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Soul of Chiba (Japan/Thailand/Taiwan/Hong Kong, 1977) [DVD] - 4/5
This is a strangely intoxicating trash classic filmed in Thailand, and produced by Chiba with no participation by Toei. Some sources claim he was frustrated with Toei execs and directors who didn't really understand about martial arts movies, but whether that is true remains a mystery. Tadashi Yamashita, Etsuko Shihomi and Bolo joined him for the relatively nonsensical, sloppily made but very entertaining flick. The film hit the theatres in early 1977 when karate films were already going out of fashion.
The film opens with just about the quickest introduction you could possibly do. Chiba is a kid in Thailand, vowing to avenge his parents' death to soldiers who killed them. A white bearded martial arts master accepts him as his student. 20 years later the man has learned to fight, but before the film has run three minutes, the old master is also dead. The killer's name is either Someone or Sam Wan, it's quite hard to say which.
By now, Chiba and the audiences alike have forgotten all about the dead parents (never to be mentioned again in the film) as Chiba goes after someone who killed his master. Same time elsewhere an undercover cop Tadashi Yamashita is searching for the same man with an intention to bring a drug cartel down. The two heroes will eventually encounter, but only after the film has introduced a whole load of sub-plots and supporting characters, including one with a long lost, thought-to-be-dead brother, and jungle girl Etsuko Shihomi who treats injured Chiba's wounds.
Soul of Chiba enjoys the reputation of being Chiba's most insane picture. Personally I feel that honour belongs to Wolfguy: Enraged Lycanthrope (1975), but Soul of Chiba puts up a good fight. Their breeds of insanity differ a bit. Wolfguy features a secret organization trying to mass produce werewolves using Chiba's blood. Insane perhaps, but perfectly logical and understandable! Soul of Chiba features a drug dealer crashing his boat through another boat and flying through the air for no apparent reason.
Soul of Chiba really gets to the core of madness when Chiba begins torturing with electricity while doing karate moves to make his body stronger. He treats the pain with drugs (cocaine?) of course develops a severe drug addiction! Yep, this is just about the only martial arts flick where the hero fights under the influence of hard drugs. And all that leads to a terrific ending that is one of the best in Chiba' filmography.
Even better than the electric torture is the psychedelic monkey fight where Chiba encounters four Thai fighters (JAC stuntmen actually) possessed by monkey magic, which makes them four times stronger. While the film may not be a technical triumph - it is downright sloppy a lot of the time - this sequence is filmed and edited with true inspiration. You also get the wonderful slow-mo effect priory utilized in Karate Warriors as an added bonus.
As you may have figured out by now, the action in Soul of Chiba is at least satisfactory. While Chiba uses karate, there's quite a bit of Chinese influence to the action choreography. There's plenty of action and quite a few duels as well, including Chiba's final fight, and another fight featuring Tadashi Yamashita and Bolo. The filming took 2 months, which is more that Toei would allow Chiba in his domestic productions. Some of the fights also use under-cranking, which would normally be a shame, but in this intoxicating feast of visual insanity it almost works in the film's benefit.
If you're into trivia, there was quite an interesting bunch of people involved in the production. Aside Chiba, Yamashita and Shihomi there is Bolo, who is also credited with the story concept. Someone is played by Luk Chuen aka Yasuhiro Shikamura, who played small parts in Wang Yu films and went on to choreograph the amazing The Boxer's Omen! White beard master is played by Fong Yuen, who was a make-up artist that worked on more than 350 Hong Kong films. The young boy who wishes Chiba would teach him to fight is none other than Peter Chan, the future Hong Kong director of films like Wu Xia, Perhaps Love and The Warlords. And would you ever have guessed there's a connection between Soul of Chiba and the Japanese FM Towns version of the video game Lemmings? That is composer Takashi Otani, who created the film's excellent score.
The directorial duties were dived between the mediocre Japanese workhorse Yukio Noda (Yakuza Deka, The Delinquent Boss series) and Chan Tung Man. It is unclear who did what, but that probably matters not, Their primary tasks seems to have been to film whatever Chiba and Yamashita asked for, without stressing about such things as logic or continuity.
