[old blog import] Welcome to the 20th century, boys.

There are at least three thing that truly make a Japanese film Japanese, even more so than being actually made by Japanese people speaking Japanese in Japan.

Those three thing off course being Giant Robots, Nuking the shit out of Tokyo, and thinly veiled Ultraman References.

20th Century Boys is a very Japanese film. It is also a rather good one. This comes as something of relief actually, considering that it's cost me nearly thirty quid to go see it. But the point of the excersize was that the film was actually seeable at the cinema. Even if I did have to trek all the way up to poxy London for the privilage.

The film is pretty much good all around. Well directed, well acted (even the baby was good!) and with an involving plot and good SPFX when the situation calls for.

It is worth noting that, as is often the case with this sort of thing, it's kind of obviously based on a longer running Manga. Whilst things do build towards the eventual finale in a fairly cohesive fashion which allays the whole "spot the end of the chapter" feeling you get from some other films (I'm looking at you Mushishi) there is a distinct feeling that some portion of the story has been glossed over in order to fit the film into a manageble running time. Whilst you technically could have sped up the pacing in the first half of the film you'd loose the whole sense of building up the mystery. But aside from that one obvious skip, the whole thing flows very well.

And of course, this is just part one. There is, as they say, more where that came from.

Overall I really enjoyed it. I'm quite keen to see part two, though whether or not that'll get a release over here remains a mystery for the future. And whilst future events such as these may well affect you in the future, you'll forgive me if I don't hold my breath. At the very least I'm certainly inclined to pick up the Manga so I can get the full depth of the story.

Because if theres one thing I really NEED right now it's another extensive series of Manga to buy into.

At the end of the day this is another really good Japanese film, which shows of the kind of awesome that Japanese cinema has to offer, but which will never get any sort of widespread release because of that crazy foreign jibber jabbber that keeps going on, so you'll never get to see this at your local cinema.

SERIOUSLY PEOPLE. SUBTITLES ARE NOT HARD.