Japanese culture in 20th Century Boys

20th Century Boys again !
If you watch the movie : 20th Century Boys, you may wonder at some scene.

1. As a lead character Kenji is getting ready to go to his friend's funeral, his mother say that "Don't forget to have salt!".
Why does he need salt ?
Because not to bring the "death" into home. After someone's funeral, Japanese sprinkle salt their body before enter own house. It's based on thought of Shinto religion. But Buddist may doesn't do that.

2. Do you know what it's called the character,a mask which "friend" is putting on ?
He is "Ninja Hattori-kun", a comic's character. It was serialized in a magazine series from in 1960s to 1980s and was adapted into a 2004 live-action film that starred Shingo Katori of SMAP.

3. A man who in a flag in front of Kenji's store,Do you know who is he ?
His name is "Ohsama". Ohsama means King. He is a musician who was active in 1997.

If you know these 3points, you may be well-versed in Japan !

Family that sit around sukiyaki on New Year's Eve and young people who are unconcerned with untrue information that is reported in the media. These scene are very Japan.
I'm interested in how these scene will be translated in English.

Twentieth Century Boys - the next chapter,
a new page will be open to the another "end"...

20th Century Boys ： the movie

"The world faces it's end...by our "friend"."

I watched an interesting Japanese movie, "20th Century Boys". I was really excited. This movie kept me on the edge of my seat.

The outline is,

In 1969,an elementary school boy Kenji and his friends made up a fantasy story "Prophecy".
28years later,a series of mysterious cases happened around them. It resembled the story of "Prophecy" closely.
The world was slowly being threatened by the occurs. At last,on New Year's Eve 2000,"it" has come...

Is the criminal one of us? Who is the "friend"...?

The original is a comic book series "Twentieth Century Boys" by Naoki Urasawa.

The interesting thing is this movie uses "20th Century Boy" by T.REX as a theme song.

I heard that the actors are look-alike for the characters of original comics. (But I've never read the original comics.)

Etsushi Toyokawa as Otcho is very cool ! too cool !! He doesn't look around fifty at all !

This movie is the first film in the "20th Century Boys" trilogy and the second film will be released in Japan on January 31th. I can't wait it !

Does anyone know whether this movie is being released in other countries now?

http://www.20thboys.com/index.html