The relatively high production values of Chiba's Japanese films are nowhere to be found here. In fact, the film often looks and sounds more like a cheap Taiwanese kung fu flick. Some of the performances are hilariously bad, the quality of cinematography varies from scene to scene, and continuity is nowhere to be found. One amusing goof is how Bolo's character is said to have had his tongue cut out by bad guys, yet it seems to have grown back since its very much visible whenever he opens his mouth. Such issues work either for or against the film, depending on the viewer. Yet, there is little doubt that the filmmakers were inhaling true inspiration (among other substances) while filming and editing. Those viewers who don't get it, have fully deserved every painful second they spend with the film.
In a nutshell: you don't need beer, you don't need weed, you just need Soul of Chiba. I made the mistake of combining Soul of Chiba with wine, and it almost made my head explode. Try at your own risk.
Soul of Chiba opened in Japan in February 1977 as a double bill with Ikuo Sekimoto's soft porn flick The General and His Empire of Joy. Toei was the theatrical distributor, but the Japanese VHS was later released by Fox, which suggests Toei does not own the rights. Outside Japan the film toured theatres from France to USA. The Italian release, which features the film's title in German for some reason, claims the prints were manufactured in Rome. Sure, why not?
According to August Ragone's (error ridden, but understandably so for dating back to the 90s) article "Shinichi "Sonny" Chiba: A Real Mean Bastard!" Chiba and Yamashita were planning a sequel that never came true that was to be shot in Mexico. The story may be true - or not.
* Original title: Gekitotsu! Jado ken (激殺ï¼é‚ªé“拳)
* Director: Yukio Noda & Tung Man Chan
* Chiba's role: Starring role
* Film availability: NEW DVD (Germany) (Eng dub with 1.66:1 aspect ratio), Rarescope DVD (Eng dub with 1.66:1 aspect ratio + JP with 1.56:1 aspect ratio). The original aspect ratio seems to be 2.35:1. Thankfully, the original framing does not appear to have been as tight as in many of Chiba's other movies, making the fights rather watchable even in 1.66:1 presentation.
Chiba
Old master
Yamashita. His moustache alone deserves the film a viewing
Shihomi
Chiba and Shihomi
Electric shock training. This too, alone deserves the film a viewing
One of the many great shots from the spychedelic monkey fight scene
Monkey fighters
Yamashita vs. Bolo
The Oscar for the best over-actor goes to...
Why this guy decided to crash through a boat instead of going around it is anyone's guess
Chiba vs. Someone
This is a strangely intoxicating trash classic filmed in Thailand, and produced by Chiba with no participation by Toei. Some sources claim he was frustrated with Toei execs and directors who didn't really understand about martial arts movies, but whether that is true remains a mystery. Tadashi Yamashita, Etsuko Shihomi and Bolo joined him for the relatively nonsensical, sloppily made but very entertaining flick. The film hit the theatres in early 1977 when karate films were already going out of fashion.
The film opens with just about the quickest introduction you could possibly do. Chiba is a kid in Thailand, vowing to avenge his parents' death to soldiers who killed them. A white bearded martial arts master accepts him as his student. 20 years later the man has learned to fight, but before the film has run three minutes, the old master is also dead. The killer's name is either Someone or Sam Wan, it's quite hard to say which.
By now, Chiba and the audiences alike have forgotten all about the dead parents (never to be mentioned again in the film) as Chiba goes after someone who killed his master. Same time elsewhere an undercover cop Tadashi Yamashita is searching for the same man with an intention to bring a drug cartel down. The two heroes will eventually encounter, but only after the film has introduced a whole load of sub-plots and supporting characters, including one with a long lost, thought-to-be-dead brother, and jungle girl Etsuko Shihomi who treats injured Chiba's wounds.
Soul of Chiba enjoys the reputation of being Chiba's most insane picture. Personally I feel that honour belongs to Wolfguy: Enraged Lycanthrope (1975), but Soul of Chiba puts up a good fight. Their breeds of insanity differ a bit. Wolfguy features a secret organization trying to mass produce werewolves using Chiba's blood. Insane perhaps, but perfectly logical and understandable! Soul of Chiba features a drug dealer crashing his boat through another boat and flying through the air for no apparent reason.
Soul of Chiba really gets to the core of madness when Chiba begins torturing with electricity while doing karate moves to make his body stronger. He treats the pain with drugs (cocaine?) of course develops a severe drug addiction! Yep, this is just about the only martial arts flick where the hero fights under the influence of hard drugs. And all that leads to a terrific ending that is one of the best in Chiba' filmography.
