The following contains spoilers for Golden Kamuy, Season 4, Episode 5, “Cinematograph,” now streaming on Crunchyroll.
Golden Kamuy Season 4, Episode 5 brings up questions about Asirpa’s future and how will it look to fight for the Ainu people. Asirpa has slowly been able to uncover bits of her past and that of her father’s with every step she and Sugimoto have taken closer to the gold. As the hunt continued, Asirpa’s importance began to grow with the reveal that her father was Nopperabo/Wilk and that he had set her on a path that even she wasn’t aware of. Protecting the Ainu and preserving their history and culture is of the utmost importance for Asirpa, but is there only one way to achieve that?
The episode opens with a brief update about Tsurumi’s movement, mentioning that he’ll be stopping in Noboribetsu first — likely to retrieve the map portion that Kikuta and Ariko acquired. Sugimoto and his group are to stay and wait for him in Toyohara. While there’s action and conflict to look forward to once Tsurumi arrives, this means that the members of the group are free to do anything they want until then. Such a prospect might signal thoughts that this might be a filler episode, but, as always, Episode 5 reveals incredibly important information to both audiences and characters.
Tsukishima mentions to Sugimoto that he suspects Asirpa knows the secret to finding the gold, which is why Ogata tried to kill her. Sugimoto takes it upon himself to discuss this with Asirpa, knowing she would never reveal anything to Tsukishima, and definitely not Tsurumi. The exchange is a reminder that the carefree day ahead of everyone might not last for long. The group soon finds themselves becoming the subject of two filmmakers traveling through the area. Asirpa is excited to use this new film technology to record Ainu oral tradition, especially after wondering aloud how the Ainu would preserve ritual in the face of modernity just moments earlier.
Comedy dominates most of the episode while Asirpa literally takes the director’s chair to translate Ainu folktale into visual plays for the filmmakers to capture. Though there doesn’t seem to be any apparent threat or danger approaching to sully the mood, the emotions shift when they all get together to do a small screening of their work. When their play finishes, the film continues, showing a kotan that Asirpa recognizes as her own. The filmmakers remark that her signature blue eyes reminded them of someone they’d filmed before, and the film reveals Wilk, Asirpa’s mother, and a baby Asirpa. The poignant moment is short-lived, however, when the film catches fire and forces everyone to evacuate the theater.
Is Violence Unavoidable For Asirpa?
The fragility of the film acts as a metaphor for the destruction and erasure of entire histories. The film showed her things she couldn’t even remember, but just as easily as she witnessed it for the first time, it was lost forever. Prior to seeing the film of her mother, the only things she knew of her were things her father had shared. Asirpa concludes that the only way to preserve history and tradition is by fighting to protect it and keep it alive.
Her stance makes Sugimoto worry that she’s bound to fulfill the role set forth by Wilk — a role that will see inevitable violence as they get closer to finding the gold. He finally tells Asirpa her father’s last words: that he had raised Asirpa the way he did so that she could lead the Ainu. Sugimoto says that both Wilk and Kiroranke put Asirpa in positions she had no say in choosing, leading her to believe that the only way to protect what she cares about is to fight for it. Unfortunately, he also puts her in a difficult position by saying he wants her to stop looking for the gold.
Asirpa isn’t one to back down, so it seems unlikely that she would so easily do what Sugimoto wants in this instance, despite all they’ve been through together. Is his decision also owing to the desire to protect her from Tsurumi and keep him from getting any closer to the gold? Asirpa surely won’t disappear from the story, but it’s inevitable that however her involvement might change, it will have a ripple effect on the treasure hunt and the conflicts that lie ahead. Will Asirpa simply stick to what her father decided she must do, or will she find a way to carve a path for herself?
