User Reviews

Hayata is an undercover cop assigned to infiltrate not one, but two rival Yakuza gangs - the Natsui Company and the Seiwa gang. Both gangs are vying for control of the typical things - drugs, territory, etc. Things get complicated when Hayata gets into a relationship with a young schoolteacher, the daughter of a fellow officer who was slain by one of the gangs. And when Hayata's brother Ishiguro (real-life brother Jiro Chiba) becomes entangled as well, things get really crazy. Will Hayata get out of this mess? Assassin is a typically colorful Japanese outing that throws a lot at the viewer - everything from wacky comedy, to romance, to James Bond-style heroics, to violence and even psychedelics very much of the era. For some strange reason, all these highly comic book-y antics all work in the context of this movie and the results are very enjoyable indeed. There is a lot of technical inventiveness going on behind the camera which helps propel the movie along, and the clothing the characters wear is excellent and maintains the viewers' interest on that alone.

Assassin is every bit as good as a movie by Seijun Suzuki, but will this film be coming out on the much-vaunted "Criterion Collection" like some of Suzuki's movies? Not likely. This exposes the Criterion people as hypocritical snobs, as if I needed to do so. In the 80's, this movie came out on CBS-Fox Home Video, in a very cool medium-big box with a slide-out tape holder. This release is riddled with inaccuracies: for example, it says the movie came out in 1977 and was directed by a "Tachiichi Sakimori" - wrong on both counts - and, believe it or not, the tape goes back and forth with its dubbing (which is of course of the silly, loud and dumb variety) - some scenes are dubbed and others are not. It practically goes back and forth throughout the whole movie. It's not done for effect, perhaps it was laziness or lack of caring? We'll perhaps never know, but there is a region 2 release of this film, let's hope they corrected this. Also some of the credits are misspelled ("Playwritting"anybody?) Director Yukio Noda has another movie out on US DVD called Zero Woman: Red Handcuffs (1974), which is also a crazy one and continues his love for torture sequences. He worked with Chiba a lot, perhaps most famously on Golgo 13 (1977).

No one can take on the bad guys and look as cool and stylish as Sonny Chiba while doing it, and here is a prime example. Dripping with 70's style, those who like Chiba (are there people out there who don't?) will find plenty to sink their teeth into here.

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A fresh-faced Sonny Chiba is the James Bond-alike hero in this efficient thriller that mixes together plenty of diverse ingredients for movie fans: there's a ton of broad comedy (typically involving unlucky folk and a cross-dresser), plenty of cool action, and a hackneyed but nevertheless involving storyline that follows the YOJIMBO template fairly closely, but still offers some new twists to make it engaging. The film feels like a succession of images involving suited gangsters, nightclub singers, and battle scenes taking place with attractive Japanese scenery as the backdrop.

As per usual, Sonny Chiba carries the film and his character is an odd mix between a smooth James Bond spy-type hero and the hard-ass we all know and love from the STREET FIGHTER flicks and others. He gets very involved in the action scenes, carrying out a few martial arts moves and taking part in plenty of stunts which are of a good quality – there are no stuntmen involved when Chiba's around! Highlights include swinging from a helicopter rope (so much fun it was repeated by Chiba in G. I. SAMURAI), a neat little run around the roof of a mansion, and some tough physicality inside a lit chimney! Chiba is backed up by a more than able cast and there are two particularly interesting characters who have strong parallels with Chiba himself: the first is a fellow "lone wolf" whom Chiba spares from death and the second a corrupt cop with stomach cancer who has a few surprises up his sleeve. The interaction between these guys and Chiba himself is a strong element to the film, although a lot of the other characters are pretty stereotyped.

The action is plentiful which is cool for this genre, and it sure beats the heck out of similar scenes in the Italian Bond rip-offs. There's a ton of bloody shooting which really pushes the boundary for a family-oriented flick and a quartet of rubber-masked assassins, one of whom is a Charles Bronson imitator! However, the film is most notable for being a product of its time, i.e. it's very dated when watched today. Chiba wears a succession of '60s suits and clothing which push the boundaries for taste, while halfway through the film the director takes a time out to shoot a swinging marijuana party, all filmed in a psychedelic hue with fondling lesbian encounters and Chiba sprawling senselessly on a couch! There's also one of those infamous rotating circular beds that were parodied in the AUSTIN POWERS movies, but here it's much funnier because it's for real. All in all, Chiba's ever-engaging presence and a strong plot make this one of the better Bond imitators.