Language - Japanese
Genre - Sci-fi
As this is the 3rd part of the trilogy there may be some spoilers for the first two films the reviews for which are here Part 1 and here Part 2
Part 3 is set in 2017,
2 years after the events in part 2.
Friend has built a wall around Tokyo and has total control of the
city. There are no radios allowed and
the only television shows have to be approved by Friend. At the start of the film we see Otcho
(shogun) and his companion scaling the walls to get into Tokyo. As they get over Otcho is surprised to see
that the city has been rebuilt to look the same as it did in the 1970’s but he
doesn’t have much time to look around as an alarm goes and the ‘Global defence
force’ who are now policing Tokyo come looking for them. Otcho and his companion separate and Otcho
ends up taking refuge in a wheel barrow that is being pushed by two
children. After accompanying the
children Otcho learns a number of facts:
1)
Friend is
rounding up and killing anyone who disagrees with him.
2)
There a
final part of the new book of prophesies which stated that, on August 30th
2017 there will be an alien invasion which will lead to a 3rd plague
being spread around the world.
3)
Yoshitsune
is leading an underground faction to stop Friend
4)
Kanna is
calling herself the ‘Ice Queen’ and is leading a second faction that is
planning a violent revolt on the 30th August
5)
There is a
chance that Kenji is still alive
Otcho also begins to
suspect that Yoshitsune is Friend and his rebellion is a ruse, this comes from
the second film where Friend has the badge that was stolen when they were
children. It is suspected that the child
who stole the badge is now Friend. Otcho
goes out to find Kanna and worn her that Yoshitsune is looking for her to make
an alliance, which Otcho thinks is another ruse so Friend can track her down.
Whilst this is going
on Kiriko (Kanna’s mother) is working on a vaccine for the new plague, as she
helped to create the original plague that was released at midnight new years
eve 1999 hand helped to find the cure for the second one that was released at
the end of the second film she believes that she can inoculate people from the
third one.
When Otcho finds Kanna
he tries to convince her that Kenji may still be alive and that the violent
rebellion she has planed will not work.
He finally manages to prove that Kenji is alive when he finds a radio
and play her a new song that Kenji is singing, as neither of them have ever
hear the song before it stands to reason that it was written after the events
of the first film meaning that Kenji could not have been killed when the Robot
exploded.
Later Kanna confronts
her mother to find out who her farther is, Kiriko confirms that it is Friend
but she is uncertain of who he is as the name he used when they were together
was fake.
Kanna is arrested for
being a terrorist and taken to Friend who attempts to recruit her to his
side. Kanna refuses to join him and
Friend lets her go giving her a clue how to survive the next plague.
Kanna changes her plan
from the planed revolution to trying to get as many people to the site of the
2015 expo that Friend created in the second film as it is a place of importance
to Friend and she believes that he will not spray the area with the plague. To get the people to the expo site Kanna sets
up a concert promising that the singer of the mysterious song that is playing
on the radio will be there. The song is
the new one for Kenji.
As Kanna is setting up
the concert Kenji approaches the wall of Tokyo.
After getting through the gates he meets a man who used to work with
Friend and who helped Friend form his mystique.
As every one gathers a
Kanna’s concert Friend launches his UFO’s to spread the new plague and a robot
equipped with a neutron bomb. Kenji and
Otcho race to stop them from destroying the city and then the world.
The third part of 20th
century boys brings the trilogy to a nice conclusion, all the characters are
reunited and most of the events of the first two films are reviled. We learn how
Friend built up his cult and gained his power, we learn how he
resurrected and, of course we learn that his true identity is…. Well of course
I’m not going to give that part away but Friends identity becomes secondary
anyway the films are more about why and how Friend was created and what can
happen when some one becomes so lonely that they begin to hate humanity and, of
course the films are about the power of Rock music.
The films are tight
and there are very few loose ends, the only two things that don’t seem to be explained
fully are both from part two and they are the esp, does Kanna and Friend have
any powers or not. It is hinted that the
spoon bending is another trick of Friend’s but it is not fully clarified. It is also not totally clear if the Virtual
reality time travel used in the ‘Bonus round’ actually affects the present or
if it just changes the program. If the
times travel affects the present then it could argued that time had been
changed and events of the three films never happened.
The last part of the
third film was a good way of explaining some of the finer points. After the concert has finished Kanna takes
Kenji to the remains of Friend land and he uses the Bonus round technology to
go back and set things right, as I said we don’t know if the events that happen
in Bonus round affect reality but if they did it would change things so that
Friend never took over.
The look of the third
film keeps in line with the other films; the future technology still has a
retro 70’s feeling to it. The uniforms of
the global defense force are reminiscent of the original series of V and the
UFO’s are you standard low budget ‘hubcap’ flying saucers. The mystery of the identity of Friend began
to remind me of the hunt for ‘Number one’ in the original series of ‘The Prisoner’
Over all 20th
century boys part 3 is a good ending to a great series and is well worth a
watch although I would make sure you plenty of time as the whole series runs at
around 7 and half hours.
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