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Bodyguard (The) AKA Karate Kiba AKA Viva Chiba: The Bodyguard AKA Bodyguard Kiba AKA Bodigaado Kiba (Blu-ray) (1974)
Sonny Chiba, hired to kill... If his kick doesn't get you... his fatal fist will!Director: Ryuichi Takamori, Simon Nuchtern (US version additional scenes)
OVERALL: Draw-
OVERALL: Draw
The North American releases have the Japanese version of the film and an interview with Chiba.
The UK release has two versions of the film with differing exclusive extras.
GENERAL NOTES:
There are two versions in circulation:
- the original Japanese version (~88 minutes);
- the 1976 US version (~88 minutes) titled "The Bodyguard" (or "Viva Chiba: The Bodyguard" onscreen) which starts with a scrolling text and a narrator reading a passage from Ezekiel 25:17 - which directly inspired the Samuel L. Jackson scene in "Pulp Fiction" - with additional establishing shots of New York before the assassination, the replacement of the Japanese version's English-language newspaper headlines identifying the gangster phonetically as "Salbadole Lucco" (he becomes "Salvattore Rocco" in the U.S. version), and an additional scene in a New York karate school with actors Bill Louie and Aaron Banks discussing the merits of Bruce Lee and Sonny Chiba.
The character Kiba is transformed into Sonny Chiba himself in the dubbing and the dialogue is rewritten in the press conference scene, replacing Kiba's explanation of his three years in America retracing the footsteps of his mentor Tetsugen Daito - the training flashback sequence of which has been repurposed for the American version's main titles sequence (the Japanese version imposes the credits on freeze frames throughout the hijacking sequence) - with his explanation that he has been fighting drug dealers and has returned to Japan to continue his mission (in the Japanese original he explains his reasoning for fighting the hijackers as promotion for his disrespected fighting school and advertisement of his services as bodyguard). -
CUTS:
- Blu-ray A The Sonny Chiba Collection America- Shout! Factory - No cuts.
- Blu-ray A The Sonny Chiba Collection Canada- Shout! Factory - No cuts.
- Blu-ray B 1&2 United Kingdom- Eureka - No cuts - Includes the Japanese version (87:36) and the U.S. version (87:54).
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Comparison added by James-Masaki_Ryan on 04/12/22
Comparison last updated by Eric_Cotenas on 14/03/24UPDATE LOG:
04/12/22: Initial entry.
Please ensure you read our disclaimer.
28/02/24: Added UK.
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