Master assassin Golgo 13 is hired by the advisor of presidential candidate Robert Hardy to assassinate "Queen Bee," the beautiful and deadly leader of a South American guerilla army. Golgo, however, finds this job too easy and digs further information to find out the true connection between Hardy and Queen Bee. (Source: ANN)
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The sequel to the classic Golgo 13 : The Professional, is a more enjoyable movie, despite (or perhaps because of) being simpler and relatively straightforwards. Without spoiling the first movie, after all that, you sort of wonder what would become of the protagonist... not that he seemed to be concerned himself, mind you. In this one, Queen Bee, Golgo shows that he can adjust the timing of his jobs in order to accomplish other goals. I would say more, but it is hard not to spoilt it. So, I will just say that, even if you know nothing about Duke / Golgo, this movie is enjoyable: itseems like an action-drama based on an assassin sent on a difficult job (hunting down a rebel leader, alone and in the jungle), but then seems to turn into more of a love drama, but what the true emotions of the stoic protagonist are, are left open to debate, right up to the end. I recommend seeing this movie, if you haven't already. It is not as well know as the classic prequel, but it is actually more enjoyable as a general movie / investment of time, since it is simpler, yet still, has a variety of locations, scenes, and sub-plots to give you a good, entertaining ride. So, the scores, reflect how much enjoyment I had from this movie. I don't think it could really be improved, except perhaps with some flashier artwork, but considering its age and the genre, the artwork is very good (but you know, nowadays it's all about bullet time and all sorts of useless flashy stuff, so...), so I left the art at 8, and took a mark off from the sound because I haven't had the opportunity to listening to it on a proper HTE yet, so I don't know how good the Surround Sound mix is... but I will check it out and do another review or something later. Otherwise, this gets a perfect score for me... to me, a movie doesn't have to be groundbreaking to be perfect, it just has to entertain without messing up anything, which is a lot harder to do that it might seem. Anyhow, I'm surprised no-one reviewed this yet... hopefully, more people will see it because of this.
Another bad ass entry. Seriously, I could live on Golgo 13 films, this time the quiet sharpshooter Duke Togo is out to stop the assassination of a presidential candidate by the ruthless Sonia, or Queen Bee as she is known for birthing many children. With a rockin pistol hand and body, this red hair plays by her own rules. So naturally she bangs Togo, but he knows his mission. But once certain things are reviled about Sonia, and the candidate's sinister second hand hires a ex army solider with an eye patch to finish the job, things get bonkers. Perfect 90's anime cheese wrapped ina steaming, sexy tortilla. What I love about this is the maturity that goes into the product. This isn't about big boobed aline girls (okay sure there are boobs) but the story takes itself and the characters seriously. The blood is harsh and real, just like the sex. And the music....my god. Right out of a Street Fighter arcade game. Probably the best part of the entire film. The main problems with Queen Bee though is the lack of Queen Bee being a fully fleshed out villain. Sure, we learn a lot about her, her past and present state. But for me she posed no real threat, just some woman with a gun and who likes to bang. The psycho ex army solider was far more interesting and he had way less scenes than her. Also constantly playing back those frames multiple times was cool, but way over used too the point of irritating. I know that's the style you're going for Osamu Dezaki and maybe that was what the manga represented, but damn too much is too much. Not as good as the 80's movie, that one had more interesting villains and a more complete feeling story. But it's Golgo 13 and I love the guy.
(Check out my profile for a link to my site containing more up-to-date reviews and bonus media!) The second and currently last Golgo 13 movie. Well technically it's an OVA, but it's all one feature so whatever. In this one Golgo 13 is hired by the US's vice president nominee to assassinate "Queen Bee", a major drug distributor who plans to assassinate the presidential candidate for his anti-drug platform. Golgo 13 is suspicious about how simple this job is and investigates further before making his move. Simple indeed! Queen Bee came out 15 damn years after the first movie, and despite Osamu Dezaki still being thedirector things have drastically changed. Nothing to do with the story of Golgo 13, and it's still a fun one in all of its grimly serious pulp glory. But the eccentric direction I raved about for the first movie is almost entirely gone and replaced with a more straightforward rendition of the story. It's a real disappointment. The original Golgo 13 movie was elevated to something great because of its acidic, ethereal direction and powerful, symbolic stills. This has neither. The animation and directing can even get downright lazy. There's an overuse of painted stills replacing moments of impact in the action, and to emphasize chaotic movement instead of showing it with perhaps erratic cuts and complex choreography Queen Bee opts to constantly use a shaky camera effect and panning camera repeats. It's almost comical how noticeable this gets when it comes to cutting corners. Well, with the execution being bland in comparison to its predecessor, that leaves the story for comment. There's no getting around the misogyny in Golgo 13, but I overlooked it in the first movie. My patience is tested this time around, as the titular Queen Bee character gives a ridiculous philosophical excuse for screwing and fathering literally every man and their child. It's pretty pathetic, and of course she wants to screw Golgo 13 like everyone else despite knowing he wants to kill her. The story itself is also not as interesting this time around. Golgo 13 doesn't come into contact with any really freaky opponents like he did in the first movie, and the villain is much less interesting. I liked the theme song "Turquoise Blue" a lot. Overall I enjoyed this basic rendition of Golgo 13 enough to look forward to the series, but it's a real shame it doesn't posses the bizarre atmosphere or stylistic scene composition as the first movie.
