Parents' Guide to Golden Kamuy: Assault on Abashiri Prison Raid

The action is beautifully staged, but that's not enough to save a film that never figures out what it wants to be. Golden Kamuy: Assault on Abashiri Prison Raid picks up the third leg of Sugimoto and Asirpa's hunt for stolen gold, opening with a quick refresher for anyone new to the story, and from there it keeps getting in its own way. A genuinely emotional moment, as Asirpa learns a startling truth about her father, plays out at the same time as several of her male companions wrestle in their underwear after inhaling fish pheromones, a bit built on tired, homophobic jokes about men finding each other attractive. It should be funny, but it isn't, and it isn't relief either. This happens over and over, and each time it drains the power out of an emotional scene.

Almost everything besides the action feels underdeveloped. Sugimoto and Asirpa's relationship works as something understated rather than declared, mostly because the actors bring more depth to it than the script provides. The fights themselves are the one part of the movie that consistently works, well-shot and well-staged, but they make the constant tonal whiplash even more exhausting: a version of this film that dropped the comedy and the half-built romance in favor of just the action would have been much better. As is, this is likely to work only for people already committed to the series, and probably not for much of anyone else.