I watched the American version of this movie from the latest 6-Disc DVD release of a Sonny Chiba collection bought from the US. It was dubbed in English, and without any subtitles.

The movie starts out in New York nonetheless, the first scene was typical setting for a hit. The next scene would be totally unrelated to the whole movie, it was a discussion on how would Chiba and Bruce Lee compare as actioned out by two actors trying hard to imitate them.

The gritty rough face of Chiba here is I think a trademark from all his films, his dubbed voice however was not as tough as it Chiba would sound like. I think Americans wanted to release the movie with another movie to make it a Grindhouse feature presentation. As like Grindhouse movies, it has violence, nudity and terrible sequence of scenes that sometimes are overlong, or not important at all.

The Bodyguard had an interesting plot to work with, however it did not deliver, the scenes were below par, the lines were cheesy, and the action was disappointing for a Chiba film. This would not be the one I would recommend to a person just starting to watch Sonny Chiba's movies. I was good enough to rate with a 5/10 despite the movie's weak showing.

After watching "The Bodyguard" last night, I felt compelled to write a review of it.

This could have been a pretty decent movie had it not been for the awful camera-work. It was beyond annoying. The angles were all wrong, it was impossible to see anything, especially during the fight sequences. The closeups were even horrible.

The story has Sonny Chiba hiring himself out as a bodyguard to anyone willing to lead him to the top of a drug ring. He is approached by Judy Lee, who is never quite straight with Chiba. Lee's involvement in the drug ring is deeper than Chiba thought, as the Mob and another gang of thugs are after her.

The story was decent, and despite horrible dubbing, this could have been a good movie. Given better direction and editing, I'm sure this would have been a classic Kung Foo movie. As it is, it's more like another cheesy 70's action movie.

Note: The opening sequence has a quote familiar to "Pulp Fiction" fans, and then continues to a karate school in Times Square that is in no way related to the rest of the movie.

Rating: 4 out of 10

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.