実写映画の紹介
Konnichiwa! I am your host Mayu for 2AM OTTACK! In this podcast, we talk all about anime, manga,
movies, music, and history through our distinct perspectives. As a born and raised Japanese
non-otaku, that's me, and an American anime fan. That's me. Hello, Susuko Nishipa!
Hi, do you use Nishipa for women? I can't tell.
No, I don't think so. No, no, no, no. No, you don't use it for women.
It's just mister? Is there a title for women that I should be using?
Uh, there's gotta be, but we don't know.
I guess they don't use it. Yeah.
Yeah.
Hi!
Hi! So, it's a hint for the audience what we are going to talk about today.
We are going to talk about Golden Kamui, the live action movie.
That's right. We are going to talk about Golden Kamui live action, which was released in January
2024 in Japan, and now it's available on American Netflix as well. We just watched the movie.
We just wanted to talk about it since our podcast's first episode was all about Golden Kamui
manga and anime, and we really, really love the manga and anime, so we have to do this.
キャスティングの評価
Well, and we're excited too, because it was a good movie, actually.
Yeah, yeah. Okay, let's dive into it.
There's so much to talk about Golden Kamui, but I think I want to go with casting.
All right.
Yeah. So, what did you think about all the casting in general?
Well, I think they did actually sort of a tremendous job with the casting of this movie.
There are so many ways they could have really messed it up, and instead, a lot of the characters
are done pretty well. I think Sugimoto is a real standout. They totally got an actor who was kind
of just right for his role. I'm a little worried that he might not be buff enough for some of the
later scenes in the show, but in terms of the facial expression and sort of capturing his
character, I thought that actor actually did a really good job. Although, as an American,
I often find that Japanese TV shows and movies are sort of overacted, maybe overdirected is really
the problem. Not a lot of that from the main character, from the lead. So, I was really happy
with how that worked out, and his scar makeup kind of nailed it. I think that's not really the
actor, that's really the makeup department, but they did actually a very nice job giving him kind
of believable, good-looking scars.
Yeah, I was a little bit worried about how the actor looked like in real life. He has kind of
like, nice, you know, kind face, and I couldn't imagine how he was gonna act, Sugimoto.
But he was actually great. The face expression was actually great.
Yeah, I mean, I agree with you that the actor kind of looks a little bit like boyish, a little bit
nice, in a way that might not fit Sugimoto's character, since he's, you know, kind of ruthless,
and like, certainly engages in a lot of violence. But I think the fact that he looked kind of nice
helped him sort of pull off some of the more tender aspects of the character. And he did a
good job, like, bringing the heat and the fire when he needed to, in the, you know,
in those sequences. So I approved.
Yeah, yeah. What about other characters?
So I felt kind of conflicted about Ashirupa's casting. I think, all things considered,
キャスティングの考察
that was just going to be a really hard role to fill, no matter what. And I think the actress
that they got for it did a really good job portraying Ashirupa. So I think, yeah,
I think I'm happy with it. She looks pretty much just like a straightforwardly Japanese person.
And so other than her, like, really obvious blue color contacts, she doesn't really come across as
particularly an Ainu girl. But then that's kind of true in the manga and anime also. Like,
she doesn't really look like, you know, Ainu in any sort of, like, identifiable way. And so I think
that the actress did a great job, like, staying true to the manga and anime representation of
Ashirupa. And like, my complaint really is not with her. It's more with the character design
of Ashirupa as a character, even in the manga and anime.
Mm-hmm. I see. For me, I was happy to see
Depo Akibe, who is an actor, an Ainu actor, actually. His parents are Ainu. And he was
playing the role for Ashirupa's great uncle in the live-action movie.
Yeah, he was far and away the most recognizably Ainu person in the film.
Mm-hmm.
And, I mean, yeah, you can tell immediately that, like, he's got that background. And so,
I mean, I wish they'd, like, succeeded in getting more actually Ainu people into the movie. But
at least he was there kind of representing and doing a good job. I mean, he wasn't in so much
of the movie. He didn't have, like, very much, like, quote-unquote, acting to do yet in this
section. But yeah, he was good. And it was good that they got somebody into the film.
Do we not know about the grandma, Fuji, whether she's actually an Ainu actress or not?
