uke Togo, code-named Golgo 13, is internationally known as the ultimate assassin--once he agrees to take an assignment, he never backs down and he never fails. In 1983's Golgo 13: The Professional, director Osamu Dezaki's previous foray into the Golgo 13 mythos (based on Takao Saito's long-running hard-boiled manga series, which has also spawned a live-action movie and two video games), Duke always got his target--whether it was the son of one of the most powerful men in the world, a reclusive billionaire guarded by a mutant monster, or a woman with whom he'd just slept.
In this 1998 OVA sequel, Duke hasn't lost his edge or gained any scruples regarding whom he has sex with and kills afterward. Hired by Thomas Waltham, America's front-running Democratic vice-presidential candidate, to kill a mysterious South American liberation-front leader who's been sending oblique threats to Waltham's running mate, Duke quickly meets up with his target--a charismatic redhead named Sonia, also known as "Queen Bee"--and tumbles into bed with her. Afterward, he starts to shoot her, but she points out that they're in a crowded, bugged hotel from which escape would be impossible. She runs off and sends Waltham an unmistakable message: she knows Duke is on the case. Waltham, deciding things are getting out of hand, calls in some favors from a highly placed ally in the Department of Defense. Soon, a squad of soldiers, led by a psychotic Vietnam vet, is raining artillery on Sonia's jungle base.
Having come to South America for another shot (no pun intended) at killing Sonia, Duke gets to deal with a drooling, skull-faced lunatic in khakis, a few thousand pounds of heavy ordinance and further sexual come-ons from Sonia, who decides for some reason she wants to bear his (doubtless grim and laconic) love-child. Given his reputation, it seems inevitable that he'll kill her eventually; the main question is, will he first discover the ugly connection between her and increasingly successful (and emotionally disintegrating) presidential candidate Robert Hardy, or will he be too busy killing all the other people who get in his way as they attempt to kill her first?
Looks great, but this bee stings
Like Dezaki's science-fiction classic Space Adventure Cobra and the more recent futuristic medical thriller BlackJack, Golgo 13: Queen Bee is stylish and striking. The animation is extraordinary and experimental, packed with classic Dezaki techniques--split-screen scenes, artistically blurred shots, visual metaphors, dynamic movement and detailed backgrounds that occasionally even provide a sense of depth. The art direction is particularly well done, with Dezaki's usual heavy shadowing and some impressive environmental light-play, giving the characters a heavy, solid, even realistic look. If only the characters weren't intermittently
spouting firehose jets of blood, this movie might be downright pretty.
The content, however, is strictly on the ugly side. Duke is one of those anti-characters (like Chirico Cuvie in Armored Trooper VOTOMS or Bolt Crank in Eat-Man) who's little more than a black hole; friends, enemies, employers and total strangers alike are drawn in by his intensity, but no matter how much emotion or desire they throw at him, they never get anything back, and they're all ultimately sucked in and destroyed. The narrative space that would normally be occupied by a protagonist is instead filled up with big guns and big hooters; the nudity factor (mostly pneumatic women in surprisingly dull sex scenes) rivals that of Space Adventure Cobra, and the body count is catastrophic.
Queen Bee's big draw is the impressively complex character of Sonia, who at different times functions as maiden, mistress, mother and murderer, all without batting an eye. The depth of her role might be a little more palpable without the DVD commentary track by Dezaki and executive producer Mataichiro Yamamoto, who mostly stumble through an explanation of why they think it's good that their female lead "sleeps with lots of men" and why it's important to realize--though the only scene expressly proving this was cut--that Waltham and Hardy are gay lovers. (Their commentary isn't very enlightening, but it's often inadvertently hilarious, particularly when they point out that the commentary-track director keeps trying to get them to stop talking about sex so much.) Still, listening to the commentary track (available both in Japanese and dubbed in English) makes it easier to focus on Queen Bee's unique visuals and ignore its messy, blood-spattered plot.
