Plot: In the late Meiji period in Hokkaido, Japan, Saichi Sugimoto, a war hero known as Immortal Sugimoto from the Russo-Japanese War, embarks on a new life in Hokkaido. He learns about stolen gold once belonging to the Ainu people, taken by a man named Noppera-bo who massacred everyone so he could get all the gold to himself. Noppera-bo was then caught and thrown into Abashiri prison and before that, he already hid the gold in a secure location in Hokkaido. He tattooed the location of the hidden gold on 24 different prisoners, each prisoner held a part of the map, necessary to uncover the treasure. After some time, Noppera-bo staged a jailbreak and asked those he tattooed to find the gold in return for getting half of it. Upon verifying that the information is true, Saichi Sugimoto sets out to gather all the pieces together so he could use money from the gold to restore Umeko’s eyesight, whose husband Toraji died in the Russo-Japanese War.
During a bear attack, Sugimoto is rescued by Asirpa, an Ainu girl seeking vengeance for her father’s murder by Noppera-bo. Bound by different goals but a shared quest for justice, Sugimoto and Asirpa unite forces. As their journey unfolds, more individuals including soldiers from the Seventh Division, Hijikata and others join the pursuit of the elusive gold. The movie ends with Hijikata revealing that the worth of the gold is not 200 kan but 20,000 kan which is enough to build a new nation, adding that Hokkaido will become a battlefield for all those in search of the gold.
Cast:
- Kento Yamazaki as Saichi Sugimoto
- Anna Yamada as Asirpa
- Gordon Maeda as Hyakunosuke Ogata
- Yūma Yamoto as Yoshitake Shiraishi
- Asuka Kudo as Hajime Tsukishima
- Shuntarō Yanagi as Kōhei Nikaidō / Yōhei Nikaidō
- Yūki Izumisawa as Toraji
- Mitsuki Takahata as Umeko
- Ryohei Otani as Genjirō Tanigaki
- Makita Sports as Takechiyo Gotō
- Yuno Nagao as Osoma
- Debo Akibe as Asirpa’s great uncle
- Hisako Ōkata as Huci
- Katsuya as Tatsuuma Ushiyama
- Katsumi Kiba as Shinpachi Nagakura
- Arata Iura as Aca
- Hiroshi Tamaki as Tokushirō Tsurumi
- Hiroshi Tachi as Toshizō Hijikata
Production: Production began in early 2021 after WOWOW and CREDEUS acquired the film rights. The idea was to respect the manga series and maintain the same storyline; thus, Shigeaki Kubo was appointed director due to being a fan of the original series. Satoru Noda supervised the scripting process to ensure it stayed true to the original story.
Release: The movie was released in Japanese theaters on January 19, 2024, and began streaming on Netflix on May 19, 2024.
Reception: The film grossed over ¥500 million and attracted over 350,000 viewers in its first three days of release. Critical reception varied with James Hadfield rating it 3 out of 5 stars and Panos Kotzathanasis noting it was worth watching but had some flaws.
.jpeg)
0 Comments