Nope.
We just don't know? Or...
No, no, no. She's not. She's not.
She's just a Japanese woman?
Yeah.
She did a great job, too, then. I mean, like, not like... I don't know enough Ainu language to be
like, oh, her accent was spot-on or anything. But she was believably, to me, which I guess is like
nothing. Like, if I heard a Japanese person be like, oh, like, this actor portraying a Native
American did such a good job, I'll be like, you have no idea what you're talking about. So I'm
just gonna shut up right now and be like, the casting was good. Yay.
Yeah. I wanted to add about Great Uncle of Ashiripa's. I watched another Netflix show.
I mean, it was not original Netflix show, but it was on Netflix called Ainu Moshiri.
It's all about Ainu culture, Ainu people, and then like a young boy who is kind of tired of
living in the Ainu village because, you know, all the family, Ainu, and then, you know, he's just a
teenage boy, like, we just want to get out of the town as soon as possible. But there's like a
relationship between him and the uncle, who's like, played by Debo Akibe. And then like,
uncle wants to bring back the old Ainu culture. And then there's like a struggle and then they're
very emotional. And I really love the movie. So I watched it after we came back from Hokkaido trip.
Mm hmm.
And like, I was so drawn into the culture, and I wish I looked more into Ainu culture or
Ainu museum when we were in Hokkaido.
Yeah, it feels like a little bit of a missed opportunity. I mean, we went to
many places that were connected to the story and to Ainu culture generally. And other than the
映画の舞台とキャスティング
Ainu Kotan in Lake Akan, right?
That's the where movie happens. So like, I'm like, Oh, I know this place. I went there.
Oh, got it. Okay. Well, I mean, I guess there's, you know, there's some value in having been there
first and then being able to recognize it. But yeah, maybe we'll have to do another Hokkaido
trip someday to dig a little bit deeper into Golden Kamui. We'll spend some more time in Otaru,
you know?
Yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
But we've been to a bunch of the locations already. So.
Right.
I don't know, maybe we'll have to partake in the activities. We'll like, we'll do some like
herring fishing or God, I don't know.
No.
Squirrel hunting or something.
No, no. I feel like Japanese squirrels are so much smaller than American squirrels.
Like, if we're going to eat a squirrel, we should eat an American squirrel.
That's not what I'm saying. It's just, no, let's not talk about it.
Okay, never mind. Sorry.
Yeah. And speaking of casting, I was so happy to hear the voice of Kenjiro Tsuda as a narrator
at the very, very beginning, who did the voice acting for Ogata.
Yeah, that was awesome. I'm really glad they found like a way to work him in.
I know he's the best.
He's got a great voice.
Yeah. I wish, I kind of wish he played, the voice actor played the actual character,
but I guess like age-wise, it doesn't really fit in the character.
I mean, I feel like it's hard to tell how old a lot of the characters are. And I mean, you know,
it's a movie. They can do a lot with makeup to try to make people look older or younger.
But I mean, we haven't seen really enough of Ogata in the
film in order to really get a sense of his character yet. Like he's in like one scene,
basically, and then it's over. I am going to miss that dude's voice, though. I think,
you know, you can't really go wrong with that guy. But if he looked old, I mean,
I guess it sort of matters that they're all pretty young when they're in the war.
I mean, I thought they did his face okay. I guess he gets his like really distinctive facial looks
after he gets hurt, right?
I think a lot of characters have really thick eyelines around the eyes.
That's true.
Yeah, I don't know why.
It seems like it's maybe just a thing that the manga artist does in order to like
differentiate characters a little bit by...
I felt like it's a distinguished design for enemies or bad guys.
Oh, that's interesting.
Nikaido kind of has kind of the same eyes.
Does he?
Yeah.
I will say the actors who played the Nikaido twins were really, really good.
I'll maybe say more about this later, but like the certain characters have a more
cartoonish feel to them than others, both in the manga and in the live action.
And I thought that the two playing the twins kind of rode that line pretty well between being like
comically evil and sort of believably sadistic.
I don't know.
But they looked really similar to the characters in the show.
I can't believe they found people who actually looked like that, kind of.
Actor who played Ogata, his name is Gordon Maeda.
