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Golgo-13: Queen Bee
by Ralph Jenkins  
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synopsis
Synopsis

Duke Togo, a.k.a professional assassin Golgo-13, never misses his mark and always follows through on a contract.

Thomas Waltham, the Democratic nominee for the American vice-presidency, contracts Togo to dispatch Queen Bee, the female leader of a liberation front commando squad who has threatened the life of presidential hopeful Robert Hardy. Togo encounters the passionate Queen Bee - whose real name is Sonia - in a bar before he can successfully snuff her out. Recognizing Togo immediately, Sonia invites the hit man up to her room intent on hiring him to take out Hardy himself … where she discovers, as Togo takes a post-coital shower, that she is his next mark. Due to the hotel's security, the number of guests present, and the fact that he is still stark naked, Togo is unable to off her then and there.

When Waltham learns that Queen Bee is aware of Golgo-13's involvement, he calls on his connections within the Department of Defense. The result: Demented, homicidal Vietnam vet Lt. Benning sent to Queen Bee's home in a Latin American rainforest; his mission: to eliminate Sonia along with the rest of her squad. Togo also arrives there, only to find he must deal not only with Sonia and her loyal troops, but with the crazed Benning as well. When Togo uncovers the true identity of Queen Bee, he must step aside as a very personal drama races towards its tragic denouement. One thing remains certain, however - Golgo-13 will complete his assignment.

review
He may have less charisma than a pet rock, but after 32 years and over 60 bestselling manga volumes, you can't keep him down. Fifteen years after director Osamu Dezaki first brought mangaka Takao Saito's suave, stoic anti-hero to the screen in 1983's "Golgo-13" (retitled "The Professional: Golgo-13" in the U.S. to match the title of Viz Comics' adaptation of the manga), the esteemed director of anime classics such as "Tomorrow's Joe" ("Ashita no Joe") and "Rose of Versailles" ("Versailles no Bara") returns to a character who, judging by the director's commentary on Urban Vision's recently released DVD, obviously still fascinates him -- the themes of sex and death so indelible to the character are ones the director can talk about at length (especially sex). With frequent collaborator Akio Sugino ("Black Jack") handling character designs and art direction, Dezaki again brings his characteristic "anime noir" styling to the steely-eyed lady-killer.

Here, as in many of his works, Dezaki makes liberal use of oft-neglected techniques such as split-screen shots and transitions from cel animation to dramatic watercolor still frames. Also, as in his first "Golgo-13" feature, he experiments with CG. Technology has, of course, improved tremendously since the primitively designed choppers that clashed with the drawn art of the '83 film - the CG in this more contemporary OVA is integrated far more seamlessly with the cel-based animation. The computer artistry here serves admirably to spruce up scenes rather than calling attention to itself.

But Dezaki does not wander far from what has worked for him in the past. The traditional animation looks uncannily identical to that of the '83 feature creating plenty of room for improvement. Dezaki's frequent reliance on "triple pans" (when the camera pans across the same cel three times in rapid succession) to convey action comes across like a budget-saving device rather than a deliberate artistic decision. Still, Dezaki's highly stylized, deft direction gives the illusion that the video is much better animated than it probably truly is.

Urban Vision has even gone another step, and included a running audio commentary track -- in Japanese with English subtitles -- by Dezaki and executive producer Mataichiro Yamamoto. This commentary is punctuated with many long silences, which become far more obvious due to the lack of any "soft" (lower volume) audio from the feature playing in the background, the kind that does underscore most Hollywood releases with director commentaries. Despite these pauses, several of Dezaki's comments -- most of which have something to do with sex -- illuminate what he was attempting to accomplish and why some scenes play as they do.

Dezaki was much more interested in fleshing out (no pun intended... maybe) Queen Bee, a powerful woman who sleeps with whomever, and however many, she wants. In this moody pulp action thriller she comes the closest to becoming a fully realized character. Togo himself remains a cipher and a wholly static character. A homosexual subplot involving running mates Hardy and Waltham was chopped at the last minute, leaving them generic amoral politicos. The maniacally vicious Lt. Benning would be completely one-dimensional if not for the fact that he is first seen in the relatively delicate act of playing a piano; in fact, he appears to be an amalgam of two similarly freakish antagonists from the earlier "G-13" movie. Togo and Benning could just as well be characters in a particularly violent video game, so perhaps it should come as no surprise that "G-13" has been made into a video game at least three times.



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