Sonny Chiba Mega Review Thread

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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.

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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

[Ian Jane Administrator Find all posts View Profile Close Ian Jane]

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

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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

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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

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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

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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.

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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)

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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!

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Here's a pretty cool poster for Golden Bat

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Abashiri Prison 6: Duel in the South (Japan, 1966) [DVD] - 2/5
Sonny Chiba's second appearance in the series comes in one of the weakest Abashiri Prison films. This instalment takes place as far away from Abashiri as possible in Okinawa. The actual Abashiri prison is only featured in stock footage. The storyline mostly focuses on Ken Takakura and goofy pal Kunie Tanaka coming across a pick pocketing kid (whose hooker mom is played by Ishii regular, pinky violence supporting star Yoko Mihara). Veteran star Kanjuro Arashi is the best thing about the film. Chiba has a slightly bigger role than in the 4th Abashiri film, but he doesn't have much to do. He plays a distinctly different character than last time, unlike some other actors. One characteristic of the series was actually that the same actors would return in sequels, playing essentially the same roles even if their characters had been killed before, which could be a bit confusing at times.

* Original title: Abashiri bangaichi: Nangoku no taiketsu (網走番外地　南国の対決)
* Director: Teruo Ishii
* Chiba's role: Small supporting role
* Film availability: Toei DVD (Japan) (No subtitles), Toei Blu-Ray (Japan) (No subtitles)

Takakura and Tanaka


Mihara and the kid


Chiba and Toru Yuri




Chiba and Takakura


Chiba


It's an Abashiri Prison film, so you know Kanjuro Arashi is going to show up and kick everyone's ass sooner or later






The original trailer is cooler than the film itself

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The Terror Beneath the Sea (Japan/USA, 1966) [DVD] - 3/5
The young & handsome Sonny Chiba stars as the lone Japanese lead in this Japan-US co-produced sci-fi cheese-fest. Chiba and his attractive blonde companion encounter mad scientists and horrifying underwater men who usually jump (yes, jump) from behind the corner with their hands in a “boo” pose. Hardly great filmmaking, but it comes with plenty of amusing SFX work and unintentional laughs. Chiba is the only cast member who evidences any kind of acting talent. It's solid campy fun, and a more enjoyable movie than Golden Bat, which was also directed by Hajime Sato and released the same year. This was probably the first time for many foreign audiences to see Chiba, as it was released in a number of countries, such as Germany, Austria, Italy, and USA (as a TV film).

* Original title: Kaitei daisenso (海底大戦争)
* Director: Hajime Sato
* Chiba's role: Starring role
* Film availability: Toei DVD (Japan) (No subtitles, all dialogue in Japanese), Dark Sky Films DVD (USA) (English dub)

I seem not to have taken screencaptures for this, so I here are the original Japanese, Italian and German posters instead.

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Kamikaze Man: Duel at Noon (Japan/Taiwan, 1966) [35mm] - 3/5

Sonny Chiba and Kinji Fukasaku head to Taiwan in this international action thriller influenced by spy films and Hitchcock movies. Chiba is a playboy pilot who is mistaken for someone who he isn't after witnessing a murder in ski centre. The other witness is a Taiwanese lady who is vacationing in Japan. Chiba agrees to fly her back home, but as soon as they land they run into gangsters who are searching for a lost WWII treasure and believe Chiba is the key to finding it.

Kamikaze Man is, first and foremost, an action showcase for Chiba, who designed all the action sequences which contain car chases, boat chases, fist fights, gunplay, and hanging on to a plane that is about to take off. One of the stunts - Chiba trying to hold on to a speeding car - sent him flying through the air and landed him in a Taiwanese hospital. There's a lot of fun to be had, although some of the chases suffer from minor under-cranking. In many ways, Kamikaze Man was a predecessor to Chiba's action work in the television series Key Hunter (1967-1972), which finally made him an Asian action super star and earned him fans like Bruce Lee and Jackie Chan.

The action scenes and foreign locations do pretty good job covering up for the screenplay, which is frankly a bit of a mess. For a film that intentionally plays with its audience, the final revelations are disappointingly simple. A clever storyline is not a necessity for a good action film, but it would be advisable to keep it simple from the beginning to avoid disappointment when there is no reward waiting at the end. It's also obvious this was a "fun project" for Fukasaku, who helms solid action fun doesn't invest too much care or ambition into the film, especially when compared to some of his later work.

As an interesting note, Kamikaze Man was the first time three major Toei stars (Fukasaku, Chiba, and guest star Ken Takakura) worked outside their own studio. Most Japanese filmmakers at the time were studio employees, who would work on any films their studio assigned them to. There was an unwritten rule among the major studios, that they would not try to steal each other's stars, except maybe for a guest appearance. Although (technically speaking) this system came to an end in the early 70s, much of the industry, especially Toei, kept operating much in the same way until around 1977.

Kamikaze Man packed Toei's top talent, but wasn't produced by Toei. It was mainly financed by Ninjin Club, a small independent studio founded by three women in the 1950s to provide actors and filmmakers possibilities to do original films outside of their normal employers. Ninjin Club was able to exist because big studios wouldn't really take notice of such a small independent studio, and the finished products would still be sold to (the filmmakers' native) studios for distribution . The rest of the money came from Taiwan, where most of the filming took place. The majority of the supporting cast were Taiwanese actors, including the female lead. Toei would only distribute after acquiring the completed movie.

