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Sonny Chiba Mega Review Thread

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  • #91
    Marc Walkow posted on twitter that Arrow has some Sonny Chiba on tap for 2017. Hopefully they will not have FUBAR transfers.

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    • #92
      Seriously??!! That could be awesome! Even if it's not the Street Fighter movies, this could be a significantly cool set!

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      • #93
        Karate Bullfighter (Japan, 1975) [35mm] - 4/5
        Sonny Chiba portrays his own master, kyokushin karate founder Masutatsu Oyama, is this excellent karate biopic, which obviously takes some liberties from the facts. The film is a live action adaptation of the Oyama comic books written by Ikki Kajiwara. Apparently master Oyama did not mind being portrayed as a brute and an "accidental" rapist - all of which worked to the film's benefit.

        Chiba is at the top of his game here. He portrays Oyama as a man who attends a karate tournament, beats all opponents, and then throws away the trophy because he thinks sportsman karate is for pussies! The fights are generally excellent and very physical, although they do suffer from some needlessly shaky camerawork (probably influenced by the documentary style yakuza films of the era). Chiba also fights a real bull - something Oyama also did.

        Director Kazuhiko Yamaguchi was never much of a storyteller, and that's the film's biggest flaw. It feels very episodic, making the film sometimes feel longer than it is. There's a bit of love story, a bit of rivalry with nemesis Masashi Ishibashi, a bit of melodrama as Oyama kills a drunken man and then tried to make it up by taking care of his wife and child, and so on. One can sense the film tried to combine the juiciest parts of its source material without emphasizing coherence too much.

        Chiba's brother Jiro Chiba (who later starred in the excellent The Defensive Power of Aikido, 1975) plays a major supporting role as Oyama's apprentice. Chiba returned later the same year for an even better sequel Karate Bearfighter.

        * Original Title: Kenka karate kyokushin ken (けんか空手 極真拳)
        * Director: Kazuhiko Yamaguchi
        * Chiba's role: Starring role
        * Film availability: Adness DVD (USA), Toei DVD (JP) (no subs)

        I don't have many screencaps for this, so please forgive me for not doing the film justice

        Chiba


        Chiba vs. Masashi Ishibashi


        Jiro Chiba


        Bull vs Chiba


        Yumi Takigawa (School of the Holy Beast)


        Ishibashi again


        Original US poster


        Japanese VHS

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        • #94
          The first part of this post has nothing to do with Chiba, buy anyway...

          What a glorious screw up! I bid on a Which is Stronger: Karate or the Tiger (1976) poster. I thought it was a standard thin poster, but it turned out to be 4 times bigger than I expected! And it is bloody gorgeous!



          I bought a couple of Sonny Chiba posters: Game of Chance 2 (1967) and Yakuza Deka 3: Poison Gas Affair (1971).



          These are the small size posters I was talking about. Same height as standard Japanese movie posters but half the width.

          I went all MacGyver to get them on my wall without causing any damage to the posters (remember, they are 40-50 years old). I made a hooking system using a girls' accessory pack I found from a 100 yen store and put small pieces of white paper between paper clips and posters. I even used an iron hair pin that my girlfriend forgot here on top of the poster with a small magnet behind the poster to pull the top and bottom half of the Tiger poster (it comes in two halves) together.
          Takuma
          Senior Member
          Last edited by Takuma; 08-28-2016, 10:32 AM.

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          • #95
            Damnnnnn those are amazing

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            • #96
              I went through a Chiba poster collecting phase, then I realized I'll never have all the wall space I need to display them, so I reeled it back a bit.















              Rock! Shock! Pop!

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              • #97
                Takuma, those are nice! :up: Are you eventually going to get those professionally mounted to prevent further damage from UV and humidity?

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                • #98
                  Originally posted by Ian Jane View Post
                  I went through a Chiba poster collecting phase, then I realized I'll never have all the wall space I need to display them, so I reeled it back a bit.
                  Those are all beautiful, but the Dragon Princess poster is totally awesome.

                  Originally posted by 47lab View Post
                  Takuma, those are nice! :up: Are you eventually going to get those professionally mounted to prevent further damage from UV and humidity?
                  Let's see. Maybe in the future.

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                  • #99
                    Originally posted by Takuma View Post
                    Those are all beautiful, but the Dragon Princess poster is totally awesome.
                    I like the fact that it looks like they're fighting in outer space!

                    I have a few others too, will try and post pictures sooner rather than later.
                    Rock! Shock! Pop!

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                    • Originally posted by Ian Jane View Post
                      I like the fact that it looks like they're fighting in outer space!
                      Hah, I actually started typing "the poster somehow reminds me of Star Wars" but deleted that part from my previous post

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                      • I mentioned this in another thread, Marc Walkow is in Japan "...to interview six people about 11 Japanese films, dating from 1964-1978, all for Blu-ray release in 2017. Maybe more."
                        and he just tweeted
                        Viva Chiba

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                        • Awesome!

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                          • Marc Walkow is interviewing Kazuhiko Yamaguchi and mentioned it was about a "film series", so I figure Arrow is going to release a set of either Karate Bullfighter, Karate Bearfighter, and Karate for Life (most likely) or the Sister Street Fighter movies (least likely)

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                            • I wouldn't mind a Mas Oyama trilogy on blu ray but if I had my druthers, I'd pick the Sister Street Fighter movies. The BCI blu ray was a mess...both movies crammed onto a single layer 25gb disc with all kinds of compression artifacts and I won't even go into the audio. No extras to speak of either. :down: Sister Street Fighter is kind of hokey but it's just so OTT and Shiomi kicks so much ass, that it just screams for a better blu ray release.

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                              • I'll be happy with whatever they release, but what they really need to put out is Wolfguy! And A Narcotic's Agent's Ballad. I'd love Army Intelligence 33, too. And Yakuza Wolf wouldn't hurt either.

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