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Golgo 13, also known as Duke Togo, is an amoral, nameless,
assassin for hire, a Japanese James Bond without a conscience.
When he kills the son of, Dawson, a wealthy oil tycoon the
hunter becomes the hunted. As Golgo 13 continues his assassination
assignments his allies are systematically killed, until even
Golgo 13 has had enough and goes after Dawson...
The
Golgo 13 manga, originally created by Takao Saito,
has had significant success in Japan, spawning a couple of
live action films, three console games and two anime features,
of which this is the first. An animated film noir for an adult
audience, from the endless rain to the soft jazz soundtrack,
this show is the son of Humphrey Bogart's Sam Spade and Joan
Collins The Bitch. To further forward its adult credentials
the show contains the requisite cheesy '70s sex scenes and
luridly drawn graphic violence. Any friends of blood, bottoms
and dodgy, cliché ridden, dialogue are going to have a heyday
with this one.
The
titles and menus pay homage to the shows manga roots, both
of which used frames. Though this motif isn't, for the most
part, carried over to the main feature, which uses more traditional
animation techniques. There are some elements which survive,
such as hand drawn stills which intersperse some of the action
sequences. The show was made in the '80s and boy does it look
it - with its decidedly anachronistic pop art look, this is
a show which hasn't aged very well.
The voice actors do what they can with the script. Golgo 13
comes off the best, but then he has the least dialogue. If
you're going to listen to one of the tracks, then pick the
Japanese one, at least that doesn't suffer from the actors
revelling in their stereo types or the truly awful female
characterisations.
To be fair to the show, it is a product of not only its time
but also of the original material. So if you're a fan of the
Golgo 13 manga your going to love this.
Although the two discs contain the same feature, the extras
go a long way to make up for this repetition. Disc one has
Japanese and English stereo and 5.1 options with a rather
good commentary by Jonathan Clements, co-author of the Anime
Encyclopaedia. Rounding the disc off is a selection of
trailers for other shows.
Disc two has a three and a half minute interview with the
producer, Mata Yamamoto, as well as a six and a half minute
sneak peek at the new Hellboy anime. Disc two contains
the DTS versions of the feature. To be honest, having listened
to all of the audio tracks, a lot more could have been down
with the soundscape. On both the 5.1 and DTS tracks I had
to get up and listen to the rears just to be sure that they
were outputting something. They were, just.
Violent, cheesy and often unintentionally funny, Golgo
13 is an odd little movie which is showing its age in
plot and presentation. Still if you're a fan of cold hearted
killers whose hobby is bedding women who can't even spell
suffragette, then this may be for you.
Charles
Packer
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£13.49
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