Fantastic Fest Review: Golden Slumber
A thriller based on a Beatles song, Golden Slumber (Gôruden suranbâ) is one of the most absurdly satisfying odes to friendship captured on film. Yoshihiro Nakamura's latest adaptation of a Kotaro Isaka novel pits the laid-back Aoyagi (Masato Sakai) against an assassination conspiracy wrapped up in revelations about trust.
Aoyagi's plans to catch up with a college buddy (Hidetaka Yoshioka) for a fishing trip are thwarted when the Prime Minister is assassinated. Suddenly the school day reminiscences are over as Aoyagi has been targeted as the prime suspect and it seems impossible he'll survive the day. Help comes from the most surprising of places as friends old and new make it their business to help the fugitive Aoyagi stay half a step ahead of corrupt police and the media. Just who his true friends are, and how they help or hurt him, make Golden Slumber seem like a movie half its 239-minute run time.
Filled with comic absurdities, Golden Slumber is filled with equally surreal characters, including a cheerful serial killer (Gaku Hamada), timid friend Gus (Gekidan Hitori) whose obsessed with Aoyagi's previous claim to fame, his coworker (Kiyohiko Shibukawa), a college sweetheart (Yuko Takeuchi), and a hospital patient (Akira Emoto) obsessed with the story as it's played out on TV. Each character, no matter how long they're on screen, plays a vital part in Aoyagi's story.
The film doesn't only borrow its name from the Beatles song "Golden Slumbers," it muses on the sentiment of the song and its history. Sung or spoken by characters, most often the first two lines of the song ("Once there was a way, to get back homeward. Once there was a way, to get back home."). But for those familiar with the song, the version paired with the song "Carry That Weight" keeps coming to mind: "Boy, you're going to carry that weight a long time." And Aoyagi certainly does carry the weight of an unavoidable mistake, and the complexities of a friendship that both damned him and prompted the start of his salvation.
The first of Aoyagi's friends he encounters keeps singing the lyrics, musing that it means getting back to happier, college days. But as the film advances, it becomes apparent that home is not a place nor a time, but people. At first, Aoyagi seems to have the bad luck to trust the wrong people, but ultimately, his friendships are all that are keeping him from capture and death, including the most unlikely new friends that prove invaluable.
Nakamura seems to play fast and loose with the timeline, suddenly switching without clear indication of doing so, which may be confusing. Those who’ve seen Nakamura's previous film, Fish Story (Fisshu sutôrî) know to be patient. Like Fish Story, also based on a Kotaro Isaka novel, everything presented onscreen is relevant and will pay off by the closing credits. The rapid changes between times is intentional and effective as it helps keep the audience on edge while artfully revealing important details, as if they're experiencing the story right alongside the hapless but not quite helpless Aoyagi. Having seen Fish Story will help familiarize audiences with the structure of the movie, but they are two very different films, and Golden Slumber stands firmly on its own.
Golden Slumber is best seen without knowing much more about the plot or the characters; like a good book, how the story reveals itself is half the joy of experiencing it. Ultimately, Golden Slumber manages to be a deeply satisfying film without having a happy resolution.