That's a very distinctive name for a Japanese person.
キャスティングと家族の影響
So I googled it and I found out he is a younger brother of Makinyu Arata,
who played the role for Zoro in live action One Piece.
Yeah, that's pretty wild.
So I guess it's kind of they have different last names, right?
Yeah, I mean, it's like a stage name.
I don't know.
Well, they're also both Sonny Chiba's kids, right?
So I guess it's a little bit of like a...
I mean, I guess neither one of them took the last name Chiba like their dad.
But, you know, in America, we have the famous example of Martin Sheen and his two kids,
Charlie Sheen, who totally used his dad's last name,
like sort of nepo baby style to like get into the industry.
And Emilio Estevez, who intentionally didn't use his dad's last name to try to make it on his own.
And Emilio Estevez kind of hit first.
Maybe I'm wrong about this in terms of film history,
but he was definitely like big when I was like a little kid and things like
Young Guns and Young Guns 2.
And then he didn't get cast in a lot of things as like as much more as time went on,
whereas Charlie Sheen had like a long and storied career.
And I don't know if Emilio Estevez turned out better than Charlie Sheen in the long run.
Like, I guess it's kind of a low bar, really.
But yeah, I wonder how growing up as Sonny Chiba's kid,
and also as Makenyu's brother has affected Gordon, what's his last name?
Gordon Maeda?
Yeah.
How it's affected his career.
I mean, that's a lot of, you know, big family names in that family.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
作品の展開とトレンド
Also, lastly, I want to mention about Tsurumi Chui.
So yeah, so like, that's another character who is sort of like,
like a borderline comical evil villain.
Like, it's hard to kind of like, make him seem realistic as a human.
And so I think that the actor did like an amazing job attempting to do that.
But there's a sort of like a limit on how realistic you can make him seem,
given that he's got that like, crazy thing attached to the front of his face,
with like the brain fluid leaking out and stuff.
But yeah, I thought he, I mean, the actor, like, really went for it.
And, and did a great job, I thought.
Yeah, so the movie is supposed to be based on the first volume to third volume of the manga.
And they are making, they are already making the series, continued series,
of Golden Kamui on Wow Wow.
It's like a Japanese, I don't know, satellite channel.
Mm hmm.
Yeah, so they're gonna, they're making right now.
And it's gonna be available in autumn this year, supposedly.
Cool.
Yeah.
So what do you think about this like, new trend or pattern of anime, like Demon Slayer,
have a series, then have a big movie, then continue as a series kind of pattern?
Yeah, I mean, it's a, it's a gutsy move, right?
Because if the movie comes out and sucks, like, you've already just shot your series
in the foot by connecting them.
And, you know, vice versa, if the movie is really good, but then the series like,
has like a noticeable drop off in quality or something, people are just gonna pan it.
So it's a pattern that I don't think really exists in the United States very much.
On the one hand, like, you do have kind of the Marvel cinematic universe, right?
映画とテレビの相互作用
Where there's TV shows, and there's movies, and there's, you know, probably
other things that tie in.
I mean, there's the comics originally, and then, like, I'm sure they make games.
And I don't know, like, I kind of was dragged kicking and streaming into the Marvel universe.
Like, I didn't really want to have to be a part of it.
And then, I don't know, I saw one of the movies early on, and it was like,
I guess I'm doing this.
And so then watched all the way through endgame, but have never seen any of the TV shows.
And partly, like, it just feels like a big ask to be like, you're gonna have to like,
stay connected to like, all of these different pieces of media, in order to like, fully
appreciate what's going on.
And I think the Marvel movies try hard to be like, standalone entities.
So you can just see one and enjoy it, even if you don't know what's going on with the
connections to everything else.
But this pattern in Japan, I don't think that's true.
I think like, you know, it's predicated on like, well, you better have seen the movie
that we put out in the middle of all this, if you want to be following the story.
And I'm like, I'm sort of surprised that in a country that I don't think of as like,
having a really strong movie going culture, that there's this much reliance on like, you
must see the movie in order to follow the story.
But maybe they're just like, imagining like, a more niche audience that they know will
shell out for the ticket.
I mean, I don't know.
To me, movie tickets in Japan are just like, exorbitantly expensive.
