20-seiki shônen (2008)

A burned-out rocker discovers his doom-struck adolescent fantasies are coming true in this futuristic thriller from Japan. Ever since his career as a musician crashed and burned, Kenji (Toshiaki Karasawa) has been making a living working at a quick-stop store and living with his family. One day, police officers stop by and ask Kenji about a family of regular customers who've gone missing, though Kenji has hardly noticed their absence. When Kenji visits the home of the missing family, he notices a strange piece of graffiti on the wall, and is startled when he remembers it was the symbol of a club of teenage misfits he belonged to years ago. Kenji and his friends in the club created an amateur comic book that imagined an apocalyptic future in which strange illnesses and bands of armed insurgents threatened to destroy the world. As a wave of unexplained murders sweeps through the city, overseas the events of Kenji's old comic are beginning to come true--a fanatical cult known as Friend found the book and, under the leadership of Sadakiyo, they've made it their business to turn it into a reality. Now Kenji and his old friends have to infiltrate the cult and stop them before it's too late. 20-SEIKI SHONEN (aka 20TH CENTURY BOYS) was adapted from a bestselling manga by Naoki Urasawa and became a major box-office hit in Japan.