Even better than the electric torture is the psychedelic monkey fight where Chiba encounters four Thai fighters (JAC stuntmen actually) possessed by monkey magic, which makes them four times stronger. While the film may not be a technical triumph - it is downright sloppy a lot of the time - this sequence is filmed and edited with true inspiration. You also get the wonderful slow-mo effect priory utilized in Karate Warriors as an added bonus.
As you may have figured out by now, the action in Soul of Chiba is at least satisfactory. While Chiba uses karate, there's quite a bit of Chinese influence to the action choreography. There's plenty of action and quite a few duels as well, including Chiba's final fight, and another fight featuring Tadashi Yamashita and Bolo. The filming took 2 months, which is more that Toei would allow Chiba in his domestic productions. Some of the fights also use under-cranking, which would normally be a shame, but in this intoxicating feast of visual insanity it almost works in the film's benefit.
If you're into trivia, there was quite an interesting bunch of people involved in the production. Aside Chiba, Yamashita and Shihomi there is Bolo, who is also credited with the story concept. Someone is played by Luk Chuen aka Yasuhiro Shikamura, who played small parts in Wang Yu films and went on to choreograph the amazing The Boxer's Omen! White beard master is played by Fong Yuen, who was a make-up artist that worked on more than 350 Hong Kong films. The young boy who wishes Chiba would teach him to fight is none other than Peter Chan, the future Hong Kong director of films like Wu Xia, Perhaps Love and The Warlords. And would you ever have guessed there's a connection between Soul of Chiba and the Japanese FM Towns version of the video game Lemmings? That is composer Takashi Otani, who created the film's excellent score.
The directorial duties were dived between the mediocre Japanese workhorse Yukio Noda (Yakuza Deka, The Delinquent Boss series) and Chan Tung Man. It is unclear who did what, but that probably matters not, Their primary tasks seems to have been to film whatever Chiba and Yamashita asked for, without stressing about such things as logic or continuity.
The relatively high production values of Chiba's Japanese films are nowhere to be found here. In fact, the film often looks and sounds more like a cheap Taiwanese kung fu flick. Some of the performances are hilariously bad, the quality of cinematography varies from scene to scene, and continuity is nowhere to be found. One amusing goof is how Bolo's character is said to have had his tongue cut out by bad guys, yet it seems to have grown back since its very much visible whenever he opens his mouth. Such issues work either for or against the film, depending on the viewer. Yet, there is little doubt that the filmmakers were inhaling true inspiration (among other substances) while filming and editing. Those viewers who don't get it, have fully deserved every painful second they spend with the film.
In a nutshell: you don't need beer, you don't need weed, you just need Soul of Chiba. I made the mistake of combining Soul of Chiba with wine, and it almost made my head explode. Try at your own risk.
Soul of Chiba opened in Japan in February 1977 as a double bill with Ikuo Sekimoto's soft porn flick The General and His Empire of Joy. Toei was the theatrical distributor, but the Japanese VHS was later released by Fox, which suggests Toei does not own the rights. Outside Japan the film toured theatres from France to USA. The Italian release, which features the film's title in German for some reason, claims the prints were manufactured in Rome. Sure, why not?
According to August Ragone's (error ridden, but understandably so for dating back to the 90s) article "Shinichi "Sonny" Chiba: A Real Mean Bastard!" Chiba and Yamashita were planning a sequel that never came true that was to be shot in Mexico. The story may be true - or not.
* Original title: Gekitotsu! Jado ken (激殺ï¼é‚ªé“拳)
* Director: Yukio Noda & Tung Man Chan
* Chiba's role: Starring role
* Film availability: NEW DVD (Germany) (Eng dub with 1.66:1 aspect ratio), Rarescope DVD (Eng dub with 1.66:1 aspect ratio + JP with 1.56:1 aspect ratio). The original aspect ratio seems to be 2.35:1. Thankfully, the original framing does not appear to have been as tight as in many of Chiba's other movies, making the fights rather watchable even in 1.66:1 presentation.
Chiba
Old master
Yamashita. His moustache alone deserves the film a viewing
Shihomi
Chiba and Shihomi
Electric shock training. This too, alone deserves the film a viewing
One of the many great shots from the spychedelic monkey fight scene
Monkey fighters
Yamashita vs. Bolo
The Oscar for the best over-actor goes to...
Why this guy decided to crash through a boat instead of going around it is anyone's guess
Chiba vs. Someone
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