Golgo 13

This unusual hybrid of an action thriller from 1973 (it’s Japanese and Iranian) is the first live action adaptation featuring professional assassin Duke Togo, better known as GOLGO 13 – a ruthless and mysterious individual who never shows any emotion. He’s also a man of few words, instead he lets his modified M16 rifle do the talking. Ken Takakura gives a masterly performance as the deadly hitman whose latest assignment takes him to Tehran, where he is tasked with finding a particularly nasty drugs and weapons dealer who has just expanded his activities and added human trafficking to his list (in this case, the abduction of young women). The film adds further interest being set in a pre-revolutionary Iran.

The action kicks off with a brutal fight among hitmen in a dark alley somewhere in Tehran. Minutes later, a group of men assembled in a hotel room are seriously frustrated that yet another one of their men has been killed by Max Boa’s henchmen and we find out that ‘Max Boa’ (not his real name) is the ringleader of a worldwide drugs and weapons syndicate. Not satisfied, he now also abducts and trafficks pretty young women, among them the daughter of Simon (Siamak Atlasi), the head honcho of the aforementioned assembled men who are at their wits end when it comes to catching Max Boa – a task made all the more difficult because no one seems to be sure about Boa’s real identity. Despair not, for Simon has a master plan: he’s hiring notorious assassin ‘Golgo 13’ (K. Takakura) who, after having received a generous sum and reading the brief, accepts the assignment. Simon’s assistant Catherine Morton (Poury Banayi) is supposed to fly with Golgo to Tehran and pretend to be his wife – this is an order from her boss to ensure Golgo doesn’t arouse any suspicion but how did you guess, instead she falls for him hook, line and sinker.

From there on, the plot is relatively simple and straightforward, with Golgo trying to find out who Max Boa is and locate and kill him. This is much easier said than done because one Boa’s henchmen gets wind of Golgo’s arrival (at this point, they only know that he’s an Asian man and not that he is THE feared assassin) they try very hard to have him killed during numerous occasions, but don’t succeed. During one particularly nasty scene, the captured Golgo gets whipped until his flesh is raw but he still won’t talk… and in the end escapes.

There’s a subplot involving police chief Aman Jafari (Mohsen Sohrabi) who has Golgo arrested for murder and it’s down to Catherine (who at a later point is also arrested) to convince the police chief that the murdered man was in the employ of Boa… and Jafari is very much interested in capturing Boa himself! When Jafari and his attractive wife Sheila (Jaleh Sam) arrange dinner in a restaurant he is late. While waiting outside for her husband, she is kidnapped by Boa’s gang. The same fate awaits Catherine and soon the two women find themselves among numerous other captured young women, ready to be shipped off to wherever.

Cue for a violent shootout in the Iranian desert but things are soon to get worse for some of the individuals involved… Suffice to say, the body count rises with every round of bullets fired. As for the relentless showdown, it really takes twists and turns and appears to turn into a merciless cat- and mouse game between Golgo and Boa (who’s never seen without his beloved parrot ‘Julie’). At the end, Golgo gets his target but – in a final upsetting moment – also shoots Boa’s parrot (fear not, it was a fake one).

Eureka presents GOLGO 13 in a new 2K restoration on Blu-ray and the first 2000 copies will be presented in a Limited Edition O-Slipcase plus Collector’s Booklet.
Bonus includes interviews, trailer and brand new video piece on the career of Ken Takakura.