Sonny Chiba Mega Review Thread

[Takuma]

Golden Bat (Japan, 1966) [DVD] - 2/5
Japan's first ever super hero, who debuted in the early 1930s kamishibai (narrated "paper theatre", returns in a live action film starting Sonny Chiba. Unfortunately Chiba is not playing the skull-faced (rubber masked) hero Golden Bat, but a bearded scientist who discovers Atlantis, where Golden Bat is resting. His help is needed against manically laughing evil aliens (including one who looks like a werewolf) who intend to destroy the earth. It's nice to see Chiba given a charismatic authority role at this relatively early stage of his career, but frankly he doesn't have that much to do in the film even though he's the leading actor. The film has its entertaining campy moments, but it could be more fun. At 73 minutes it feels a bit longer than it really is.

* Original title: Ogon batto (黄金バット)
* Director: Hajime Sato
* Chiba's role: Starring role
* Film availability: Toei DVD (Japan) (No subtitles)

Chiba!


Chiba!


Golden Bat!


Evil aliens!


Werewolf alien!

[Takuma]

Abashiri Prison 4: Northern Seacoast Story (Japan, 1965) [35mm] - 2.5/5
The 4th film in the long running Abashiri Prison series that cemented Ken Takakura's status as the biggest yakuza film star of the 60s. The 1965 original movie established the formula: Takakura is a punkish but ultimately honourable tough guy whose path always leads back to the Abashiri Prison in the snowy Hokkaido that characterized the first film. Director Teruo Ishii helmed them in contemporary style that borrowed elements from ninkyo yakuza films but still retained a modern feel. The films proved so popular Ishii had to deliver up to new 4 films a year, whether or not it was winter, and whether or not they were able to film in Hokkaido.

Northern Seacoast Story takes the story back to the snowy Hokkaido after a couple of warmer entries (of which the 3rd movie was admittedly one of the best in the series). Unfortunately it's not among the series highlights. The film opens with silly comedy routines with two gay prisoners before turning into a yakuza film variation of Stagecoach (1939) when Takakura is set free and he takes a job to drive a certain truck through Hokkaido. The cargo is cargo a runaway teenager (Reiko Ohara), a mother accompanied by sick child, and two ruthless criminals (Tooru Abe and Takashi Fujiki). It's hardly an original movie, but the solid genre cast, jazz soundtrack and winter landscapes provide enough entertainment to warrant a viewing for fans. Sonny Chiba plays a small supporting role as an inmate with health problems. His character initiates the plot, but is only featured in the early scenes.

* Original title: Abashiri bangaichi: Hokkai hen (網走番外地　北海篇)
* Director: Teruo Ishii
* Chiba's role: Small supporting role
* Film availability: Toei DVD (Japan) (No subtitles), Toei Blu-Ray (Japan) (No subtitles)

[Takuma]

Speaking of musically oriented youth films, Chiba played the starring role in Dash to the Sun (1966). Unfortunately I've never been able to see this film.


And completely unrelated, here are the original posters for two Chiba film I have reviewed before and quite like: Yakuza's Song (1963) and Kaigun (1963).



Finally, here's the original poster and two stills for Dragon's Life (1964), which I also reviewed a few posts back.

[Takuma]

Sing to Those Clouds (Japan, 1965) [DVD] - 3/5
The success of Here Because of You (1964) produced a whole bunch of loosely related follow-ups, all musically oriented youth films starring the lovely Chiyoko Honma. She's a singing high school girl again, in the middle of a truly complicated love/hate/friendship mess where her former best friend's rebellious brother (Jiro Okazaki) has a crush on her, while she has a crush on her teacher, while the ex-friend is trying to sabotage her happiness, and then there's a few other guys with a crush on her as well. The film's first half is a bit too loose with somewhat random scenarios, but it works pretty well when it follows the young rebel Okazaki. Oddly enough, the real co-star, pop singer Teruhiko Saigo, gets the shorter straw just like Kazuo Funaki did in Here Because of You.

Sonny Chiba is a teacher again, although he's a literature teacher this time. That doesn't stop him from catching underage smokers and making them jump the rope as punishment until they drop from exhaustion, though. The role is smaller than last time, but nevertheless very enjoyable. The film is not quite on par with the better written and catchier Here Because of You, but director Koji Ota helms the film with just enough style and inserts many musical scenes, including a out-of-nowhere appearance by pop idol group Johnny's. Once again, the film is charmingly old fashioned and very 60s. Filmed in the beautiful seaside landscapes of Bōsō Peninsula.

