A pleasant action narrative that is all about celebrating the character…
The manga Golgo 13 might not have the international renown as other manga, but the fact that its run, which started in 1968, in Big Comic is far from over and that it resulted in 208 volumes, proves that is a highly read manga in Japan. In fact, Golgo 13 is the second-best-selling manga series and the top-selling seinen manga series in history. Despite such success, the series has only resulted in two live-action narratives, one directed by Junya Sato in 1973 and one by Yukio Noda in 1977. This time, we cast our critical eye to Sato’s Japanese-Iranian co-production, starring Ken Takakura as the international assassin Golgo 13.
One night in Tehran, a man called Mr. Evans (Ali Dehghan) is captured by the goons of Max Boa (Ahmad Ghadakchian). Yet, before they can make him talk, he bites his tongue off and dies. It does not long for RF. Richard Flanagan (Nosratollah Karimi) realises that Evans, just like the three agents before him, has met his demise. As they keep failing in their mission to capture syndicate boss and shipping agent Max Boa, he decides to hire the renowned assassin Duke Togo or Golgo 13 (Ken Takakura) to eliminate him.
Boa’s organisation is known to smuggle weapons and drugs all over the world, but the recent disappearance of many beautiful young women suggests that the syndicate has expanded their business and started human trafficking as well. Yet, no one knows what he looks like.
While Golgo 13 is an action narrative, spectators will have to be patient as the first half of the narrative is all about tracking Max Boa down, by chasing every lead within the streets of Tehran to gain certain fragments of information that will, when put together, reveal where Golgo 13’s target hides himself.
Yet, things are, of course, not that simple. As Golgo 13 continues his investigation, the extent of Max Boa’s position of power, obtained via legal and less illegal means, becomes increasingly clear. It is, as a matter of fact, merely because he holds such a phallic position that he becomes a target for those who want to eliminate/castrate him as well as for those who, acknowledging his power, desire to financially benefit from him and his corporation.
The fact that no one has been able to discover his face, the fact that they merely chase a signifier name and end up caught within an intricate web of violence that ultimately consumes them, further emphasises the power that he wields. It should, furthermore, be evident that the lack of a face and body image is integral to his position of power as it not only enhances the threat that he ultimately poses – he is nowhere and everywhere at the same time, but also protect his position form those who want to erase. Like most – if not all – action narratives, a battle of strength and wit ensues. So can Golgo 13 successfully take Max Boa’s life and, invertedly, prove that he is more ‘phallic’ – read either as manly or desirable – than the criminal boss that plagues the world?
This brings us to our next question: Why does Golgo 13 stimulate the fantasy of desirability of both male and female spectators alike? From a narrative perspective, both the way the villain is introduced – he attains his true criminal status by embodying the law in a selfish way – as the refusal to delve deeper into the motives of his contractors helps to turn Golgo 13, whose presence lies beyond any kind of moral division, into an image to identify with.
While some spectators might lament the fact that Golgo 13 does not further explore the aim of his contractors and Max Boa’s human trafficking, the lack of such secondary information keeps the narrative focused on the figure of the world-renowned sniper. As for him, the spectator only needs to be concerned with one thing: Golgo 13’s target. The rest is merely a side issue.
The dynamic that truly seals Golgo 13’s desirability is the effect he has on women. The stern face – the cool facade of coldness – and the calculated manner of his signifiers and acts form a body image that invites the female other to situate her object of desire in him. To put it in a somewhat different way, the image of confidence that he reflects the other implies that he holds what the female other desires.
The effect of his aloof presence on the female subject is beautifully illustrated by Catherine Morton (Pouri Banayi), who falls in love with him without Golgo 13 doing anything that truly warrants her attraction. It is merely his detached presence – detached from the other because, as the female other wrongly suspects, he possesses the object of desire, that charms her into raising him to the status of the beloved. Through the figure of Catherine, Golgo 13 is also staged as a desirable image for the male spectator, an impossible-to-realize image that can be phantasmatically used by the spectator to fleetingly feel desirable to the female other.
The composition of Golgo 13 is full of fluid dynamism (i,e. zoom-ins, sudden spatial shifts, and tracking movement) and pleasant static shots, either by using certain peculiar shot perspectives or by elegantly composing shots in a geometrical way. Sato, in fact, proves with his static shots that he knows how to position characters within the narrative space to maximize the visual and narrative impact of the shot.
Sato also makes good use of rough shaky dynamism. By fluidly shifting from fluid movement to shaky movement within his composition, he does not only reverberate the tension the character-in-focus experiences – the tensive atmosphere, but also prepares the spectator, by inducing the same sense of tension within him/her, for the surge of action that will follow.
Yet, there are also moments within the composition that do not utilize shakiness to heighten the tension. Whether such moments are intentional stylistic choices or artefacts of limitations is irrelevant. Their mere presence infuses a certain realism, a certain sense of documenting a given reality, into the narrative fabric.
The action sequences of Golgo 13 stand out due to their roughness and their certain down-to-earth realism. While one should not expect to be blown away by the action – the way the genre has evolved in the last few decades has rendered that impossible, Golgo 13 still succeeds in delivering pleasant shoot-outs, brawls and some strangely exciting chases and battles between vehicles.
The performance of Ken Takakura ensures that Golgo 13 exudes cold-blooded coolness. With his controlled body movements and stern facial expressions, Takakura breathes ample life into the assassin’s detached attitude – even the flesh cannot seduce him – and the calculated nature of his signifiers and acts. It would not be wrong to state that Takakura carries the narrative with his highly satisfying performance.
The fleeting documentary-styled moments within the composition subtly enhances the realism of this character, thereby making it easier for the male spectator to take his presence as the object of their fantasy and, as the narrative unfolds, imagine himself as being the assassin Golgo 13.
Golgo 13 is a pleasant action narrative that is all about celebrating the character Golgo 13. This emphasis results a narrative that is not too deep and complicated but is structured in such a way that spectators can fully enjoy the way Ken Takakura gives body to this popular manga character.