,717 copies between the period of 24 August to 30 August thus breaking the highest record for Japanese Blu-Ray Disc movie releases so-far (not taking anime releases into consideration). The previous record holder was a related title, "20 Seiki Shounen - Chapter 1 - Owari no Hajimari" which sold 7,251 copies. As for the DVD version, 32,000 copies of the normal version and 12,000 copies of the deluxe version have been sold so far, thus making "20 Seiki Shounen" the No.1 title on the weekly DVD charts.

Top 10 movies ranking (30 Aug 09)

1) 20 Seiki Shounen Final Chapter Bokura no Hata

2) Night Musuem 2

3) Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince

4) Gekijouban Kamen Rider Decade All Riders vs. Dai Shocker

5) Gekijouban Pocket Monster Diamond & Pearl

6) HACHI Yakusoku no Inu

7) Summer Wars

8) Amalfi Megami no Houshuu

9) 96 Hours

10) Hottarake no Shima Haruka to Mahou no Kagami

Completion screening of "20th Century Boys Part 3"

The completion premiere screening of "20th Century Boys Saishusho ~ Bokura no Hata (Final Chapter ~ Our Flag)" was held on 28th July at Tokyo International Forum. Cast members including Karasawa Toshiaki, Toyokawa Etsushi, Tokiwa Takako, Taira Airi, Kagawa Teruyuki, Sano Shiro, Miyasago Hiroyuki, Ishizuka Hidehiko made their appearances along with the manga's author, Urasawa Naoki. 3000 fans came to the event which showed the final installment to the trilogy but the last 10 minutes of the movie were not shown so that the ending would only be made known to all when the film goes on roadshow in the cinemas. As the ending of the movie was designed by Urasawa to be different from the manga, that is why the ending has to be kept confidential till the last minute. The movie will be shown from 29 August in cinemas.

Review of 20 Seiki Shounen Part 2 二十世紀少年 第二章: Saigo no Kibou 最後の希望

Before you continue reading this review, here are the disclaimers once again:

If you have not watched this movie, do not read this unless you are OK with the spoilers which I'm going to mention. I do not take responsibility for spoilling the fun before you get the chance to see this for yourself.

The story continues 15 years after the Bloody New Year's Eve in 2000 and Japan is now under the control of Tomodachi who twisted the facts and made Kenji and Co. appear as the terrorists who tried to wipe out mankind. By projecting himself as the saviour of the world, Tomodachi has gained a strong following and earned "admiration" from people worldwide.

At the same time, Kanna has already grown up to be a senior high student while the gang of 7 who worked together to fight the Tomodachi at that time have either passed on, disappeared or lying low. Kenji's whereabouts are still unknown while Occho is behind bars. Even though the gang have been made to bear the blame for what happened 15 years ago, Kanna knows the truth and is still hoping to meet Kenji again. She also feels deep hatred for Tomodachi who is responsible for the current state of things.

Kanna starts to get closer to the identity of Tomodachi as childhood friends of Tomodachi like Sadakiyo and Yamane start popping up, claiming that Tomodachi misled them and betrayed their trust. She also gets picked to take part in a brainwash programme held at Tomodachi Land as she always behaves violently in school when people badmouth Kenji. However, the biggest revelation she discovers is the fact that she may be Tomodachi's daughter but none of her elders seem to be willing to talk about this.

A new book, "The new book of prophecies" (Shin Yogen no Sho) surfaces and Kanna & Co. realize that this is written by Tomodachi as a continuation from what Kenji & Co. had written when they were kids. At the beginning of this book, it is mentioned that a righteous saviour will be killed in a Shinjuku church. While Kanna & Co. try to decipher what this means, they fail to realize that this is part of a ploy for Tomodachi to grab full control of the situation and gain influence...

As this is the 2nd installment of the 3-part series, it would be best to manage your expectations. You wouldn't see any ending or major revelation here. This is just a connection point to the finale. As such, we are still none the wiser as to the identity of Tomodachi. Apparently, Kenji and Occho have the answer but I believe the production crew will save the big revelation till the very end. I was not too pleased with the first part of this movie. They had some developments which did not really fit into the story at first but they made sense at the end. It took a fair bit of time to get back into the pace of things. Thus, it takes a bit of patience to ease into the story and get used to the momentum of the developments. Things start to get more interesting after Kanna gets into Tomodachi Land. However, the lack of closure leaves me quite dissatisfied. On its own, this movie probably wouldn't do too well on my scoreboard because the beginning is abrupt and the ending leaves too many questions unanswered. Given the fact that this is a connecting installment, I'm prepared to look at this movie in a different manner.