* Original title: Ano kumo ni utaou (あの雲にæŒãŠã†)
* Director: Koji Ota
* Chiba's role: Small supporting role (but not that small)
* Film availability: Toei DVD (Japan) (No subtitles)

Chiyoko Honma and Teruhiko Saigo


Young rebel Jiro Okazaki


Chiba sensei


Don't screw with Chiba


Or he'll make you jump the rope


Johnny's (there's more in the tree)


Okazaki threw the other guy in the water


Seaside drama


Teruhiko Saigo singing on his way home

[Takuma]

Code of Ruffians (Japan, 1965) [VoD] - 2/5
Strictly by-the-numbers yakuza drama about a yakuza clan gone straight, now working on a construction project in the mountains, and of course bullied by an evil gang. Koji Tsuruta stars; Sonny Chiba has a smallish and unremarkable role as a young, rich construction project boss, who learns something about the realities of life outside urban centres. Takashi Shimura and Junko Fuji appear in supporting roles. There were quite a few of these kind of movies back in the mid 60s, including some others featuring Chiba (e.g. Dragon's Life, 1964; and North Sea Chivalry, 1967). They made an interesting point of how much of the modern Japan was supposedly built by yakuza clans. They usually emphasized how the former clans had given up on criminal life, and consequently contained only limited amounts of hard boiled "gangster cinema". In this one, too, one has to wait until the final 15 minutes before Tsuruta goes into the yakuza mode. Unfortunately the film isn't all that involving. Director Yusuke Watanabe would make his biggest hit two decades later with the beloved action/drama/comedy Keiji Monogatari (1982).

This film probably has another English title as well, which I'd love to share with everyone if God was kind enough to tell me which page in Chris D's yakuza film book I should be looking at. If anyone has found it, please let me know.

* Original title: Buraikan jingi (無頼漢仁義)
* Director: Yusuke Watanabe
* Chiba's role: Small supporting role
* Film availability: VoD (Japan) (No subtitles)

Tsuruta




Chiba




Shimizu


Junko Fuji




Tsuruta finally in yakuza mode

[Takuma]

He looks so baby faced in some of these early movies! Thanks for posting this.

Quoting my friend "it wasn't until the 70s he developed handsome manly looks"

I think many girls would disagree

[Ian Jane]

He looks so baby faced in some of these early movies! Thanks for posting this.

[Takuma]

Meiji Underworld - Yakuza G-Men (Japan, 1965) [VoD] - 2/5
"G-Men" was something of a buzz word in the 1960s Japanese action/crime cinema. It's was a popular slang term for Government Men or undercover agents. Toei especially liked to use it whenever the storyline had something to do with policemen going undercover. In this film it's the Japanese gangster Hiroki Matsukata who is forced to work for the police to find out who robbed a truck full of gold. Of course, there is very little doubt about who did it as soon as yakuza film baddie Bin Amatsu walks into the frame. Director Eiichi Kudo was better known for his samurai classics like 13 Assassins. This early 20th century set gangster film is not especially badly made, but it is strangely unmoving. It's neither very original nor that stylish, although the few action scenes it has are entertaining. Sonny Chiba has a small and forgettable supporting role as one of the detectives, with about 10-15 minutes of screen time.

* Original title: Yakuza tai G Men: Meiji ankokugai (やくざＧメン　明治暗黒街)
* Director: Eiichi Kudo
* Chiba's role: Small supporting role
* Film availability: VoD (Japan) (No subtitles)



Matsukata


Amatsu


Chiba

[Takuma]

Dragon's Life (Ryuko ichidai) (Japan, 1964) [VoD] - 2.5/5
An early ninkyo film from before the genre had truly established its form. Koji Tsuruta plays an honourable outlaw who saves an older man from an ambush. It turns out the man is the head of a hard working clan appointed to a railway construction project. A ruthless yakuza gang is also trying to get their share of the project and attempts to sabotage the work. After the old man dies, his son (Sonny Chiba) and daughter (Junko Fuji) try to complete the project. Tsuruta joins them while also falling in love with a local woman working in a bar (after all, Tsuruta always was more of a lover than his stoic colleague Takakura).

