KMC Forums - Golgo 13 V The Bride

Golgo 13 (ゴルゴ13, also known under the pseudonym Duke Togo) is a fictional assassin and is the lead protagonist in his own manga series, also titled Golgo 13, created by Japanese mangaka Takao Saito.

The Golgo 13 series is one of the longest running adult manga in Japan and has been adapted into two live action films (Golgo 13 and Golgo 13: Assignment Kowloon), two anime movies directed by Osamu Dezaki, and three video games including Golgo 13: Top Secret Episode and its NES sequel, The Mafat Conspiracy: Golgo 13 II and an arcade game that whilst only released in Japan, has however found its way abroad to other countries such as Australia. The game itself uses a panel mounted M-16 gun, and a "real" scope. It uses pot driven technology to calibrate where the gun is pointed similar to the Silent Scope series, and doesnt rely on a "light gun" technique. When the player places their cheek over the butt of the gun they block out a sensor which makes the picture on the screen zoom in, creating the scope effect when the player looks through the rifle scope (it has the cross hairs, but doesn't actually do any "zooming").

Since its debut in 1968, it has sold over 200 million copies in various formats, including compilation books.

Golgo 13 has been called a Japanese counterpart to James Bond, except with a darker character, a much more hardcore attitude towards sex, and a complete lack of morality. Golgo 13 is described as a mystery man of undetermined origin, possibility being at least part Japanese, who takes any assignment for any employer (it has been said he has worked for the CIA and the KGB) as long as the right price is given (usually around 1 million dollars for a hit) and will always fulfill his contracts, even if he has two or more opposing contracts at the same time. He is an uncanny sharpshooter, with near 100% accuracy (with only one missed shot) and capable of lethal trick shooting, and regularly uses a customized, scoped M-16 rifle in his assassinations. He also is a heavy smoker of cigars.

Despite Golgo's "amoral" status, Golgo seems to take assignments that work with his own logic in ethics as the stories are always set up so that Golgo is at least nominally a "good guy" -- his targets are typically criminals or people who otherwise at least partially "deserve" what they get. There are no stories that involve completely innocent people being assassinated.

Particularly in the later volumes, Golgo himself tends to take a back seat to the other characters involved in the contract. It's not uncommon for Golgo to only appear in a single panel or two out of a 150-page story.

Two animated movies were created, The Professional: Golgo 13 and Golgo 13: Queen Bee. The Professional: Golgo 13 was once licensed by Orion and Streamline Pictures, but both films are currently licensed by Urban Vision. The english language version of Queen Bee features celebrity voice actor John DiMaggio (Bender of Futurama) in the role of Golgo 13.

V

The Bride

[SPOILER - highlight to read]: (Thurman) is introduced to the audience in a blood-spattered wedding gown immediately after a violent showdown at a Texas wedding chapel. She attempts to tell her would-be killer, Bill (Carradine), that she is pregnant with his baby, but he shoots her in the side of the head.

Four years later, The Bride arrives at the house of Deadly Viper Vernita Green (Fox), codenamed Copperhead. Vernita and The Bride engage in a brutal fight, with The Bride eventually killing Green in front of her four-year-old daughter Nikki. She tells the girl that she's sorry for killing her mom in front of her, and that if the young girl wishes to avenge her death when she grows up, The Bride will be waiting. The Bride then leaves in a yellow pick-up truck.

A flashback to the events after the wedding reveals that the comatose Bride is the only survivor of the massacre. Elle Driver, a.k.a. California Mountain Snake, the one-eyed assassin who has replaced the Bride as Bill's lover, slips into the hospital ward intending to inject poison into The Bride's intravenous line. She is stopped at the last second by Bill via cellphone, who believes The Bride deserves a more honorable death.

The Bride wakes up from her coma in the present and escapes from the hospital after killing an orderly named Buck, who has been selling sexual access to her body as she lay unconscious. She steals Buck's truck, the Pussy Wagon, and hides in the back seat as she slowly works her limbs out of atrophy. In the back of the truck, The Bride narrates the story of another Deadly Viper, O-Ren Ishii (Liu), codename: Cottonmouth. The events are shown in anime form. O-Ren rose to the top of the Japanese crime world as well as working as a highly paid assassin. The segment introduces her personal bodyguard Go-Go Yubari, her friend and lawyer Sofie Fatale (another protege of Bill), and Johnny-Mo, leader of O-Ren's personal army, the Crazy 88.

The Bride travels to Okinawa to get a katana from Hattori Hanz�_ (Chiba), a renowned sword-smith, who has retired. Though Hanzo has taken an oath to never make another sword, The Bride is able to convince him of the merit of her mission, and he forges for her the best sword he has ever created.

The Bride tracks O-Ren to a hangout called the "House of Blue Leaves", where a band (The 5,6,7,8's) is performing. The Bride arrives wearing a yellow motorcycle jump suit (an homage to Bruce Lee movies), taking Fatale hostage to lure O-Ren from her dinner. O-Ren dispatches Yubari and dozens of the Crazy 88 to deal with The Bride, who proceeds to wage war on her henchmen. The Bride then turns her attention to O-Ren, climaxing in a dramatic swordfight in a snowy garden (which borrows heavily from the Japanese sexploitation film Sex & Fury).

The film ends with the revelation by Bill that The Bride's daughter is still alive, though this is not revealed to her.