Taking into account the success of Satoru Noda's multi-award-winning manga of the same name and the quality of the anime, one of the best series in recent years, a live-action adaptation was inevitable. The recent release on Netflix follows the first season of the manga and is quite close to it.
As I wrote in the anime review, “Golden Kamuy” is a quite different shonen title, notable for focusing on an Ainu character, while highlighting the language, culture and customs of the indigenous people, supervised by Hiroshi Nakagawa , an Ainu. Language linguist from Chiba University.
Director: Shigeaki Kubo
Writers: Tsutomu Kuroiwa, Satoru Noda
Stars: Kento Yamazaki, Anna Yamada, Yûma Yamoto
Saichi Sugimoto (nicknamed "Immortal Sugimoto" for escaping death several times but also for his savage fighting style), a veteran of the Battle of Hill 203 in the Russo-Japanese War, hears a dubious story about a hidden treasure of Ainu gold, the location of which is hidden in the tattoos of a group of prisoners who escaped from Abashiri prison. When he discovers that the story is true and that many other groups are chasing the gold, he decides to search for it. Asirpa, a young Ainu girl, saves Sugimoto from being eaten by a bear and they team up to search for the gold together, since the girl's father seems to have been involved in the case.
As the two travel together, Asirpa introduces Sugimoto (and essentially the audience) to Ainu customs, as they encounter various enemies and friends while searching for the treasure, with Yoshitake, a tattooed Abashiri convict and master escape artist also joining them. eventually. However, their path is far from easy, as two different factions also appear to be searching for the treasure. The 7th Division, the most fearsome of the Japanese army, led by sociopathic First Lieutenant Tokushiro Tsurumi, seeks to use Ainu gold to lead a coup to form an independent Hokkaido. Toshizo Hijikata, former leader of the Shinsengumi, plans to use the gold to finance the secession of Hokkaido and the creation of a second Ezo Republic, and has already signed Shinpachi Nagakura, another Shinshengumi captain, and Tatsuuma Ushiyama, a rather fearful judoka.
The fact that the synopsis for the first season of the anime and the film are essentially identical highlights how close Shigeaki Kubo stayed to the original, although some haste is to be expected, considering he had to condense 12 episodes into a 128-minute film. . The first thing anime and manga fans will notice here are the borrowings from various samurai anime, with Sugimoto sharing many similarities with Manji from “Blade of the Immortal,” Tsurumi with Shishio from “Samurai X,” while Hijikata has been a recurring character in several similar titles.
At the same time, the shonen premises are here once again, as the film is full of brutal action, including a rather impressive war scene at the beginning and humorous breaks. The latter, however, are as annoying as in the anime, once again implementing the pedantic humor of similar titles including absurd behavior, extreme facial changes and characters that have no relation to any type of reality. Tatsuuma Ushiyama is one of the most notable examples, as is Yoshitake Shiraishi, whom Yuma Yamoto presents as a clown.
However, “Golden Kamuy” stands out for several reasons. First of all, the action in this case also includes a constant fight against nature, and in particular against animals such as bears and wolves. This adds a different note to the usual man-on-man style of shonen anime, as all factions seem to have to deal with this aspect apart from the rest of their "problems." Additionally, there is a distinct educational level to the narrative about Ainu customs, which are presented in as much detail as possible.
This focus includes their language, culture, religion and, most entertainingly, their culinary habits. This last aspect is also implemented in a comical way, and the fact that the Ainu seem to eat most of their food raw provides for a number of hilarious scenes, as does Asirpa's distaste for miso. At the same time, these elements allow Kubo to analyze his main characters much more, through their differences in their ways of life and how their interactions change them both.
The action aspect is also impressive, with a number of "big" scenes that stand out quite a bit. The intro is the biggest, but the ones featuring bears, the snow one, and the appearances of the white wolf are also sure to be in your mind. Occasionally the sound effects fail, especially when animals are involved. Overall, though, the audio-visual aspect works well, not least because Daisuke Souma's cinematography has captured the mountainous environment in a pretty impressive way.
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