Dragon's Life is not bad - it has some pretty good scenes - but it tends to lack the clear focus of the best ninkyo films. Fans of the genre will immediately recognize the structure and many story devices used here, though, including an honourable man (Shigeru Amachi) working for the villain clan but in love with Fuji. Interestingly enough, the film contains partial female nudity, which was a rarity in a ninkyo film, as well as in any film made as early as this (as for the Japanese film industry in general, 1964 was the turning point, but obviously the ninkyo genre did not follow this trend). Sonny Chiba plays another "son role" - he did quite a few of them in the early/mid 60s - but he doesn't especially stand out. It's not his fault, the role just isn't very memorable.

* Original title: Ryuko ichidai (竜虎一代)
* Director: Tsuneo Kobayashi
* Chiba's role: Small supporting role
* Film availability: VoD (Japan) (No subtitles)

Tsuruta




Chiba


Chiba and Fuji


Chiba and Fuji


See the dancer in the background? You'll get to see a little bit more in the film.




Final walk. Ninkyo fans know this type of scene very well.

[Takuma]

Here Because of You (Japan, 1964) [DVD] - 3.5/5
A very enjoyable youth film about two high school kids who aren't exactly in love, but certainly have a bit of love/hate sparks between them. It was a starring vehicle for two young pop stars, Kazuo Funaki and Chiyoko Honma (Yakuza's Song, 1963). However, it is Sonny Chiba as their nice guy gymnastics teacher who ends up having one of the film's best roles. Chiba lands himself in trouble after one of his students hurts himself in his class, and the kid's father begins a smear campaign to get him fired. What results is a high school "court room" session where the double faced adults are accusing Chiba of everything they can think of while his students come to his defense. Director Ryuchi Takamori helmed numerous mediocre action films in the 1960s. This movie, his first as a director, is different. It's full of upbeat energy, good performances, and catchy songs. It an old fashioned movie in the most positive sense.

* Original title: Kimitachi ga ite, boku ga ita (君たちがいて僕がいた)
* Director: Ryuichi Takamori
* Chiba's role: Major supporting role
* Film availability: Toei DVD (Japan) (No subtitles)

Kazuo Funaki and Chiyoko Honma


Chiba as their ramen eating teacher


Honma finds Chiba has never washed his dirty socks... he has stored them all in the closet






This is hilarious and cute at the same time


Chiba and Junko Miyazono


Chiba accused of everything


Lovely Honma comes to his defense

[Takuma]

Gambler Tales of Hasshu: A Man's Pledge (Japan, 1963) [VoD] - 3/5
This is one of the many films based on the legend of Chuji Kunisada, a wandering gambler and a defender of the weak in the Edo period. In other words, he was the Japanese Robin Hood. In this film Kunisada (Chiezo Kataoka) arrives to a small town terrorized by an evil gang. He insists that he is not Kunisada, as the word is Kunisada has been executed, but of course the audience know better. Sonny Chiba plays an unusual supporting role as a helpless young man unable to defend himself from the gangsters. He does, however, get to play taiko drums and dance with Junko Fuji (who makes her film debut here). Chiba's father, an old judge who helps Kunisada, is played by Takashi Shimura (Seven Samurai). The film hardly anything exceptional, but it's a pretty decent jidai geki / yakuza drama.

* Original title: Hasshu yukyoden - otoko no sakazuki (八州遊侠伝　男の盃)
* Director: Masahiro Makino
* Chiba's role: Major supporting role
* Film availability: VoD (Japan) (No subtitles)

Kataoka as Chuji Kunisada




Chiba


Chiba and Shimura




Chiba and Junko Fuji


Chiba playing taiko drums


Kataoka vs. bad guys

[Takuma]

Gambler's Love (Japan, 1963) [VoD] - 3/5
Sonny Chiba is a young gambler on the run. He pretends to be an innocent student, and is taken in by an honorable yakuza (Hideo Murata) in Tokyo's Asakusa district. Chiba later falls in love with a beautiful musical actress who is also being looked after by the yakuza clan. This is a decent, very old fashioned period yakuza/romance/drama. Although Chiba is not really the main character - he's the second billed actor - he is very much the film's heart and has a major role. Hideo Murata (not to be confused with Hideo Murota, who also appears in the film) plays the benevolent yakuza leader. He was not only a popular actor during the early years of the yakuza film genre, but also a singer; hence we have him singing in this film as well. The film ends with a massive 3 vs. 30 fight which also contains a pretty long take sideways scrolling take - the same kind that movies like Oldboy would use decades later.

