Japan 20th Century Boys 1: Beginning of the End is a Japan–Thailand co-production — one of only a handful of such cross-border film titles indexed here.
Synopsis
20世紀少年 －第1章－ 終わりの始まり
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?
Japan × Thailand Co-Production
Other Japan×Thailand titles
Titles With Overlapping Themes
Films and series that share thematic tags with 20th Century Boys 1: Beginning of the End. Number on each card indicates how many keywords overlap.
Other Titles From Cine Bazar
Science Fiction + Adventure in Japan
153 Japan titles in our catalog blend the Science Fiction and Adventure genres. Below: the top-rated of them (excluding 20th Century Boys 1: Beginning of the End itself).
Mask the Kekkou: Reborn
★ 8.2 · 2012
Sword Art Online: The Movie – Ordinal Scale
★ 7.8 · 2017
Interstella 5555
★ 7.8 · 2003
Gurren Lagann the Movie: The Lights in the Sky Are Stars
★ 7.8 · 2009
Doraemon: The Record of Nobita's Parallel Journey to the West
★ 7.8 · 1988
Ultraman Mebius & Ultra Brothers
★ 7.8 · 2006
The 2007–2009 Japan Window
20th Century Boys 1: Beginning of the End holds position #178 of 362 Japan films in the 2007–2009 window, below highlighted by audience rating.
The 2000s Japan Landscape
Catalog density by release year across the 2000s in Japan, 1020 titles in total. Highlighted year (yellow) is when 20th Century Boys 1: Beginning of the End premiered alongside 124 others.
Budget & Box Office Efficiency
At a 2h 22m runtime, production spent $141K per minute on screen and earned $220K per minute back.
Position in Catalog
Released alongside 124 other Japan films in 2008.
The 2102nd Japan title from Japan we index (earliest catalogued entry: 1899).
Our Japan catalog contains 4,579 titles in total (2,908 films).
Audience Engagement
85 audience reviews — more than 74% of Japan films in our index.
Popularity sits at the 66th percentile among Japan films.
Thematic Fingerprint
Tags on 20th Century Boys 1: Beginning of the End, grouped by how common each theme is across the full Asian catalog. Rare tags are more distinctive signals.
- england · 21
- bangkok · 20
- london · 17
- cult · 12
- osaka · 7
- anime · 711
- japan · 454
- japan · 454
- based on manga · 297
- tokyo · 78
- thailand · 56
Reception Benchmarks
Ranked #2,517 of 4,579 Japan films indexed here (45th percentile by TMDB audience score).
Among Japan Science Fiction productions specifically: #226 of 566 (top 40%).
Production Details
| Primary Country | Japan |
|---|---|
| All Production Countries | Japan, Thailand |
| Original Language | Japanese |
| Production Companies | Cine Bazar, TOHO |
| Runtime | 2h 22m |
| Release Date | August 19, 2008 |
| IMDb | tt1155705 |
| Official Site | www.4digitalmedia.com |