Le garde du corps

Now I'm more of a Bruce Lee fan than a Sonny Chiba, but I always admired his films. The Street Fighters series is awesome, but this is one of his films I'm half in half on. Don't get me wrong it had it's moments, but it was just too fast for it's own good.

Sonny plays himself and offers himself to be a bodyguard to anyone who knows about the flood of illegal drugs. And this is where the film goes nowhere into endless action and cheap yet gruesome deaths.

If you are a die hard Chiba fan than get this, if not then my friend you are sadly in for a sour treat. A treat into weird camera angles of violence and stupid dialog that comes great for Chiba, but lame for others.

Even if you are a die-hard Sonny Chiba fan there is no reason to see this snooze-fest. However, watch the first five minutes for a tacked-on bit shot at a Times Square dojo in the mid-'70's that has absolutely nothing to do with the rest of the film. That sequence is so badly-acted and ludicrous that you'll wet yourself laughing! The sequence goes something like this:

CAMERA PANS UP STAIRCASE, GOES INTO DOJO.

An Hispanic martial arts guy does a pointless routine with two pair of nunchaku ("chucks") and comments to an Italian-looking karate guy "That's how Bruce Lee woulda done it!" The Italian guy says "That's pretty good, but here's how Sonny Chiba woulda done it!" He then proceeds to approximate some of Chiba's trademark moves from THE STREET FIGHTER on some poor student. After leaving the poor student hanging by his nuts, the two martial artists rub their chins and muse "I wonder what Sonny Chiba's doing now?" Then the movie lurches to a start. You may now turn off your vcr and do something useful like eat your own earwax.

Anything that has Sonny Chiba deserves at least a 5. I don't know what idiot would only rate this movie at 3. This movie is good for anyone that can truly appreciate a solid martial arts movie. It is about a woman who drug bosses in Japan want to kill. She asks for a bodyguard and Sonny Chiba answers the call. The movie starts with a scene in which 2 men are pretending to be Bruce Lee and Sonny Chiba from the real world. While this has nothing to do with the movie, who hasn't played that scenario in their mind? It may be a slow movie, but that doesn't make it boring. I would recommend this movie to anyone who truly likes Sonny Chiba. On top of this, the movie starts with a little quote that is supposed to be from Ezekiel 29:17 (but it is not). This will be very interesting to all of you extremely cool Pulp Fiction fans.

Beginning with a recitation of Ezekiel 25:17 (later, memorably used in "Pulp Fiction"), "The Bodyguard" is a tacky but fun Shin'ichi "Sonny" Chiba vehicle. He plays Kiba, who returns to Japan after some time in NYC, and is now a man on a mission, waging a one-man war on drugs. To further his aim, he hires on as bodyguard to the pretty Reiko Miwa (Mari Atsumi), who is definitely not playing it straight with him.

"The Bodyguard" is cheesy in so many departments: script, dialogue, supporting performances, etc. It's actually priceless how bad this is. Don't waste time trying to scrutinize THIS story, just enjoy the mayhem, of which there is a fair amount.

Overall, this is definitely a lesser Chiba movie, but it's so endlessly amusing that I was entertained, start to finish. It really doesn't give the star that many opportunities to strut his stuff, but there are some hysterical over-the-top gore gags, including a severed arm and a severed head. And the bad guys are a truly scummy (and supposedly colorful) lot, who ham it up something fierce whenever they get mowed down. They are also some of the STUPIDEST bad guys you'll ever see in an action movie.

"The Bodyguard" is garbage, plain and simple, but for me it was pretty agreeable in its badness. It's the kind of thing I'd recommend that you watch with your friends and some beers.

There are brief, pointless cameos by Aaron Banks and Bill Louie in the early parts of the U. S. version.

Six out of 10.

Ya this movie is kind of cheesy at times but I don't think it should be ripped apart like some of the other reviews. The plot is a bit thin but Sonny makes up for it as usual. As for the artsy camera work, I rather enjoyed it. The camera is shakey during running/fighting scenes but I enjoyed this. It gives the sense of a real chaotic situation instead of just situated camera work.

I do agree the dubbing is poor as hell but overall the movie worked for me and just reaffirmed Sonny Chiba as the Clint Eastwood of Japanese films.