Though hardly a great movie, Kamikaze Man is a fun film that travelled quite a bit after its release. Japan and Taiwan aside, it also appears to have been released at least in Germany, Spain and Mexico - sometimes with highly misleading advertising campaigns (in the Spanish language poster Chiba has become a white man... and has a machine gun!). The filmmakers also all headed to international arenas: Fukasaku was involved in Japanese-American co-productions such as The Green Slime (1968) and Tora Tora Tora (1970), Takakura starred in Sidney Pollack's The Yakuza (1974), and Chiba, who had already appeared in an international co-production before (Terror Beneath the Sea, 1966), would soon hook up with Bruce Lee girl Nora Miao in Tokyo-Seoul-Bangkok Drug Triangle (1973).

* Original title: Kamikaze yaro: Mahiru no ketto (カミカゼ野郎　真昼の決斗)
* Director: Kinji Fukasaku
* Chiba's role: Starring role
* Film availability: Toei DVD (Japan) (No subtitles), VoD (Japan) (No subtitles)

Chiba




And the girl




Welcome to Taiwan, Mr. Toilet




Takakura


Chiba just before earning himself a hospital vacation




Yep, he's gonna grab to that plane


DVD NOTE
Toei's DVD release is seriously flawed, I'm afraid. The image keeps turning green throughout the film. Basically, from every three seconds the first two look fine, and for the last one the image is green. It gets a bit less serious towards the end, but remains very distracting. The 35mm print screened at the Chiba festival had no such problem, nor does the old, VHS quality VoD version. When I re-watched the movie at home, I actually turned the DVD off after 10 minutes, and watched the VoD version instead.

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Here's some artwork for Kamikaze Man from around the world







And the original Japanese trailer:

I forgot to mention in my review: Chiba sings the theme song.

Also forgot the mention Chiba's nickname in the movie is "Mr. Toilet".

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Game of Chance (aka Samurai's Lullaby) (Japan, 1966) [35mm] - 3.5/5

Ninkyo yakuza films were probably Toei's most important genre in the mid / late 60s. The chivalrous yakuza films pitched honourable outlaws who followed the codes of honour against corrupt gangs who exploited the innocent. The hugely popular genre made actors like Ken Takakura, Koji Tsuruta and Junko Fuji some of the biggest stars of their time. It was therefore no wonder that Toei also tested Sonny Chiba as a ninkyo hero. His run in the genre was brief but produced some interesting results.

Chiba as a single father and swindler who has to escape with his 6 year son (Hiroyuki Sanada in his first role) after being caught cheating in the gambling table. The father and son travel to Tokyo, where Chiba is hoping to leave the kid to his mother's care, but things don't go as planned and he ends up joining bad guy Bin Amatsu's gang.

Game of Chance is quite an unusual film for it is clearly built on ninkyo film pillars, yet Chiba commits some dishonourable acts that a typical ninkyo hero would never do. However, many of the best ninkyo films contained a major supporting character who was an honourable man but would be working for the enemy because of a blood relation or some obligation. Chiba's character in Game of Chance is, in fact, much like a typical ninkyo supporting character who has been made the main character.

The unusual approach makes Game of Chance an odd bird, and we could argue it's not a pure ninkyo film to begin with, but it also adds to its interest. The things Chiba does in Game of Chance may be dishonourable, but they can also be defended to some extent, adding more shades of grey to the ninkyo formula.

Game of Chance also stands out for its heavy focus on feminine drama, which was unusual in the masculine genre. As the film proceeds, Chiba occasionally takes the back seat and makes way for Sanada and his mother candidates, including his biological mother and and a lovely young lady (Reiko Ohara) who becomes his foster mother. It all works surprisingly well, with good performances from everyone involved. It's especially entertaining to see Chiba in a role that finds balance between his usual enthusiastic energy and quiet moments. The film doesn't get back to violent action until the last 10 minutes.

Director Ryuichi Takamori does decent job helming the film, though he never approaches the greatness of true ninkyo classics (e.g. the Red Peony Gambler series, the Brutal Tales of Chivalry series). He was a mediocre director who rarely improved movies with his involvement, but a couple of times on his career he did decent job, and this was one of them.

The 5 year old Hiroyuki Sanada performs here under his real name, Hiroyuki Shimosawa. He appeared in a number of other yakuza films in the following years, such as New Abashiri Prison: Vagrant Comes to a Port Town (1969) and Brutal Tales of Chivalry: I Sincerely Want to Kill You (1970), before joining Chiba's acting school Japan Action Club in 1973. In the late 70s and early 80s Chiba and Sanada would often play supporting roles in each others' films, until in Adventurer Kamikaze (1982) the two finally starred in equal leading roles.

Game of Chance was followed by two sequels, both starring Chiba, and both shot in colour. These films remain the only time Chiba has played starring role in a ninkyo film, although he had appeared in supporting roles a few times earlier on his career (e.g. Gambler`s Love, 1964).

Taro Hitofushi performs the theme song, which served as inspiration for the film's story.

* Original title: Rokyoku komori-uta (浪曲åå®ˆæŒ)
* Director: Ryuichi Takamori
* Chiba's role: Starring role
* Film availability: None! (review format: 35mm; screencaps from a TV print)

Chiba and Sanada






Taro Hitofushi singing in the background


Ohara




Sanada


Sanada


Chiba's had it