There are two sorts of people in this world: Those who know Sonny Chiba as Hanzo from “Kill Bill” and those who know Sonny Chiba as Tsurugi Takuma from “Street Fighter”. Those who belong to the first group will read this review, those who belong to the other group have skipped it and are already ordered the Optimum box.

Sonny Chiba was born Maeda Sadao, January 23, 1939, in Fukuoka, Japan. And while his movements may appear strange to some, he is a very skilled martial arts expert, holding a fourth Dan in Kyokushinkai Karate, a first Dan in Judo, and being very skilled in Aikido, Ninjitsu, Kempo and Kendo. In his youth he was a master gymnast, almost making it to the Japanese Olympic team, but a back injury made him drop gymnastics and train karate under sensei Oyama Masatatsu.

In 1960 he was discovered by Toei and took the stage name Chiba Shinichi. The name Sonny came later after his appearance in a commercial for the Toyota Sunny. He was cast in action and martial arts films, and during the early seventies, Toei casted him as the Street Fighter, in order to cash in on martial arts frenzy, caused by the success of the Bruce Lee films.

In the late seventies, Chiba’s fame had reached the US and he began appearing in some abysmal US co-productions, like “Karate Kiba” (aka “Viva Chiba the Bodyguard”, 1978), which easily is one of the worst martial arts films ever made. However his legend never died and in the eighties he was casted in some decent films, and thanks to Quentin Tarantino, who considers Chiba to be the greatest actor ever to work in martial arts film, and thru films like “True Romance” and “Kill Bill”, a new craze began.

“Street Fighter” was a huge success and subsequently lead to a total of five films, only three of them true Street Fighter flicks: “Street Fighter” (1974), “The Return of Street Fighter” (1974), “Street Fighter’s Last Revenge” (1974), and the two associated flicks: “Sister Streetfighter” (1974) and “Karate Warriors” (1976).

All the films deal with the freelance fist Tsurugi Takuma and his adventures. In “Street Fighter”, Tsurugi is attempted hired by the yakuza to kidnap the heiress of a late billionaire, his demands are too high, so instead they try to kill him to conceal their scheme. Unsuccessfully. Instead Tsurugi turns towards the heiress and offers to protect her, and in turn take down the yakuza; or at least those who keeps on sending assassins after him and her.

The “Street Fighter” films are pure exploitation and Tsuragi is a definitive anti-hero, who does what he wants, to whom he wants, like attempts to rape the heiress he protects. The films have no moral, are basically non-stop action with a high body count, and are best watched in cheap theatres in double or triple bills. The fight choreography is very raw and actually leaning towards the realism of street fighting, and as such is very far away from the technical symbolic martial arts of Bruce Lee. Another element which differs is the approach to violence, here extremely gory and exploitive, even using the now legendary x-ray inserts of bones and skulls breaking.

Today the Street Fighter flicks are considered masterpieces of Japanese exploitation cinema and Sonny Chiba himself ranks as the greatest karate action hero ever.

Henrik Sylow