name
Golgo 13--by renting the game for the Nintendo Entertainment System back
in 1990 or 1991, and plus ca change, plus c'est le meme chose that
the marketing synergy used on kids today with lovable anime creatures worked
on me over ten years ago with this dour hitman; from the game, I learned
about the manga, then rented the anime, and now, years later, am still
enough of a fan to nod with pleasure and delight when Sonny Chiba, playing
Golgo 13, first appeared on screen. Togo is supposed to be a man
of indeterminate origin, probably Asian, and in both the video game and
the manga was prone to having dialogue and thought balloons consisting
of nothing more than ellipses. With his quasi-flattop and his long
sideburns, Chiba looks the part; but even better, he does a great job of
conveying that sort of Zen murderousness that has made Golgo a hit with
the otaku set. One of Chiba's best scenes is staring emotionlessly
at the ceiling while the prostitute he's saved breaks down and tells him
of her horrible life and what led her to kill her pimp. You can practically
see the the three dots floating over Chiba's head.
This movie was made back in 1973 (which gives you an idea of how long the character Golgo 13 has been around). Set mainly in Hong Kong, the story follows Togo as he goes about preparing for a hit on a HK drug lord. Then, when somebody else kills him first, Togo goes after the killer. Complicating matters is "Detective Smith," a HK cop who is out to bust Togo for the murder. I had read somewhere that this movie must have influenced Woo's The Killer, and I can believe it; Togo's attempt to snipe his target at a swim meet could well be the inspiration for Chow Yun Fat's hit at the dragon boat races.
Now, if the movie had all of this going for me and I still managed to be bored by it, imagine how dull you would find it. Done in true international exploitation style, Assignment Kowloon has a ton of underdeveloped characters, badly filmed action, terrible dubbing (I watched it on DVD where I also had the option of terrible subtitles), a careless way with plot and motivation (not with Togo, but with everybody else), and that general feel of killing time that low-budget and exploitation films tend to have. The film does have Chiba, and he gets a chance once or twice to break out his Streetfighter moves and mercilessly pummel everyone around him. Also, the film stays very true to a key part of Golgo 13's appeal; as one of the world's greatest snipers. I was sure I was going to love the movie after our introduction to Chiba's character--on a boat for a private meeting with the man who is going to hire him, he takes out his sniper rifle and kills the two men watching him from a coastline hotel. "This was supposed to be a private meeting," he tells the man trying to hire him. The hit at the swim meet and the final sniping confrontation are also pretty good; as sniper porn, this isn't a bad fix. I suppose there are worse things to do than watch this movie with one hand on the remote. But for the Chiba fan, the Golgo 13 fan, or the sniper fan (or, in my case, all three), this film is a disappointment, particularly in comparison to what could have been. For those of you who aren't fans, the disappointment won't be there but the boredom will. Only people who like to get really stoned or liquoured up and laugh at what they've rented will really find this worth their time.
A Great Site About That Great Badass Sonny Chiba
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