Ranked #3913

Golgo 13: Queen Bee

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: it seems 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.
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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 a stand-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. read more