And maybe that's changed with like, inflation in America versus Japan.
And they're like, you know, there's less of a gap than there used to be.
But I don't know.
I'm always surprised that Japanese studios think, are just so convinced it's going to
work, that they're willing to like, make these combinations that mean one in order to
understand the other.
Like, I feel like American studio executives are more cautious and typically don't want
to do that kind of, you know, big time crossover.
ゴールデンカムイの体験
Yeah, it's a risky move.
But Demon Slayer is a good proof.
Yeah, it can work, I guess.
And I'll be very curious to see, one, you know, how this show that's on a satellite
network in Japan eventually becomes more widely available.
And like, does it drive Wow Wow's, you know, watcher numbers up?
Or do they license it to Netflix or Hulu or something?
And then most people watch it that way.
I mean, I'll be, I think this movie sold me on watching like, more of the show.
Although, I don't know.
I think there's also a part of me that's like, experiencing a little bit of Golden
Kamui fatigue.
Like, I read, I guess I started watching the anime first.
Then I read like, oh, I haven't read all of the manga.
I've read like a chunk of the manga.
There's still more of the anime to go before it's over.
And then I'm also going to watch a live series.
And like, all of these things are sort of happening at the same time for me.
Like, it's not like, oh, I read the manga 10 years ago.
And then I watched the anime five years ago.
実写映画制作の意義
And now I'm watching the live action where there would be like, at least a little bit
of a gap for me to like, forget about it or be excited about rediscovering it again.
It's like, they're all happening simultaneously for me, which is sort of complicated.
But they're all good.
Yeah.
Yeah.
I love it.
I think the making Golden Kamui in live action movie and then like, hiring all those like,
famous actors mean a lot to spread the Ainu culture in Japan and in the world.
Yeah.
I mean, we talked a lot about that last time, right?
Like, the idea of Golden Kamui was kind of an entry point for people to Ainu culture
and ways of life.
And I think, yeah, that's totally worth it for that.
What else?
What did you think about all the bears and then lethara?
Yeah, I think the CG in this movie, I don't know.
I think generally speaking, because Japanese films are probably at least a little bit lower
budget than most Hollywood movies.
My expectation is typically that the CG is just not going to be on par with what we see
from other films.
And I'm trying to remember if there's like, I feel like there's like maybe one moment
where it might not actually be CG, where he's like underneath the bear and trying to
like get out from under it, where it kind of looked like not that realistic.
Yeah, like floppy.
And I think maybe that was like a stuffed bear, just like a bear skin or something.
It didn't look like he shouldn't have been able to move it off him that easily.
But I thought the CG on the whole was pretty well done and like used kind of judiciously,
like they didn't do that much with it.
And so the less you like use it, maybe the less obvious it is that it's like, you know,
not going to be up to snuff.
But I also don't want to suggest that it wasn't up to snuff.
Like I think it worked well and it was effective.
I mean, I don't know.
I would probably have to watch it like back to back with the revenant to be like, oh,
obviously the revenant's better or like, oh, they're really like indistinguishable or
something.
But it didn't break the immersion.
It didn't make it look like weird or unrealistic or anything.
And the movie has enough of kind of a comic book feel to it anyway.
Like, you know, the scene of him storming the trenches on, you know, 203 meter hill or
whatever also doesn't look realistic.
And like, that's fine.
It's an adaptation of a manga.
Like you can make some allowances.
But I guess I would say the CG didn't distract me from the rest of the movie.
I see.
There's one scene I didn't know from watching just anime, which is all about Sugimoto's past
with a girl and like his family having like sickness and then like, I don't know, they
were supposed to be together and blah, blah, blah.
I was like, I've never watched, you know, I don't remember this part at all.
Yeah, that part's not covered, I think, in the anime.
I think he's, he explains at some point that he is trying to save money for treatment for
her eyes, but you kind of don't understand why that would be important to him.
Like, other than he promised his dying friend he would do it.
ゴールデンカムイのキャスティングと文化
The manga has even, I think, even more about like that, that scene.
There's, there's more stuff in it about his sort of triangle relationship between him,
his friend and the girl in the village that really makes it clear that he wanted to marry
her, but then kind of didn't and made his friend marry her instead.
