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.<\/p>\n
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 \u2013 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.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
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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…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":26662,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"rop_custom_images_group":[],"rop_custom_messages_group":[],"rop_publish_now":"initial","rop_publish_now_accounts":[],"rop_publish_now_history":[],"rop_publish_now_status":"pending","_uag_custom_page_level_css":"","mf2_syndication":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-26696","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-b-movie-news","wpcat-1-id"],"uagb_featured_image_src":{"full":["https:\/\/www.bmovienation.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/17144__x400_assassin_1970_poster_01.jpg",263,400,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/www.bmovienation.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/17144__x400_assassin_1970_poster_01-145x145.jpg",145,145,true],"medium":["https:\/\/www.bmovienation.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/17144__x400_assassin_1970_poster_01-197x300.jpg",197,300,true],"medium_large":["https:\/\/www.bmovienation.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/17144__x400_assassin_1970_poster_01.jpg",263,400,false],"large":["https:\/\/www.bmovienation.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/17144__x400_assassin_1970_poster_01.jpg",263,400,false],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/www.bmovienation.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/17144__x400_assassin_1970_poster_01.jpg",263,400,false],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/www.bmovienation.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/17144__x400_assassin_1970_poster_01.jpg",263,400,false],"gridflex-1422w-autoh-image":["https:\/\/www.bmovienation.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/17144__x400_assassin_1970_poster_01.jpg",263,400,false],"gridflex-1074w-autoh-image":["https:\/\/www.bmovienation.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/17144__x400_assassin_1970_poster_01.jpg",263,400,false],"gridflex-360w-300h-image":["https:\/\/www.bmovienation.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/17144__x400_assassin_1970_poster_01.jpg",197,300,false]},"uagb_author_info":{"display_name":"admin1","author_link":"https:\/\/www.bmovienation.com\/?author=1"},"uagb_comment_info":0,"uagb_excerpt":"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...","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bmovienation.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26696","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bmovienation.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bmovienation.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bmovienation.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bmovienation.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=26696"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.bmovienation.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26696\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bmovienation.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/26662"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bmovienation.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=26696"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bmovienation.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=26696"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bmovienation.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=26696"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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