Yahoo Singapore’s movie site has some of the funniest reviews of 20th Century Boys ever.
Here are some of my replies to parts of the various reviews. Note that the quotes are directly copied and pasted.
As a jap manga film, the storyline is so ambiguous that it is laughable.
It’s a life action adaptation that remains faithful to the original manga. How often can you actually find such stuff? The plot is totally based on the whatever Urasawa Naoki wrote. Therefore, if you really must, flame the manga, not the film. Watch out for the fan boys’ and girls’ rage though.
Even the distaster shots were really obviously superimposed, doesnt look real…and how did it surpass Death Note?
Don’t why the newspaper even dare to compare this movie with Death Note. Death Note was much better by miles.
I spot some Death Note live action fanboys/girls here.
Japanese live action adaptation movies never really had a history of awesome CG to begin with. Did Death Note have awesome CG? I don’t recall any. In fact, I thought that the Shinigamis were pretty crappy.
If you want to compare Death Note and 20th Century Boys as live adaptations, just take a look at the cast. Death Note had a Light which totally didn’t resemble the Light in the manga, while the entire 20th Century Boys cast mirrors the appearance of their 2D counterparts.
Also, let’s not forget the retarded ending Death Note had.
This is why I can confidently state that 20th Century Boys has surpassed Death Note in every single aspect of a live adaptation move. Even if you still think I’m spouting nonsense, the box office backs up the truth I speak of.
Uninteresting story that can really make you sleep. Except for the visual effect, the rest of the movie is not worth paying. If you are unable to sleep at night, you can try watching this movie
20th Century Boys boring?! Oh please. Go read the manga before you even start your flames.
The main villain can float and wears a condom like ragbag over his head
I’m at a loss for words.
You can read all of the reviews here, just scroll down to the reviews section. Currently, there are merely 2 pages of such rants, and I’m guessing there’ll be more to come.
Damn, why are majority of the reviews written by fellow locals so entertaining?
LOL. This just makes me want to see the live-action movie even more. I”m really curious to see how it worked out!
Friend terrified me more than any Death Note character, even with a condom or a monkey mask on his head
Even if Death Note was suspenseful, it didn’t drive me nuts to read the next chapter like 20th Century Boys. I have to admit, the plot seems silly on the outside.
4chan answer: snobbish thinking = I AM LEGEND!
Yahtzee’s answer: Pants-on-head retarded.
My sensible answer:
It’s clear that the lack of exposure to various forms and factors of Japanese films are a contributing factor in bringing in the scathing review of 20th Century Boys. We all agree that the movie faithfully recreates every single aspect of the manga.
Which brings me to another point: the reviewers must have seen lots of literature-to-screen adaptation, with painful results. They carry a certain bias that most such adaptations are an instant source of fail. (Which doesn’t explain the runaway success of a certain *cough*PeterJackson*cough* movie, even though I decry the omission of very important characters from the original source.)
Fortunately, the Internet is a vast superior publishing space. All that’s needed is traffic running through your blog, and you achieve instant fame.
Hey look at the main stream newspapers who gave this show like 1.5/5!
I wonder if this movie really does suck (let’s face it, we are fanboys as well) since Japanese movies do really suckass in general, or is it the inability of the commoners to comprehend stuff.
20th century boys is quite incoherent even in the manga, so no surprise.
shirokyuu > 20th Century Boys does have some ‘WTF’ elements, such as the part where Kenji comes back alive.
TP > I have a distaste for the snobbish elitist view, but well, that’s what gets some writers their readers.
tj han > I never trust those mainstream newspaper reviews. Personally, I thought the movie was a 3 or 4, because it omitted some parts that I was looking forward to, such as Occho’s past. The acting was pretty decent, I must say.
The one thing that may put some people of might be the pacing, but that should be personal preference. Finally, if we’re talking about CG, I’d have to agree that it’s quite crappy, especially if placed side by side against your regular Hollywood fare.
Still, to say Death Note is far better than this movie, that is something I can never agree with, as far as the first film goes.