Frankly speaking, I had an answer as to Tomodachi's identity at the end of Part 1. I was pretty sure that he would be the one. However, judging from Sadakiyo and Yamane's words, the revelation that Yoshitsune was actually wearing a similar mask which Sadakiyo wore when they were kids as well as the fact that Tomodachi was exchanging identities with Sadakiyo at one time, it has thrown my guesses off course. If Fukube is really Tomodachi, why did Yoshitsune wear the mask at that time? One clue given was that Tomodachi didn't get to go to the Osaka Expo at that time and exchanged identities with Sadakiyo so that nobody knew about this. As such, besides Kenji who went to Chiba for a holiday, Tomodachi must be the only one in the gang not to go to the Osaka Expo at that time. Another suspcious thing was that Yoshitsune disappeared halfway on the way to the church when he spotted No.13 on the rooftop of a building. Where did he go and what was he up to? As such, I'm now guessing between Yoshitsune and Fukube. Since Part 3 has an entirely different ending from the manga, the final identity of Tomodachi may not be Fukube after all. Yoshitsune seems more suspicious now as compared to the rest, at the least for the time being.

Although Karasawa Toshiaki is the lead, he only appears in one miserable scene (not counting those flashbacks when Kanna & Co were thinking of him) at the end where he's singing while riding a motorbike. As such, for fans of Karasawa, you will be sorely disappointed because you will not see much of him. You have to be patient and wait for Part 3 where Kenji gets back into the action. In exchange for Kenji's absence, Occho takes on a bigger role this time although he was behind bars for most of the beginning. Once he got out of prison, that's when the action begins. Although the character setting for these main cast members should be in their 50s, Toyokawa Etsushi certainly doesn't look like one. That long hair and well-built body just makes Occho very appealing! ^__^ On the other hand, Tokiwa Takako pales in comparison this time because her role was mainly projected as a guardian of Kanna. On the surface, she seems to have mellowed down and tried to stop Kanna from getting too involved with Tomodachi but I believe given her character, she's not the type to lie low without making any effort on her own to solve the problem. Hopefully, she will get more screen time in the final installment.

With regards to Taira Airi's performance as Kanna, I am judging her purely based on this movie since I've not seen her past performances. If you are talking about Kanna's headstrong side, Taira looks the part but somehow, her voice decreases the credibility of her role when she gets agitated. Her voice becomes too sharp and screechy when Kanna gets angry or frustrated so it was a bit unbearable for me. However, when she's supposed to show the softer and more mature side of Kanna, I think she did pretty well. As Kanna is a senior high school student in this installment, I am guessing that Taira's performance will improve in the final installment when Kanna becomes an adult. I think she looks better in casual clothes than in school uniform so that outfit does bring out the tomboyish and yet delicate character of Kanna in a better way.

As per the first installment, there is a galore of famous supporting cast members but the most eyecatching out of them would be Yusuke Santa Maria and Koike Eiko. Wow, Sadakiyo looks really horrifying, judging from Kanna and Koizumi's reaction when they saw his face in the brain wash simulator. He certainly doesn't look like he's the same age with Kenji & Co. Yusuke Santa Maria really went all out to potray Sadakiyo. His appearance time may be little but he left a strong impression on me. By the way, for those who know Urasawa Naoki's other famous work, "Monster", don't you feel that Sadakiyo's manga image looks very close to Lunge? Likewise, Koike Eiko's potrayal of Takasu was very eye-catching. Well, I felt like laughing whenever she appeared because her actions were so exaggerated and funny. Seems like she's going to continue the reprisal of her role in Part 3 as well. Oh, there's also a surprise addition from Taiwan i.e. Chen Zhaorong who played the Chinese mafia chief. Those who have seen those long Taiwanese soap dramas would know him very well. To think one of the top guys in Taiwan would come to Japan to play a small role. Nonetheless, he still did OK. At least it was quite memorable. He still had a name and some lines so this is better than playing a mere stranger on the road.