But then like, and so it's much clearer why he feels so much responsibility for getting
her eyes fixed.
Yeah.
Why didn't the animation include a part?
I wonder.
I mean, I think, yeah, that's a good question.
I mean, anime has a pretty short runtime, right?
Each episode is only 23 minutes or so.
And so it might've been the case that they were just like, oh, like we need to cut like
this much time out of this episode because we need to get to the, like this end point
in this particular one.
And this is the thing we're going to leave out.
Or maybe they intentionally are going to bring it back later to like build some narrative
tension with like, I mean, I don't know, I haven't seen the whole thing, so this is just
me guessing, but like if there's a moment where he kind of has to choose between Ashida
Bai and like his old flame, you know, putting the flashback of what his relationship to
her really was there might make it more dramatic, something like that.
I feel like that's a possibility.
Okay.
We want to stay tuned and then keep watching.
Yeah.
Yeah.
All right.
Let's do word of the day.
Ooh, this is going to be tough.
There are so many words.
We covered Hina Hina last time.
Yeah.
And Fujimi.
Okay, well, let's do Nishiba.
Nishiba seems a little bit basic.
I don't, again, I'm not totally sure I understand this word.
It seems to be interchangeable in most situations with the Japanese son, meaning like Mr.
essentially, or just as a term of respect.
But as we, you know, as we found out at the beginning of this episode, can you use it for
women or is that not okay?
When I looked it up, it means like a gentleman.
Okay.
Yeah.
So that's kind of nice.
I think we should also definitely do Osoma.
Oh, we haven't done it.
Did we do it in the last episode?
Okay.
Osoma seems important.
That's a word they use quite a lot in this movie.
It means poop.
And it's funny that they translate it like a bunch of different ways.
I mean, I guess maybe not every culture has as many different words for feces as English.
Anyway, I think they translate it as at least both of those plus another one
at different points in the movie.
Oh, really?
Yeah.
It makes me wonder, you know, does Ainu have multiple words for what that is?
Or are they only, they only really use one and not think of it as having like different
things.
I mean, I guess the same is true for Japanese, right?
Like it means poop.
Are there a bunch of other words for poop in Japanese besides that?
So.
So yeah, which is a little worse.
Okay, so maybe we shouldn't have said that.
But yeah, so I guess, you know, so I wonder whether there's a worse word for Osoma in
Ainu or whether Osoma is the worst word and we're just tossing casually around.
But yeah, that felt like another good word of the day.
Yeah, that's a great one.
『ゴールデンカムイ』のキャスティングと文化
And then I got once like Ashiripa started saying Osoma for miso.
I just, you know, it looks gross all of a sudden.
Did it make you less keen to eat miso or just made you see it?
No, I'm fine.
Just the film itself.
Like, you know, it showed like spread in a like a bento box kind of thing.
Yeah, nice and full.
And I'm sure it's room temperature, not refrigerated.
Yep, yeah.
So it's got kind of like a creamy texture.
Also, it reminded me of a little bit of the documentary we watched on Netflix about guts.
Oh, God.
Let's not go in there.
Yeah, let's maybe leave that out of here.
But yes, I agree that the way that portrayed the miso really made Ashiripa's thoughts
about it seem more reasonable.
Yeah, very intentionally.
Yeah.
Yeah, okay.
No more poop talk.
All right.
All right.
漫画とアプリの利用
So Golden Kamui manga is available on LAPL and LA County Library.
That's where we live.
We live in Los Angeles.
So if you're interested in the story, check your local library and, you know, read all
through like 20-something volumes.
It's also on the Shonen Jump app if you are accessing it from the web only.
You can't get it on your phone, but you can if you're subscribed to it.
Read it there.
We are not sponsored.
We are not sponsored, but Shonen Jump app if you're listening.
Listening, yes.
This feels like a natural fit for you.
Contact us.
Anytime.
All right.
エピソードの締め
Thank you so much for listening to this week's episode.
Don't forget to subscribe and follow 2AM Otak and 3AM Otak on Spotify, Apple Podcasts,
Amazon Music, and YouTube.
It means so much to us, and we will keep making the fun episodes.
See you next time for more 2AM Otak.
