20th Century Boys: Beginning of the End (2008)
Original title: 20世紀少年 -第1章- 終わりの始まり
20th Century Boys: Beginning of the End is a 2008 Japanese-language science fiction movie directed by Yukihiko Tsutsumi, with a running time of 2h 22m. It stars Toshiaki Karasawa, Takako Tokiwa and Teruyuki Kagawa.
In 1969, Kenji, an elementary school kid and his friends built a secret base during their summer holidays. They fantasized that they had to fight villains who were out to conquer the world and wrote them in the Book of Prophecies. Years later in 1997, Kenji becomes a convenience store manager and leads a regular life after giving up his dreams to become a rock star. His boring life is suddenly turned upside down when his old classmate dies mysteriously and an entire family in the neighbourhood disappears. At the same time, a religious cult and its mysterious leader, Friend emerges and a strange chain of events duplicating exactly the events described in the Book of Prophecies follow. Is this the beginning of the end of the world? Who is Friend?
Cast
- Toshiaki Karasawa as Kenji Endô
- Takako Tokiwa as Yukiji
- Teruyuki Kagawa as Yoshitsune
- Hidehiko Ishizuka as Maruo
- Takashi Ukaji as Mon-chan
- Hiroyuki Miyasako as Keroyon
- Katsuhisa Namase as Donkey
- Fumiyo Kohinata as Yamane
- Kuranosuke Sasaki as Fukubê
- Shiro Sano as Yan-bô
- Shiro Sano as Mâ-bô
- Kanji Tsuda as Moroboshi
