Dissapointment Sonny Chiba films

[Karatedrifter7]

I had never seen any Sonny Chiba movies other than the Yakuza, and he dosent do Karate in that. I know that Quinten Tarantino raved about how great his films were, so I thought I'd rent the Street Fighter pack. Cheesy doesnt even begin to describe it. Sonny hits one guy over the head and breaks his skull, then you see a phoney rubber skull shaking.
I know he had great ability, whats up with those films? Or did I see the right ones?

 

[MA-Caver]

I had never seen any Sonny Chiba movies other than the Yakuza, and he dosent do Karate in that. I know that Quinten Tarantino raved about how great his films were, so I thought I'd rent the Street Fighter pack. Cheesy doesnt even begin to describe it. Sonny hits one guy over the head and breaks his skull, then you see a phoney rubber skull shaking.
I know he had great ability, whats up with those films? Or did I see the right ones?

Sometimes a great Martial Artist can't pick and choose which films they star in. Writers (think: Gymkata) can hurt a film and a director can totally turn what might've been a good film into a piece of crap you wouldn't show to anyone.
MA superstars like Lee, Segal, Van Damme, Li, Norris, Chan, and several others have had the good fortune of having either control over the films they're doing or at least a good script handed to them... but sometimes as time goes on they approach burn-out or simply have done so many that any script looks good... or, sometimes their star-shine has lost it's luster and they take whatever work comes their way in hopes of reviving that shine, but fail (Segal and Van Damme both haven't been in a decent movie in a long while). Still others are careful Li and Chan and watch what they're putting their faces to.
Chiba did a fine performance in Kill Bill 2 but he didn't do any MA (unless you count swordmaking) in it.
Remember Rothrock? Great MA-ist but lackluster to sucky films.
Personally I don't know of any Chiba films to recommend since he didn't achieve superstardom here in the states like others have.

 

[Cryozombie]

Sonny Chiba has done some amazing films, and some total flops.

I loved his portrayal of Mas Oyama in Karate Bullfighter.

 

[Hyper_Shadow]

Mas Oyama rocks in Karate Bullfighter! I think it's just a matter of finding the right films. And, as I see it, pretty much all martial arts films ar cheesy. That's what makes them appealing. As a martial artist I can't watch a martial arts inspired film looking for actual content, it just doesn't make sense. It's a film for entertainment, not for any educational purpose. Look at Zatoichi, some of the best and cheesiest films ever, absolutely superb to watch next to no technical prowess whatsoever. Increasingly, in films more recently, they are starting to use more trained gymnasts to execute complex choreography as opposed to those with previous experience in the arts. Prime example being Tony Ja, never had any MA training in his life and look at Ong Bak, great film.

Woops! Sounding like I'm ranting a bit there. Back on track, just keep sifting through until you find the films that entertain you the most. I'm pretty sure there's another thread up about film sugestions. There might be some that you could watch from there.

 

[zDom]

I'm not really a Sonny Chiba fan, but I think his "Streetfighter" films are definitive "Sonny Chiba" stuff.

 

[Xue Sheng]

I'm not a big fan of Sonny Chiba but then I'm not a big fan of Quinten Tarantino either so I am not surprised.

 

[Andrew Green]

I had never seen any Sonny Chiba movies other than the Yakuza, and he dosent do Karate in that. I know that Quinten Tarantino raved about how great his films were, so I thought I'd rent the Street Fighter pack. Cheesy doesnt even begin to describe it. Sonny hits one guy over the head and breaks his skull, then you see a phoney rubber skull shaking.
I know he had great ability, whats up with those films? Or did I see the right ones?

The film is well known for its extreme and graphic violent content. The Street Fighter was the first film to receive an X rating solely for violence. The film was especially controversial because of a scene in which Tsurugi castrates a rapist with his bare hands; it is this scene (among others) that reputedly gained the film its 'X' rating. 16 minutes were later edited from the film in order to get an R-rating.

~ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Street_Fighter

And this was low budget (compared to Hollywood) and shot 34 years ago. It pushed some boundaries pretty hard, and brought in quite a few new ideas.

It was a good movie, you just have to approach it with the right mindset, this is not a modern Jet Li movie, but it is certainly on par with the Hong Kong action movies of the same time.

 

[zDom]

It was a good movie, you just have to approach it with the right mindset, this is not a modern Jet Li movie, but it is certainly on par with the Hong Kong action movies of the same time.

True, as far as overall quality, but IMO those doing the martial arts in the Hong Kong flicks were showing much better technique (and more impressive, unless you are impressed by the graphic representation of results).

I'd chalk this up to "different strokes for different folks."

As Chiba is important to martial art film history, I think everybody ought to watch at least ONE Chiba film sometime or another.

When it come to Japanese films, I really prefer the Akira Kurosawa / Toshiro Mifune stuff.

Overall, I lean toward Hong Kong when it comes to martial art flicks (sometimes even over U.S. stuff!). After all, it is in the Hong Kong flicks that you get to see Hapkido stylists strut their stuff

 

[kwaichang]

I'm not really a Sonny Chiba fan, but I think his "Streetfighter" films are definitive "Sonny Chiba" stuff.

100% agree on that one.:soapbox:

 

[Andrew Green]

True, as far as overall quality, but IMO those doing the martial arts in the Hong Kong flicks were showing much better technique (and more impressive, unless you are impressed by the graphic representation of results).

On the one hand I agree, I prefer the choreography of hong kong movies, but that wasn't the goal in Chiba movies, he was aiming for a more traditional / realistic sort of "violence is ugly" display.

There was some very different ideals of what a martial arts action movie should look like that went into Chiba movies compared to the Hong Kong stuff.

 

[JadecloudAlchemist]

I liked Streetfighter ok not the best film but a cult classic.

I have seen the sequels if you thought Streetfighter was bad
Sister Streetfighter is well interesting lol.

 

[Karatedrifter7]

I didint like it I thought the storyline wasnt good. But I could glance at it again.

 

[kwaichang]

While admitting he was a great fighter, his flims didn't always convey it.

 

[Cryozombie]

But see... this is the problem with martial arts films... Great martial artists don't always make great martial arts films becuase moves that are effective aren't always "visible" or "flashy" enough for the screen... Thats why so many of the "greats" in the MA film buisness nowadays have their training in the Chinese Opera or Gymnastics, etc... as opposed to more "traditional" martial arts training.

 

[kwaichang]

Indeed, Bruce Lee and S. Segal's best films were the ones where they controlled the action sequences.

 

[Randy Strausbaugh]

Chiba's best movies (IMHO):

The Killing Machine (biography of Doshin So)
Karate Warriors (should've been titled Streetfighter II)
Karate Bullfighter

The Power of Aikido was OK as well, even though Chiba was not the star.

 

[kwaichang]

I think those of us that remember him and his expertise, each have our own favorites, however, we can all agree he was an exceptional martial artist.

 

[Randy Strausbaugh]

...we can all agree he was an exceptional martial artist.

Yep. And he probably still is one. Hope to see more from him in the future.

 

[Traditionalist]

Also watch The Karate Bear Fighter. Sonny Chiba's movies are tongue in cheek. The time period they were made in is nothing like todays movies and almost all were made overseas. He reminds me of the Kung Fu Theatre movies I watched as a kid. I love them.

 

[qwksilver61]

Hey when you're a kid, his films rock,I'm not too big a fan of today's CG,it seems to dominate today's films.Sonny Chiba is still cool in my book...