On the other hand, you have people like Fujiki Naohito appearing for so long and yet his character doesn't impress me that much. Chouno was rather irritating in my opinion. That wishy-washy behaviour and too trusting attitude put me off. Nonetheless, since he's the grandson of the police detective who detected that Tomodachi is up to no good, he would appear again in Part 3, most likely as a source of help for Kenji & Co since Tomodachi's subordinates have already infiltrated the government and police force.

At the end of the movie, do not be in a hurry to leave the cinema. I guess the producers realized that some people leave without seeing the trailer for the next part so they actually put a countdown timer at the end. When I was there, most of the people stayed. Be warned, the credits roll is more than 4 minutes long. And that is where you see the finale's trailer. And one final thing, do not be fooled by the roadshow date flashed on the screen. 29 Aug is the screening date for Part 3 in Japan, not in Singapore. So don't assume Part 3 is coming to our shores soon. Given the fact that it took almost a year for Part 2 to come here, I am expecting that the finale can only be seen next year. What a long wait! It had better turn out to be a worthwhile wait, hopefully.

And my ratings for this movie...
Story: 7 out of 10 (Before the point when Kanna and Koizumi went to Tomodachi Land, I was quite bored with the story. The action in the 2nd part compensated for the lacking beginning.)
Acting: 7 out of 10 (Due to the huge number of characters, there is little room for development for most of the characters. Taira Airi is doing OK and Toyokawa Etsushi is doing great to fill the void left by Karasawa.)
Theme song: 7 out of 10 (Same groovy theme song as before)
Visual effects / Scenery: 7 out of 10 (The robots and weirdo machines are toned down this time. In fact, nothing fanciful this time. It's the scale of some of the events which are seeking to impress e.g. that street parade, the funeral service of Tomodachi. Boy, they really know how to spend all that money!)
Teamwork / Chemistry: 6 out of 10 (Compared to the first part, there isn't much of teamwork to speak of. When everyone gets together in the finale, that will probably be something to talk about.)

Total: 34 out of 50

20th Century Boys Part 2 ~ Saigo no Kibou DVD

Title: 20th Century Boys Part 2 ~ Saigo no Kibou DVD
Price: 5,775 yen (inclusive of tax)
Date of release: 28 Aug 09
Produced by: Vap
Number of discs: 2
Total run time: 140 minutes
Free gift: Original guitar pick
Special footage includes: summaries of Part 1 and 2, Part 2 analysis and previews for Part 3 ~ Bokura no Hata (Our Flag)

20th Century Boys Part 1 DVD - Deluxe Version

Title: 20th Century Boys Part 1 DVD - Deluxe Version
Price: 5,775 yen (inclusive of tax)
Specifications: Dolby Digital Sound, Limited Edition & Subtitled
Region Code: 2
Number of discs: 1
Produced by: VAP, INC
Date of release: 30 January 2009
Total running time: 142 minutes

Special features:

1) Analog LP Double Jacket
2) Trailers for Part 1 and Part 2
3) Original Guitar Pick
4) A flag with the Tomodachi mark

Review of 20 Seiki Shounen (20th Century Boys) - Part 1

To begin with, here are a few points to take note:

1) As mentioned countless times, if you haven't watched this and do not wish to know the story, I suggest that you leave this till after watching the movie. Lots of spoilers around. Don't say I didn't remind you.

2) I have not read the manga. I do not know the storyline so there will be no comparison between the original and the movie.

3) If you are going to watch this movie soon, please stay till the end of the credits roll. I know the credits roll is terribly long (because of the number of people involved) BUT you will get to see something from Part 1 which gives an inkling of the focus in Part 2 AND the trailer for Part 2. Just stay in your seats till the end or you will never know what you are missing.

Storyline:

First of all, the story begins in 1969 which was the year when Man first landed on the moon and the year just before the Osaka Expo. A group of primary school students Kenji, Occho, Maruo, Yoshitsune, Mon-chan, Donkey, Yukiji and Fukube create a secret base to gather and writes the story, "Yogen no Sho (Book of Prophecy). The story is about an evil organization which plans to take over and destroy the world but 9 brave warriors combine forces to prevent that ambition.

