Golgo 13: Assignment Kowloon

1977 "A master assassin, bent on blood!"
6.3| 1h33m| en
Details

Duke Togo (codename: Golgo 13) is a ruthless assassin who's accepted a tricky assignment from an American drug syndicate. His mission is to "rub out" Hong Kong's underworld kingpin. His main obstacle is the relentless Detective 'Smitty' Smith, determined to stop Togo no matter the cost. The result is an explosive adventure through the seamy, violent streets of Hong Kong.

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Also starring Emi Shindo

Reviews

Nonureva Really Surprised!
Konterr Brilliant and touching
Stoutor It's not great by any means, but it's a pretty good movie that didn't leave me filled with regret for investing time in it.
Sameer Callahan It really made me laugh, but for some moments I was tearing up because I could relate so much.
Scars_Remain I haven't seen any of the original anime films of Golgo 13 but I am planning on it in the near future. I had heard how gory they are so I thought this version might be pretty gory but unfortunately, it isn't. I had to watch the English dubbed version because the transfer with the subtitles was absolutely awful but it didn't take away from the experience as much as I thought it would. This is a fun movie for anyone who is into hit-man films.Sonny Chiba does a great job as usual. I loved the grindhouse feel to this film. The action was great and so was the story, for the most part. There are some really great kung fu sequences as well. I think everyone should give this movie a shot. View it for what it is, a fun little 70's action film. Just don't expect some sort of masterpiece and you'll be just fine.
winner55 Pretty typical Japan crime film of the middle 1970s - fast, cynical, unbelievable, flashy, empty. There are a couple of twists that raise it above the level of mere curiosity. first, Chiba's performance is fine. Second, the film is Japanese, but filmed in Hong Kong, on of the first efforts to cross the great divide between China and Japan that had been rendered and filled with blood during WWII. Interestingly, unlike similar Chinese efforts - e.g., A Man Called Tiger, The Angry Guest/Kung Fu Killers - there's no effort to explore differences between the two cultures: Hong Kong is just another thriving Asian metropolis, much like Tokyo. Perhaps this lack of notice of any difference is the crucial difference - come to think of it, Japanese action films of the 1970s don't have much to say about China in general, or Hong Kong - except to hint that the crime rate is unacceptably high there - which seems a bit churlish since all the professional killers in these films are Japanese. Oh, well.One last historical note - this film clearly had as much impact on John Woo's "The Killer" as Melville's "Le Samourai" - more, I think, since the cop/killer relationship, given crude but important presentation here, is closer to the center of the Woo film than the implicit romance borrowed from the Melville film.Nothing special, but worth a look.
dbborroughs Ever watch a movie that wasn't in your native tongue to start but has been so badly dubbed you can't tell if the movie bites or the dubbing? This is one of those movies. Sure I've seen plenty of bad sword and sandal films and martial arts flicks but this films dubbing so so hideous that I'm wondering what planet the dubbing director was on. Its all the bad 70's dub voices but in this film they are put to particularly bad use...The horror, the horror...I honestly can't rate the film because the dub is so bad its not fair to even try....
sixtwentysix Also known as Golgo 13: Operation Kowloon,(US title) this is a perfect example of a grindhouse cinema Yakuza movie. Before John Woo there were these Yakuza movies. Films that merge the fetish of a slasher film with sex, guns and ammo. Gritty noir that has all of detective work of Chinatown with none of the charm or depth. This is not necessarily a bad thing, it just means that it's a different more lowbrow but equally watchable form of entertainment. Another American example would be Charles Bronson's "The Mechanic" from 1972.As the relentless killer Golgo 13, a hitman that NEVER leaves a job unfinished, Sonny Chiba delivers what I would dare say the most hardboiled of it's time hitman movie. Devoid of mercy and full of bullet holes this movie takes out all of it's aggression on it's viewer with a rapid fire delivery of the plot and action sequences that flow together as if it's own style of dialog.A perfect starter film for anyone interested in grindhouse and kung-fu style movies. Movies like Leon, Kill Bill, Ichi The Killer and later John Woo's The Killer all tip a hat to Chiba's work in this film.