4 Star

No Emotion, Just Death.

After running in the Shogakukan’s seinen manga magazine Big Comic for five years, Takao Saito‘s Golgo 13 gets its first live action feature film, directed by Jun’ya Satô (Bullet Train, The Drifting Avenger). This Japanese–Iranian action film sees our infamous assassin travel to the old Persia, in search of the boss of a crime syndicate. Director Jun’ya Satô captures the feel of the manga in how he frames his shots, and the direction of the action, great stuff from 1973.

The international authorities have been trying to arrest the boss of a weapons, drugs, and people smuggling syndicate. But nobody knows who, or what he looks like. They just have the name Max Boa (Ahmad Ghadakchian, The Escape, Soil and Blood). Richard Flanagan (Nosratollah Karimi, The Carriage Driver, The Interim Husband) has sent many operatives to Iran to find the identity of this elusive mastermind, and now the time has come to change tactics. Max Boa is untouchable by the law in Iran, we must have him assassinated, and there is only one man for the job. Duke Togo a.k.a. Golgo 13 (Ken Takakura, The Yellow Handkerchief, Poppoya) also a man of mystery, but he has agreed to visit Flanagan and his team. The air is tense as Golgo 13 susses out the room and what they are proposing.

He agrees after Flanagan explains that his daughter is amongst the hundreds of beautiful women captured for god knows what, but it isn’t going to be good. His cover for the trip is that he is a newly-wed travelling for their honeymoon with Flanagan’s assistant Catherine Morton (Pouri Baneai, The Black Suit Thief, Bride Price) a woman that takes her cover story very seriously.

But Golgo 13 works alone, so he turns up in Tehran on his own, where he checks into to his hotel. Then he starts doing his research, which will ruffle some feathers, which our assassin takes care of very swiftly on his search for the syndicate boss.

Golgo 13’s job isn’t going to be easy, as the police are on his tail, as well as Boa’s men and the international assassins to take out an assassin. With the backdrop of the ancient sites of Tehran and the desert car chases, this is an action packed film. A lot has changed in the fifty years since Golgo 13 was made, and that includes how great this film looks now. A must own for the manga fans and Action-thriller fans.

GOLGO 13 (Eureka Classics) Special Edition is available on Blu-ray

 

SPECIAL EDITION BLU-RAY FEATURES:*

 

• Limited Edition slipcase featuring new artwork by Tony Stella
• 1080p presentation on Blu-ray from a 2K restoration of the original film elements
• Optional English subtitles
• Brand-new audio commentary by Mike Leeder and Arne Venema
• Lucky 13: Junya Sato’s biographers on Golgo 13 – Brand new interview with film writer Tatsuya Masuto and film critic Masaaki Nomura
• Trailer
• PLUS: A limited edition collector’s booklet featuring new writing on the film by Tom Mes