Golgo 13: Kowloon Assignment (Golgo 13: Kūron No Kubi) (1977)

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General		Extras
Category	Thriller	Main Menu Introduction Menu Animation & Audio Gallery-Poster Theatrical Trailer Trailer-Infernal Affairs, Breaking News, Godzilla vs Mothra Biographies-Cast-Sonny Chiba
Rating
Year Of Production	1977
Running Time	88:47
RSDL / Flipper	No/No	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Menu
Region Coding	4	Directed By	Yukio Noda
Studio Distributor	Toei Company Madman Entertainment	Starring	Sonny Chiba Callan Leung Etsuko Shihomi Emi Shindo Elaine Sung Danna Nick Lam Wai Kei Jerry Ito Chi-Chung Lee Yiu Lam Chan Shu Tong Wong Joana Tors Fiona Humphrey
Case	Amaray-Transparent-Secure Clip
RPI	Box	Music	Harumi Ibe

Video		Audio
Pan & Scan/Full Frame	None	Japanese Dolby Digital 2.0 (192Kb/s)
Widescreen Aspect Ratio	2.45:1
16x9 Enhancement
Video Format	576i (PAL)
Original Aspect Ratio	2.35:1	Miscellaneous
Jacket Pictures	Yes
Subtitles	English	Smoking	Yes
		Annoying Product Placement	No
		Action In or After Credits	No

    Regarded as one of the more influential manga series, Golgo 13 or The Professional hit Japanese shelves in the 1960s. Takao Saito created the central character of an emotionless and highly professional hit man, an expert marksman fluent in 13 languages often hired by the world's intelligence agencies to carry out their dirty work. After an initial 1973 film version starring Ken Takakura the character was resurrected for a second feature in 1977, this time starring Sonny Chiba.

    The story has Chiba contracted by heroin smugglers to deal with a rogue member of their own organisation, Chou, who has decided to take over the Hong Kong distribution for himself. However his target is killed by someone else, and while dodging the police led by Sminny (Callan Leung) Golgo gets involved in a confrontation with a Poranian diplomat (Jerry Ito).

    It is somewhat apt that much of this film is set in Hong Kong, as it often feels like one of those empty action thrillers that were churned out in that country during the latter years of colonial rule. While there is plenty of action and the film is never boring, it does not really amount to much except a bit of escapist entertainment quickly forgotten once seen. There is a lot of violence, though not much in the way of gory detail, and it moves at a fast pace. The slightly wooden Chiba is a good choice for the emotionless assassin, and the rest of the cast range from fair to adequate.

    What is good about the film is the location shooting, with not too many obvious sets being used. And if you enjoy laughing at bad films, you will like this one as there are several times when the plot, dialogue or acting just go that extra yard.

    This is the third film in the Sonny Chiba Collection Volume 1, and probably the least of the three. However I am looking forward to Volume 2, which is scheduled for release in July and contains The Killing Machine and the two films in the Yakuza Deka series.

Video

    The film is presented in an aspect ratio of 2.45:1 and is 16x9 enhanced.

    I guess you could ask for a better transfer of this movie, but that would be looking a gift horse etcetera. The quality is pretty good considering the age of the film and the price being asked for it, as well as the lack of mainstream appeal for the contents. It is reasonably clean and sharp with a small amount of grain. Colour is good though it does tend to have overly brown flesh tones. Black levels are solid but shadow detail is again lacking, especially in revealing the detail in the black hair that most of the actors have.

    There are no serious film to video artefacts. Some minor aliasing is present at times and there is a little telecine wobble. Film artefacts take the form of small specks of dirt and minor flecking. There are occasional little frame jumps which I suspect are at splices. There is some grainy stock footage.

    The standard Eastern Eye yellow subtitles are included. These are in clear English and are displayed long enough to be easily read. There appeared to be no spelling or grammatical issues.

    The disc is single-layered, so there is no layer change to contend with.

Video Ratings Summary

Sharpness
Shadow Detail
Colour
Grain/Pixelization
Film-To-Video Artefacts
Film Artefacts
Overall

Audio

    The original Japanese soundtrack is provided in a Dolby Digital 2.0 mono configuration.

    This is not a bad presentation of the audio. While it is not of reference standard, the audio is clean and very clear, with the only flaws being present in the source. These include some effects on which the acoustic sounds unrealistic when compared with the rest of the soundtrack. Distortion is kept to a minimum with little of the sibilance of the first film in this set. Dialogue is clear. Some of the actors are obviously dubbed into Japanese, but this is generally not distracting.

    There is a quite funky-sounding soundtrack in keeping with the film's 1970s origins, complete with bongo drums. There are some "Poranian folk songs" in there as well.

Audio Ratings Summary

Dialogue
Audio Sync
Clicks/Pops/Dropouts
Surround Channel Use
Subwoofer
Overall

Main Menu Introduction

    The same animated introduction as on the other two discs in this set.

Menu Animation & Audio

    Some footage from the film but the music comes from The Street Fighter's Last Revenge.

Gallery-Poster

    The same set of posters as on the other discs in this set for various films starring Chiba.

Theatrical Trailer (3:05)

    Most of the action sequences appear in this trailer, which has white subtitles.

Trailer-Infernal Affairs, Breaking News, Godzilla vs Mothra (6:14)

    Trailers for other Eastern Eye releases.

Biographies-Cast-Sonny Chiba

    The same three-page biography that all the releases in this set have.

    The information available on the Region 1 release is a little contradictory. There are apparently two prints of the film on the disc. One has the English language dubbed soundtrack and the other a Chinese dubbed version with burned in English and Japanese subtitles, according to one review. I wonder whether these are really Chinese subtitles, which would be standard for a Hong Kong release of the period. Another source suggests that the soundtrack is Japanese, not Chinese. In any case the source material was not in good condition and although the original aspect ratio is provided it is not 16x9 enhanced. There is also considerable hiss on the audio.

    The Region 2 version from Optimum Releasing appears to be the source for the Region 4, with much the same extras plus some additional trailers for their other Chiba releases.

    A fairly undemanding and violent action thriller which Chiba fans will lap up.

    The video and audio are both very good.

    Some repetition of the extras from other releases lessens their worth.

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall