GOLGO 13 The Professional (includes trailer)
July 15th 2010 00:54
Before 'Ninja Scroll', before 'Akira', there was Golgo 13!
Golgo 13 is the code name for Duke Togo, the unstoppable assassin, who never misses a shot, is irresistible to all woman and is an all round consummate professional and bad mother f**ker, a cross between ‘Hanzo the Razor’ and a meaner James Bond. The first manga adaptation of Golgo 13 dates back to 1973, directed by the sadly ignored and forgotten, brilliant Japanese director Jun'ya Satô (who made the masterpiece, Bullet Train) and this original version is few and far between in numbers, currently no versions even exist with subtitles in them. In 1977, a live action version of Golgo 13: Kowloon Assignment was produced, starring Sonny Chiba, but remains the worst adaptation yet, crudely conceived and not particularly enjoyable. In 1983, an American set, dubbed version was produced - Golgo 13 The Professional - and remains, according to many standards including my own – the greatest anime film ever! Big call? Damn straight.
Although there would continue to be later versions of Golgo 13 in 1998 (the lesser accomplished Queen Bee) and a series in 2008, Golgo 13 The Professional is the stand out among the many adaptations. It’s pure pulp yet still complex in it’s twists and story telling, an orgiastic feast of sex and violence with social commentary. It’s endlessly experimental visuals create an unsurpassed style which reinvents itself with each passing scene. Golgo 13’s visual are completely unique, separated from the typical illustrative style of almost every other anime since Akira. It’s bold tone creates not just a fun and exciting anime film but a unique piece of comic book cinema that stands alone, as iconoclastically as Sin City or Blast Of Silence.
Directed by Osamu Dezaki (Space Adventure Cobra, Golgo 13 Queen Bee, The Snow Queen), Golgo 13 The Professional has a trashy yet sophisticated style. Golgo 13 is completely unstoppable and this time the CIA and army are after him as he gets the job done. Everything begins when Duke Togo takes aim for the son of Leonard Dawson, billionaire tycoon, as he promotes his son at a ceremony on his yacht, one of Golgo’s sniper bullets pierces the son's brain, sending him to death in the pool. This swimming pool is a centre piece on this yacht, so brightly lit that it burns right into your T.V. screen, giving the son's death a martyred, angelic visual quality. Dawson begins hunting down Golgo 13 with everything he has, which includes pitting him against a slithery, yellow eyed, toothless foe named snake, who has a penchant for rape, as well as maiming and severing all psychopath wannabes as he lick his lips. Does ‘Golgo 13’ stand a chance against ‘Snake’?
Then there are the women in Golgo 13’s world who he manages to give dizzying heights of pleasure to while doing very little. Set in a magical world where every woman has a godlessly proportioned body, Golgo 13 receives the details of his assignment from an informant who makes contact with Golgo 13, in the midst of him giving some lovely lady a back breaking orgasm, so intense that she doesn’t even notice that everything has momentarily turned into a business meeting as they discuss the details of the target and the funds being transferred to his bank account by next week - Roger Moore eat your heart out. Golgo 13 is a hardened man, merciless, cold blooded, you’re either with him or against him. He’s dislikeable you say? How can such a perfect lover who’s current target is a former Nazi General be dislikeable! They don’t stand a chance.
Golgo 13 meets up with a bookish young woman to receive the modifications she’s built for his sniper rifle. Upon inquiring into how much he owes her, she sighs, getting teary eyed, “Oh Duke, I don’t want your money, I just want to be loved, I’ve been waiting so long for you to pull my trigger, lovingly and softly”. He obliges her, as the neon lights start patterning up in the background. Once he’s done with his ladies, so begins the carnage, the mammoth slaughter that earns this film an r-rating, executed most proficiently in the name of the highest bidder. The blood letting plays out to easy listening on the sound track. Golgo 13 The Professional laughs in the face of moral and rational content. It’s potentially disturbing, violent moments reduced to irresponsible fun.
The murderers line up to take on the man himself!
Golgo 13 The Professional, has a mesmerising and striking blend of eye candy, a unique mix of film noir blurred with disco coloured lights. Golgo 13 The Professional set’s up it’s own visual icons and from there shows us just how far it’s visual and stylistic parameters can be stretched. It all adds up to animation that is stunning and not only inspiring, it actually can make you wonder about the possibility of live action films being able to strive for such visual grandness. Golgo 13 The Professional is filled with rainbow tinted flairs, thickly shaded comic panels, over saturated light, darkly mood inspired night time colouring that contrasts with sparkling visions of elegant blood letting. It all has to be seen to be believed. The endless variations are amazing as the animated photography remains in flux yet stays uniformly bound together.
As most animated films go, Golgo 13 The Professional is also technically perfect, there’s a poetry to it’s editing, all that remains now is whether or not it’s content floats your boat, but ‘how couldn’t it’ he says with a cheesy grin, ‘there’s so much fun to be had’. Golgo 13 The Professional remains one of the raunchiest and most violent films ever, it’s as full on as it can get as the shackles of responsibility are broken in ways that only the imagined violence of animated films can exploit. At the same time, it’s morally hollow story and obscenely decedent world has a sly way of commenting on how man is continuing to destroy the few things that still remain sacred. Golgo 13 The Professional is a must for the manga curious who want dip their foot in the water, a joy to those who like their sex and violence delivered tongue in cheek and an absolute treasure to the anime genre. Golgo 13 The Professional is, a seriously hardcore, little treat.
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Comment by David O'Connell
20/20 Filmsight
Screen Fanatic
Comment by ShaunK
Screen Adventure
Try to fit Golgo 13 The Professional into your viewing schedule soon as it's worth it. Make sure you dont confuse it with the 1998 Golgo 13 Queen Bee which is vastly inferior (I was actually going to do a review for it but after rewatching it again I didn't even feel compelled enough to want to write about it).
Golgo 13's visuals are insane - the trailer doesn't do it justice! It's also bloody fine story telling!
Comment by JohnDoe
Film & TV on DVD
There are certainly a lot of kick ass anime films and Golgo is a great example of what it's capable of. had a huge affect on me when I first saw it over a decade ago.
Reminds me I should do a few more manga reviews myself, the only ones I have on my site are Akira and Wicked City, which are two absolute faves.