I was originally gonna save this till tomorrow, but I thought, aw hell let's finish this now and thus I am concluding my little mini-marathon of the Golgo 13 movies with the belated sequel to The Professional, Queen Bee. I'd forgotten how much I liked this one as it's a fairly underappreciated and ambitious follow-up to its predecessor despite a massively reduced budget and much easier-to-follow plot. For being only an hour long, it doesn't waste a moment, it's a very harsh and gritty political thriller that keeps Golgo in the background as this omnipresent threat while the movie focuses heavily on the titular QueenBee and her campaign. The movie leans on its style quite a bit, both visually and sound-wise, which are both to be expected from an Osamu Dezaki movie, but ultimately feels undercooked due to its short length, it's got plenty of ideas and commentary but it never quite comes across smoothly enough to really stick the landing.
Review: Story/Plot - 7 The story is told through different perspectives, much like the Golgo 13: The Professional movie. It's less straightforward, and has another character with her own story going on- or should I say, has the main story revolving more around her as opposed to Duke. Duke is hired to kill her because she wants to assassinate Robert Hardy, but a bunch of other things are thrown into the mix making the story more complex. Characters - 7 I found Sonia to be quite the interesting character. She has a clear goal and motivation, and she is given a proper background, so we knowa lot about her; although I don't think she served very well as an antagonist, seeing how she doesn't really pose a threat and feels more like a protagonist throughout the story. I also thought that Robert's speech he gave at the end and him displaying his emotions and how much he still cares about his loved ones was pretty heartwarming. Visuals - 7.6 Pretty good looking overall. The action was great as always, except there aren't any super stylistic animation choices like the first film. Like the first film, there's some gory violence thrown in. Audio - 6 Nothing too special here. Overall: I enjoyed it. It's nice seeing Duke back in action and kicking ass once again. O score: 6.92/10 S score: 7/10 Final score: 6.96/10 Rounded to 7/10 for MAL score.
It's worth the watch if you don't want to bother with the TV series, but I don't think it's as good. While the animation and art are acceptable and feel "Golgo," the one thing that really nagged at me was Golgo's lack of capability. Throughout the TV series, he never really got cornered, but he was injured and held unconscious several times throughout this, which kind of messed with my image of him. I like the TV series mainly because the idea of some world-renowned nigh-invincible assassin is awesome. Queen Bee subtracted from that and didn't really even focus on him that much. As astand-alone movie, it is good, but I didn't really like it. Objectively, it's a long way ahead of The Professional, which, while appealing more to my opinion of Golgo, was a fairly difficult movie to sit through. I'll say go ahead and watch it if you don't want to sit through 50 episodes, but maybe avoid it if you've already watched them. I have a feeling I'm just being finicky, but it's my opinion nevertheless.
So, I just checked out this movie called Queen Bee. Overall, it's got its ups and downs. The story has its moments, but it's a bit inconsistent at times. The animation style is decent, but you can tell there were some budget and time constraints, especially during the action scenes. Sound-wise, it's alright, but it doesn't hit you like the 1983 movie did. As for character development, it's a mixed bag. There's some solid drama in there, but also some weak spots. Despite its flaws, I still had a good time watching it, especially as a fan of the 1983 flick. Oh, and that final sceneduring the credits? Pretty satisfying, and it captures the essence of Golgo 13 stories nicely. In the end, I'd say give it a shot at least once, but don't expect it to measure up to the 1983 classic.
