Aoyagi (Masato Sakai) is on the lam in GOLDEN SLUMBER
GOLDEN SLUMBER (GORUDEN SURANBA) (Yoshihiro Nakamura, 2010)
Japan Society
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Friday, July 2, 6:15
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After being framed for the assassination of the prime minister, delivery man and Beatles fan Aoyagi (Masato Sakai) is on the run in the Japanese thriller GOLDEN SLUMBER. Adding in a bit of Mel Brooks’s HIGH ANXIETY into his Hitchockian wrong-man homage, director Yoshihiro Nakamura (FISH STORY) follows a Lee Harvey Oswald-like conspiracy against goofy man-child Aoyagi, who has to grow up in a hurry if he is to survive. Everywhere he turns, the police, led by Inspector Sasaki (TOKYO SONATA’s Teruyuki Kagawa), are a mere one step behind, ready to bring him in – or blow him away. There’s no place for Aoyagi to hide, as he has one of the most recognizable faces in the country, having saved a pop princess (Shihori Kanjiya) from harm only a few years earlier. On the lam, the national hero turned villain recalls his small, intimate college group, shown in a series of flashbacks, all of whom become involved in his tale; meanwhile, he is befriended by an anarchic serial killer (Gaku Hamada) who enjoys surprising people. Adapted from the novel by Kotaro Isaka, GOLDEN SLUMBER is an absolute joy, a well-made genre picture with likable characters and an engaging story line that never gets boring, even at 139 minutes.