20th Century Boys: Beginning of the End

In 1969, a young boy named Kenji and his friends spent their summer holidays in a secret base, imagining a battle against villains intent on global conquest. They recorded these apocalyptic fantasies in a document called the Book of Prophecies. By 1997, Kenji has abandoned his dreams of music to manage a convenience store. His routine is disrupted by the mysterious death of a former classmate and the disappearance of a local family. As a religious cult led by a figure known as Friend emerges, the world begins to experience a series of disasters that mirror the events the children wrote years earlier. Kenji must reunite with his old friends to stop the cult from turning their childhood stories into reality.

The film was directed by Yukihiko Tsutsumi, following his work on projects such as 2LDK and Jam Films. It stars Toshiaki Karasawa as Kenji Endô, alongside Takako Tokiwa, Teruyuki Kagawa, and Hidehiko Ishizuka. A joint production between Japan and Thailand, the movie had a budget of 20 million USD and earned 38 million USD at the worldwide box office. Audience reception is similar across platforms, with a rating of 6.6/10 on IMDb based on 3,000 votes and a score of 6.7/10 on TMDB from 107 votes.