1997, Kenji has now given up the idea of being a rock singer and operates a convenience store while looking after his missing elder sister, Kiriko's baby daughter, Kanna. However, the sudden disappearances of his regular customer's family and Donkey's death marks the end of his peaceful life so far. He comes to know that a secret organization led by a person by the name of "Tomodachi (Friend)" is behind this series of events and is even more shocked to find out that the events are exactly what he and his childhood friends had written in Yogen no Sho. Before he can do anything to stop Tomodachi, he is framed by the organization for being a terroist and has to be on the run. He also has to protect Kanna who is supposedly Tomodachi's daughter.

On 31 Dec 2000, Kenji and his friends get together to stop Tomodachi's plans to launch an attack on Tokyo and the world by using bio-weapons...

And my thoughts:

Well, in the beginning, I didn't understand why the story started in the prison with Kadota (Moriyama Mirai) who was arrested for publishing his manga on the Internet. Seems like the story he drew was similar to what was in Yogen no Sho. He was relating his plight to the prisoner locked up in the opposite cell who is Occho! This was only apparent during the final moments of this movie when the credits roll was over. As such, my guess is that Occho was nabbed by the police after Kenji succeeded in blowing up the robot which spread the virus but from the Part 2 trailer, the rest of the group were safe.

As the story kept jumping between 1997 and 1969, it was difficult to keep track of the characters since there were so many of them. Other than the very obvious ones like Kenji, Yukiji and Donkey, I couldn't remember most of their childhood faces. I just found it amazing that they managed to make the young Donkey and the adult Donkey look almost the same! Thus, for people who have never read the manga, it can be hard trying to link the childhood faces to the adult versions and remembering all those who are involved in one way or another.

Nevertheless, I liked the idea of seeing so many good actors gathered together. It was especially refreshing to see Tokiwa Takako again since she has not been acting in dramas for a long time. Toyokawa Etsushi took too long to appear but the moment he was shown on screen, that aura is definitely unmistakable. I was just thinking, doesn't Occho feel hot wearing that long coat in Bangkok?! ^__^ Karasawa Toshiaki was also funny at times and brought much relief to the fast-moving storyline. And Sano Shiro playing the twin bullies...kudos to the casting director who managed to find such spitting images of the childhood version.

With regards to the storyline, it is definitely very fast-paced. For people who have not read the manga, I think it can be rather difficult to follow the story as it zips through different periods back and fro. I've never been too keen on science fiction stories so that was a main reason why I did not buy the manga although I had become keen on Urasawa Naoki's works after watching Monster. Then again, based on what I've read in Monster, Urasawa is very detailed when it comes to every development. I wonder if the movie did rush through things because it appears as if they covered a lot of material in just 142 minutes.

There is a suspense element to this story i.e. the biggest mystery being who is Tomodachi. Pertaining to this, I think the hairstyle is somewhat a give-away clue. I don't know how the manga handled this but from the way it seems, Fukube is a suspicious character. Something about his eyes during the classmate reunion session and his hairstyle resembling Tomodachi's behind a mask just makes him a likely choice. And the way he "died" just gives more room for imagination. However, I am doubting that Urasawa will give away the answer so easily so that hairstyle could be a trick after all. From the way how Kenji looked at the face of Tomodachi at the end of the story, I am guessing that Tomodachi is either someone who has supposedly died or someone who is from his team. I hope that the final answer is logical i.e. don't give us a character who has not even been featured because there is no way anyone could have arrived at the answer.

One thing which I couldn't really understand is why Kenji seems to have clean-forgotten about Yogen no Sho right in the beginning. From the flashbacks, it seemed like Kenji was the one who wrote and drew the pictures in Yogen no Sho. It is puzzling as to why he had no impression of what he did.

Another big mystery is the fact that Kenji and Co. wrote in Yogen no Sho that there were 9 warriors. However, after eliminating Donkey who is supposedly dead, there are only 7 of them. I remember Yoshitsune saying that there was a guy who always wanted to join their gang but that guy always wore a mask and seemed to be particularly interested in Kenji. Could he have felt left-out by the group and hatched this plan to take revenge?

I'm somewhat glad that I have not read the manga yet because this doesn't kill the excitement like what happened during Death Note when I was very concerned about the differences between the original and the adaptation. Maybe the manga fans would have a different take on the storyline. It's just quite painful to wait for the second series since there's a big cliffhanger at the end of Part 1. Assuming that it takes 2months for the movie to come to Singapore, the earliest we can see this would be in March 09!

