Name(s): Golgo 13: The Professional / ゴルゴ１３
Format: Movie
Studio(s): Tokyo Movie Shinsha
Related: Golgo 13: Queen Bee (1998)

I’ve been wanting to dip my toes into the Golgo 13 franchise for a while now since it sounded cool, and simply chose to start here because MAL called it a prequel to the 2008 anime series. Now that I’ve finished this movie, I can say that was probably only meant chronologically and should be changed since I doubt there’s any continuity, but I don’t regret my less common starting place. In this 1983 film, the professional assassin Duke Togo AKA “Golgo 13” is hired to kill the son of a wealthy oil baron. However, Golgo 13 has gone in over his head this time as the father is mad with revenge over his son’s death, and the sniper soon finds himself under pursuit from one of the country’s wealthiest men who has even bought out the CIA and the Pentagon.

Golgo 13 is a very simple concept. It’s an episodic format that takes the audience through the multiple hits of a legendary hitman who can do the impossible without fail. Despite Golgo 13’s impeccable skill, he does take damage and pain from his jobs to remind us that he’s human, and so there’s always some curiosity and admiration regarding how he’s going to get himself out of such dangerous scenarios even though we know he’s going to succeed in the end. Golgo 13 isn’t a complex character himself, a near mute man who is almost always wearing a poker face even when having sex with the countless women who instantly throw their clothes off for him (which makes the sex scenes just as hilarious as it sounds). But this basic premise belies what’s so appealing about this movie.

Simply put, Golgo 13: The Professional has marvelous style. It’s a product of its time in the best possible way. Not because of common techniques of its decade, but rather an idiosyncratic style of direction that comes from a different pop culture head space than anything that someone would create now. It’s a movie that’s quintessentially ’80s but twists that notion further to become something just weird enough to stand out among its time and also still possess a lot of character today. The movie’s opening consists of a bunch of images of computer-generated skeletons spinning around revolvers in strange poses that include holding their own head among other Halloween favorites. On a surface level it’s technically primitive CG being used for the sake of appearing modern that you can find in a lot of old animated movies, but this archaic charm only magnifies the weirdness of what it’s actually constructing. The creepy macabre skeleton imagery that doesn’t fit in at all with the rest of the movie’s images, all juxtaposed with female-sung Japanese pop song that repeatedly says “pray for me” in English.

Golgo 13 is a basic immortal assassin badass surrounded by a strange cinematic world that’s a perfect fit for the actual hyper-intense writing. The movie loves to use constantly shifting diagonal shots and inconsistently used editing techniques that add to the off-kilter narrative of insane violence and insane people. Golgo 13 is portrayed in a super serious hyper-realistic manner and yet he sometimes finds himself up against unexplained super mutant humans with randomly hideous appearances and abilities. One of which rapes a woman into losing her mind after he follows her around a locked room with corded desk lamp with a multi-colored glass shade that creates the only light in the pitch black room. There’s so much eccentricity to this movie that gives it a surreal nature, and in general it likes to play with a lot of contrasting 80s bright flashes of colored light added during editing that contrast with the heavily shaded comic book look that really accentuate certain details of scenes.

There’s another scene where Golgo 13 has to fight off several men, but while this is happening footage is intercut of a woman peacefully swimming nude by herself in a lake while soft synthetic music plays uninterrupted during both the serene and violent parts. Golgo 13’s first hit in the movie has him targeting a cruise ship, and on the deck there’s a pool that’s in the shape of a casket where the oil baron’s son falls into after being shot. What seems like subtle symbolism takes on an even more clever meaning with the rest of the movie’s plot. There’s a part where a man falls from the top of a skyscraper, and this fall is portrayed in slow motion while gentle nostalgic ambiance plays and the camera rotates around him from several angles to give the real impact of just how far he’s falling, both literally and figuratively. Golgo 13 is extremely well-directed with many memorable frames and quirky techniques and lighting effects to make it all stand out. The movie also frequently uses still manga-like images that are drawn in a darker and more heavily shaded style than the rest of the movie to punctuate the hits of certain action scenes or transition scenes.

Overall, Golgo 13: The Professional is a downright surreal experience that transcends a typical action movie plot. It’s unpredictably strange and loose with its construction and style while moving slow enough to not draw too much attention to itself. It’s a cool, acidic burn whose style drips off of it rather than burst outwards. It’s a lot of fun when it comes to its story and action, and charmingly unorthodox when it comes to its style that’s a mix of intelligent craftsmanship and strange ’80s kitsch. While not a universal classic, it’s a movie that deserves more than historical respect and stands out today if you look at it with a curious lens.