I was shocked (and actually also happy) that 20th CB got a live action movie. Anyways, just don’t mind those Death Note fanboys too much. I guess this also comes from the fact that the manga itself ran in a seinen magazine that fanboys probably don’t even know about, while a probably badly marketed live-action brings the story to the attention of people who wouldn’t appreciate the unusual storytelling of 20th Century Boys.
By the way, I agree with tj that live-action are horrid in most cases and it’s hard to believe for me that they are good actors. But in comparison to Death Note, I can imagine very well how 20th CB would be much better.
I felt that the actors in 20th Century Boys were pretty good. At least much better than the FAIL in the Death Note movie.
The acting for 20th c was so much better than death note. The problem with 20th C is the flash back!!!!! And the lack of explanation for certain parts. Cut off too much manga material. Other than that I liked the movie a lot.
They’ve already screened this in Singapore ? That’s fast. :] I’ve not had a chance to watch it, guess I’ll have to wait for the dvd release. The director Tsutsumi-san’s an old senpai from my film school, so we’ve all been told to go watch it haha.
Wow, an old senpai from film school? That’s cool!
The pacing really spoils the mood of the story. It left out the background story of almost all of the various characters in the first movie, and it has to decrease the screen time dedicated to each scene. It makes their emotional changes and building up to the climax less impactful.
Its hard to blame them since they have too much materials to cover in the movie. I suspect the same thing will happen in the second movie as they will have even more things to cover in the same amount of time.
I used to look forward to this movie when i saw the casting, they really resembled their manga counterpart. But i was disappointed that they have really no room develop their character, they should have made it into a 3hr movie instead.
What a waste of such an epic storyline.
Hi, first of all, I red the manga already, and I think I’m fall in the category of “fan-boy” here.
But for real, I personally think that the movie is worse than Death Note in general. I ‘m talking about movie on the whole. Either it is a “manga adaption” or original movie, it is still a movie, you can’t expect everyone to go read the manga before going to theater. For example, who, except Death Note fan, will really care about the difference between Yagami Light in movie and Yagami Light in manga? They didn’t even know what Yagami Light in manga looks like. I think Death Note did very good homework on this, for adding new character in Part 1 and making the ending of part 1 looks so good.
I’m not saying that 20th CB is sucks. I think it is OK, just ok. At first I feel a bit angry when my gf said the movie is not good and make her sleepy. But I reconsider it and I think I’m kinda understand it. With lots of lack in explanation, it makes audience believe that all believers of “Friend” are dumbasses and all this looks so unrealistics. I never felt like that when I red the manga.
This might because Death Note is much shorter than 20th CB so it’s much easier to squeeze and make a movie. Anyway the acting and casting are great. I like the realization of robot scene a lot.
I also did post my blog about this. Hope someone on the crew red it and improve the 2nd and 3rd part. I really wants everyone to love this movie.
First, I have to say I watched the movie before reading the manga. I know many people who did not read the manga find that the movie is very confusing because the movie switches between childhood and adult scenes randomly.
After reading the manga and watching the movie again, I have to say it’s good that you people find it confusing.
This is because if it’s not confusing, it will be VERY easy to know who “Friend” is in the movie. (not in manga though). Seriously, when you found out who “Friend” is and watch the movie again, you will “wtf why didn’t I take note of that ?”.
i think the casts are freakin look alike!! wow! that’s amazing! but this movie is lack of “Hollywoodness”..
i know it directed, casted, and written by japanese, but if you watch the movie, i feel like it missing something.. i don’t know what, maybe the acting or the atmospehere is not thrilling unlike when you read the manga. that’s what me and my friend use to say lack of Hollywoodness…
Whoever wrote that review must be an idiot! This live action surpasses BY FAR Death Note. Not only is it actually making sense, but the actors are pretty good, and look alike!
ok, can one of you guys help mehere.
what is the name of the band thats playing at Friends concert?
when he walks in and says “This isnt rock”
i know who they are, just cant remember for the life f my what they’re called :@