Bodigâdo Kiba

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.

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.

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.

After her husband is shot in New York, an attractive woman named "Reiko Miwa" (Mari Atsumi) flees to Tokyo, intending to sell the illegal drugs her late husband had taken from the mafia. Meanwhile, on another flight bound for Tokyo, a martial arts master named "Naoto Kiba" (Shinichi 'Sonny' Chiba) becomes the target of several hitmen due to a separate drug-related issue. After dispatching all of the armed thugs, he holds a press conference where he announces that he will protect anyone who comes forward with information, leading to the arrest of key members of the Japanese drug cartels. Shortly afterward, Reiko approaches him and asks for his protection. Now, rather than reveal more, I'll just say that this was not one of Sonny Chiba's better films, largely due to poor camera work and abbreviated individual fight scenes. Additionally, the multiple scenes where Naoto Kiba confronts armed gunmen and subdues them without getting shot felt quite implausible. In any case, while I don't consider this to be a terrible martial arts film, the aforementioned weaknesses were too noticeable to overlook, and I've rated it accordingly. Slightly below average.

For masochists. 1976's The Bodyguard is a grade Z Karate opera that gives proof that the martial arts craze of 30 years ago was just that, crazy. Unless you like to watch film stock wasted, don't buy this incompetent junk. I got it at Wally World and thought it would be a hoot. It wasn't.

What makes this stuff so mindbogglingly, stupefyingly, crushingheadachingly bad isn't that it's all of those adjectives and so much more. It's because there are folks who just can't get enough of this Kungfoolishness.

Hell, there are people in this country who collect Precious Moments figurines, too, so I guess we're all even.