The focus on Part 2 seems to be shifting to Kanna who is now grown-up. It still remains to be seen why Kanna is the chosen one and her mother Kiriko should provide more answers. As of 2015, a new Yogen no Sho will be at work. Thus, the gang will probably have no prior knowledge of what's going to happen since they did not even finish Yogen no Sho in the first place.

And my ratings for this movie...
Story: 9 out of 10 (too fast at times but it is an engaging piece of work)
Acting: 9 out of 10 (too many characters around, some of the actors don't get enough airtime so there is limited understanding of the characters. however, the standard of acting is good)
Theme song: 6 out of 10 (the intro is catchy BUT i don't really like the song as a whole)
Visual effects / Scenery: 8 out of 10 (CG prowess at work, the final explosion scene was magnificent. I think besides the pay for the huge army of actors and extras, most of the money spent on this movie must have been for CG.)
Teamwork / Chemistry: 7 out of 10 (the core group blended pretty well together but they could have got together much earlier to show the strong friendship they had)

Total: 39 out of 50

Introduction to 20 世紀少年 (20th Century Boys) Part 1

Title: 20th Century Boys Part 1
Official site: here
Original manga / Scriptwriter: Urasawa Naoki
Director: Tsutsumi Yukihiko
Theme song: 20th Century Boy by T.REX





Introduction:

"20 seiki shounen" (20th Century Boys) was serialized from 1999 to 2007 by Urasawa Naoki who had also created other popular titles like YAWARA and MONSTER. To date, it has sold more than 20 million copies. Besides Japan, this manga is also published in 12 countries in translated format i.e. the Netherlands, Belgium, Germany, Spain, France, Italy, Indonesia, Hong Kong, Taiwan, South Korea, Singapore and Thailand. It has also won the Enclare International Manga Festival's Best Serialized Manga award which was held in France.

As this story involves scenes from around the world and spans about 50 years, the movie adaptation will be split into three instalments. It had been said that this manga cannot be made into a live adaptation due to the scale of production but this has become the first-ever Japanese movie which has 3 parts. The total production expenses come up to about 6 billion yen and location shooting was done in New York, London, Paris, Beijing and Bangkok. The first instalment is shown from summer 2008 while the second and third are anticipated to be screened in 2009 New Year and 2009 Autumn.

Due to the fact that there are many characters in this story, the movie series will boast of a star-studded cast comprising of at least 300 actors and actresses. At the moment, the 7 main characters are Karasawa Toshiaki (Kenji), Toyokawa Etsushi (Occho), Tokiwa Takako (Yukiji), Kagawa Teruyuki (Yoshitsune), Ishizuka Hidehiko(Maruo), Sasaki Kuranosuke (Fukube) and Ukaji Takashi (Mon-chan). As for the rest of the lineup especially for the 2nd and 3rd instalment, announcements will be made gradually.

As you can see from the cast relation chart, this is a huge and complicated web of relationships. Just to name some of those who will also be appearing in the 1st instalment: Miyasago Hiroyuki, Namase Katsuhisa, Kohinata Fumio, Ishibashi Renji, Kuroki Hitomi, Fujii Takashi, Yamada Hanako, ARATA, Katase Nana, Ikewaki Chizuru, Fujii Fumiya, Oriental Radio, Oikawa Mitsuhiro, Takenaka Naoto, Moriyama Mirai, Sano Shiro, Mine Ryuta etc. This movie looks as if it is going to get almost everyone in the industry involved by the time it finishes its trilogy. It will be good news for the movie-goers since there's a lot of stars to see at one go but as to whether hardcore fans will like the match-up, that's a different story. I for one, have not read the manga yet (the Kinokuniya in Singapore seems to be out of stock) so I may just read the manga after the trilogy ends. It appears as if the movie will have a slightly different ending from the manga.

I will be watching the preview of this movie tomorrow (or should I say today afternoon since it's past midnight now). Hopefully, I can get the review up after that, assuming that I'm not tired out by the movie. Mind you, this is 142 minutes long so be prepared for it. This movie will be screened officially in Singapore next Thursday i.e. 16 Oct.

By the way, I have inserted the blog part provided by the official website just below the stats counter. After clicking on it, something will happen on this blog. Do try it for yourself!