Story - I feel as though this was a Queen Bee story that happened to have Golgo in it, and you could make the argument for most Golgo media being that way but really he's just not in most of the movie. I didn't have super high expectations and honestly the story can be very good sometimes, and then switch to laughably bad. That said, it's just very uneven but overall serviceable. I would give it a higher score here but some aspects were just glaringly bad in my opinion. There's things to like here but, as said before, too uneven. Art - This is a90's production and though they tried hard to emulate the style of the manga and the other OVA from 1983, it shows it's budget and it's corner cutting at times. That said, the style itself is actually absolutely fine and more of a realistic one that I kind of like. It liked to repeat the same frame 3 times or overlay multiple images with transparency to give some movement where there isn't really any. In this case it feels less like a stylistic choice and more of a budgetary or time concern. In either case, it actually quite negatively affects what could have been great action sequences. Sound - Serviceable and not much worth talking about. The intro and ending credits theme are catchy but I can't really recall the music outside of that. The mix seemed okay and I could hear voices and sound effects pretty clearly. It lacks the "oomph" of the 1983 music like the sequence with Duke on the motorcycle. All in all, inoffensive. Character - Duke is Duke and there's not much else to say. He seems relatively unchanged from what you'd expect. I could dissect Queen Bee but putting it simply she's a mixed bag, and she gets the most development. The worst parts of her character are her overtly sexual desires even at a really inopportune time, but her mother was killed in front of her and it's implied a politician also raped her so in a messed up way it makes sense. There's some legit good drama around her, but also bad stuff too, which is a shame. The main bad guy that Togo goes up against seems to be a PTSD victim with some kind of bipolar disorder of being tortured over atrocities committed but then being excited to go back and do more at times. He's not anywhere as weird or interesting as Hard Snake or Silver and Gold from the other movie, in fact he hardly ever feels like a real threat to Duke. I'll say quickly I actually liked that the candidate who made his daughter and wife "go away" felt such real guilt that he sort of tried to make it right and that made his character more interesting as it would have been easy to just make him a scummy guy like everyone else. Overall, some good highs but some real lows in the character department. Enjoyment - Honestly, despite it's flaws, it was alright. It had some good moments of noir, Duke himself still very much felt Duke in nature (though he hesitates at some points i feel like he wouldn't). Without spoiling the final scene we get during the credits is pretty satisfying and really accents the bitter sweetness of the Golgo 13 stories. I don't think I'd watch it again real soon but I'd say it was worth once through for sure. Nowhere near as good as the 83 movie however. Overall - I really wanted to like it a lot more than I did. I think it did some things quite well, but when you compare it to it's predecessor of 15 years prior you see really what a Golgo 13 movie could (and should) be. I'd recommend it to anyone who likes the 83 movie, just don't expect the same quality. Again, it was worth a once through and I didn't feel like I wasted my time. Edit - I rewatched it with commentary track and I found new aspects of the movie I hadn't really considered and maybe I was a bit too harsh coming off of the great 1983 film. After listening to the producer and the writer talk about it, I've decided to bump it up to a 7. Still nothing spectacular but if you like Golgo 13 this is a good flick.
Queen Bee is yet another adventure for the enigmatic Golgo 13, and not just the name of a hentai production company. At first I assumed it would be a direct sequel to the first movie somehow, but it's completely unconnected. Like all of Golgo's future adventures, it's all very episodic. Basically he's contracted to take out a character known as the Queen Bee, a woman leading some group of vaguely eastern refugees from some country in a jungle somewhere. I don't remember if it said but it really doesn't matter, because they really just wanted the jungle setting for act 3 to show off that Golgo13 is capable of fighting in all kinds of situations. We get another super assassin targeting Golgo or the Queen Bee or something that's trying to get in his way. Basically they use these bigbads as a narrative device. They spend so much time building up how amazing and cool the bad guy is, only to have them easily taken out by the protagonist to establish the pecking order. It's a trope you'll see a lot in shounen, and subverted expertly in One Punch Man. By doing this they don't even have to tell us anything about Golgo himself, he can remain a complete unknown. Yet now we know just how good he is at what he does. If you really want to try and reach you can try to find the man under the surface, a man who's voluntarily isolated himself in a life of death, finding comfort only in the occasional sexual encounter. He seems to find create no emotional attachment when he beds a woman, it's purely physical. Perhaps he was hurt by someone in the past and he's closed himself off from those human relationships as a protective barrier. See by leaving him mostly a blank slate you can basically make up whatever backstory for him you want, and if I used persuasive enough language you'd probably believe any of them. Anway 7/10 little something for everyone.
