Golden Kamuy

I watched this adaptation familiar with the storyline of the anime version, which was one of my favorites. Storywise, they did a good job condensing the first few episodes from the first season of the anime into this movie. Actionwise, it was pretty solid and good. I still thought Kento Yamazaki was miscast as our main protagonist, Sugimoto. But Anna Yamada, as Asirpa, was fantastic! I loved her performance here. Like seeing an anime character brought to life. They capture the spectacular natural landscape of Hokkaido really well. From clusters of trees in open fields to winter wonderland landscapes that were full of snow, mountainous craggy cliffs, and majestic blue skies, it was beautiful. The portrayal of the Ainu tribe was also very spot-on. At first, I was afraid they couldn't recapture the funny and unhinged comedy from the anime because, personally, I thought the comedy was pretty hard to reimagine in live action format, but I was wrong. It's still funny even in the live action version. The story in the movie was only the beginning of the prologue to something much bigger. I can't wait for more because the sequel is coming and it's in series format. The craziest part is yet to come!