* Original title: Asakusa no kyoukaku (浅草の侠客)
* Director: Kiyoshi Saeki
* Chiba's role: Major supporting role
* Film availability: Video on Demand (Japan) (No subtitles)

Murata and Chiba






Chiba talking to a girl


The evil yakuza underlings who are after Chiba


More Chiba




Bruised Chiba stands by his love


Final fight

[Takuma]

Kaigun (Japan, 1963) [DVD] - 3.5/5
A tale of two best friends in the WWII era Japan. Takao (Sonny Chiba) is a young man enthusiastic about joining the navy to fight for his country. He convinces his best friend Shinji (Kinya Kitaoji) to join him. As it turns out, however, Takao's poor health prevents him from entering the navy while his friend is chosen instead. As time goes by, Takao becomes a painter and changes his mind about the meaningfulness of war and fighting, while his friend goes the opposite path. Meanwhile Takao's sister falls in love with Shinji. This is a well made war time drama with decent characters and good performances. It is especially enjoyable to see Chiba in a very atypical quiet drama role. This is by far one of his most restrained performances, yet his usual energy and youthful charm are constantly bubbling under. Although he is not the film's main character - that is Shinji - his role is pretty major and easily the film's best.

* Original title: 海軍
* Director: Shinji Murayama
* Chiba's role: Major supporting role
* Film availability: Toei DVD (Japan) (No subtitles)

Young men eager to fight for their country


But only Kitaoji gets chosen


Disappointed Chiba...


who later finds a few life as an artist


unfortunately we do not get see when he drew that picture...










I'm gonna be heading for Christmas holidays soon, and I'll be leaving my laptop behind, so Chiba reviews will become irregular for the next few weeks. I'll save a few in my email so if I have time, I may post a few every now and then. Expect more next year. I still have more than 3 dozen reviews left...

[Takuma]

Yakuza's Song (Japan, 1963) [VoD] - 3.5/5
This is one of Chiba's best early starring roles, an enjoyable crossover between Toei's old fashioned yakuza cinema and the kind of youthful love story set in the criminal world you'd find in Nikkatsu's films. Sonny Chiba plays a low ranking yakuza who spends more time enjoying life than doing the yakuza work. He falls in love with a pretty student girl, whose brother (Saburo Kitajima) later gets drawn into the yakuza business against his own wishes. The film is charmingly old fashioned, utilizing many studio sets and Showa era music; however, the film's real strength is the breezy romance between Chiba and lovely Chiyoko Honma. Early/mid 60s was the time when Chiba was at his best as an actor, and here he finds just the right balance between youthful energy and seriousness. It also doesn't hurt the dressing department seems determined to make Chiba look as cool as possible, and that composer Tooru Funamura provides a cool, highly spaghetti esque score. The film may not add anything new to the genre, and the storyline is strictly standard stuff, but as an enjoyable programmer picture the film delivers!

* Original title: Yakuza no uta (やくざのæŒ)
* Director: Miki Wakabayashi
* Chiba's role: Starring role
* Film availability: Video on Demand (Japan) (No subtitles)

[Takuma]

The Loyal 47 Gangsters (Japan, 1963) [VoD] - 2/5
A modern gangster film reworking of the 47 Ronin story, where an innocent lord is forced to commit harakiri, but his loyal samurai swear for revenge. In this version Ken Takakura is a young gang boss tricked by the villainous Toru Abe. His underlings, lead by Chiezo Kataoka, start planning for revenge after Takakura dies in jail. Fans of the original story may be interested in seeing how the modern aspect is executed, but otherwise this is a relatively uninspired yakuza film. It doesn't help that it's remarkably slow paced, originally intended as the first half of an epic; however, part 2 never surfaced. The biggest point of interest is probably setting some of the scenes in Paris. Sonny Chiba plays one of the gangsters, but his role is sadly very small and forgettable.

* Original title: Gang Chusingura (ギャング忠臣蔵)
* Director: Shigero Ozawa
* Chiba's role: Small supporting role
* Film availability: VoD (Japan) (No subtitles)

Takakura and Abe in Paris (see the background)


Chiezo Kataoka






Chiba


Chiba


Chiba loses his temper