Golden Kamuy (2024)

A good adaption

Condensing a large body of work into a short runtime is never easy, but Golden Kamuy does a good job adapting the first five episodes of the anime into a cohesive story. This success is largely due to the strength of the original writing. As I mentioned in my review of "Teasing Master Takagi-San," a well-crafted story can work in any medium, and that's evident with Golden Kamuy. The characters and situations are well-written, and even during slower moments, the characters keep you engaged.

While the film presents a cohesive narrative, it sacrifices some emotional depth and character development. There is less time for characters to build rapport through casual interactions, as the story quickly moves from one set piece to the next. As a result, the relationships between characters may not resonate as strongly with first-time viewers compared to those familiar with the anime, which provides more background.

The film flies by even at a runtime of over two hours, and you're engaged the whole time. Overall, while this is a good film and adaptation, I would recommend experiencing the story through the manga or anime for a richer experience.

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If John Wick start a gory grindhouse (not for Dog but Gold) with Mononoke-hime

So we got a war veteran turned gold prospector with a vengeful tribe-hime partner. This literally calls for violence, gore, and comedy as a side dish - of course I'll dive in.

First for some important context, the manga this is based off of have some non-fiction aspect to it. Basically, ML is based on 2 real-life figures:
(1) The first is a man also named Saichi Sugimoto, the great-grandfather of the manga creator, Satoru Noda. He was a great soldier and was celebrated as a war hero.
(2)The other was soldier Hiroshi Funasaka, who had also received the title of "Immortal" after having survived many life threathening injuries.

Now Kento literally slays in any kind of suicidal but still dangerous character lol. ML is a one-man death squad who will swim through any kind of danger just to get what he want (while magically not dying in the process ha!).

'Immortal' Sugimoto is made more deadly with the company of no ordinary MC, Asirpa (Ainu). She is similar to Mononoke-Hime(Emishi tribe) in many ways. Both are fiesty girl bosses who can skin their enemies without even blinking, and is protected by an intelligent creature. Also 'cause Emishi is somewhat related to the Ainu population.

With their combined crazy, you know I aint lying when I said our MCs would start a gory grindhouse. Just know there is some xpoop cooking and head cracking on the side. ^•^


Acting:
I agree with Opickles' review about Kento. He indeed bagged a lot of ML roles in a span of 5 yrs. But IMHO, he did well in all of them. Maybe others could have done this role but he was amazing in this one. Playing a young war veteran just wishing for some solice after experiencing hell is no easy feat. That one scene where he was contemplating about leaving for the sake of others made me emotional. Atleast Kento deserve praises for that scene alone. I bet he was shooting AIB 3 while in this. I don't know about Japan but I hope they give him proper recognition for all his roles.

Next, the other actors was not bad in their overall acting, whether during comedic or action scenes. I honestly think the actress for Asiripa was great here. She was so cool with her bow and arrow. I also had a big smile when I saw her hilarious xpoop eating credit scene. Shiraishi was also a very funny character to me, especially when he's with Sugimoto hilarious scenes just comes naturally on screen. Although I cant help but compare some of them all to other actors who could have also slayed the roles, I had fun watching as an action aficionado.

I also agree how the comedic scenes can be off-putting. I do see how the director struggled in them. Still some of them were very fun to me actually. Now the deliriously gory ones like the rampage seen through the point of view of a man in a bear hideout? Definitely not RK-level action but these bloody action scenes still deserves a thumbs up.

P. S. I didn't read the manga to know if this was loyal as an adaptation but I still enjoyed this regardless. I can't wait for the sequel!

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