20th Century Boys (Yukihiko Tsutsumi, 2008): Japan

Reviewed by Kevin Tran. Viewed at the Santa Barbara International Film Festival.

To know what a good a film is, you need to see what a bad film is. So it is my philosophy, as a fellow filmgoer, one should try and see as many films as they can and judge for themselves what a good movie is. Now, as a reviewer, it is my job to determine whether a film is good or bad. You can see how my philosophy and my job description clash and so I’ll just begin my review by stating: If you want to see the definition of a bad film, see 20th Century Boys .

The film is decidedly based off a popular Manga comic, whose fans tell me the film is almost an exact replica of. (Then why make it a film?) The story of Kenji Endo, who is was once a rocker, but is now a clerk in his mother’s convenience store. When a mysterious cult seemingly comes out of nowhere around the time of the death of an old classmate, with the help of his old classmate, Kenji discovers that the two are not only connected, but there is evidence that the cult plans on ultimately taking over the world.

According to the description in the SBIFF pamphlet, 20th Century Boys is a blockbuster that is one of Japan’s most expensive films. From its opening scene of a young teenager who blares the movie’s anthem, a song by glam rock band T. Rex, one would expect either a comedic, kick-ass, action film. But the action doesn’t come until the very end of 142-minute film, and even then, it’s a bitter disappointment that can hardly qualify as action. It’s the kind of action you remember from the nineties Power Rangers television show.

Now, it is always a reviewer’s goal to be as objective as possible when it comes to analyzing a film that is a completely different genre and country from what they are use to seeing, such as a Japanese action epic that 20th Century Boys is claiming to be. For example, the style of acting in Japanese films is dramatically different than what we’re use to seeing in. It is more theatrical and outlandish, which could function and be humorous in this film’s genre, such as the 2006 Korean monster movie The Host, but 20th Century doesn’t work and isn’t fun. In fact, the film was incapable of wiggling a single emotion out of me. Not laughter, not fear, not sadness – nothing.

Although the film is bad, it is not so bad in a way in which it makes fun of itself or that you can laugh at it, like in American exploitation films or horror movies from the seventies. Even at its worst, 20th Century Boy is not as bad as you would like it to be.