Sonny Chiba: 1939-2021 | Tributes

Like Charles Bronson and Bruce Lee, Sonny Chiba was best known as an icon and not an actor. Chiba was a “cake of soap,” as Bronson once referred to his public image during a conversation with Roger Ebert. But Chiba always put his whole weight behind his performances, and never seemed to mind being overshadowed by his titanic image. 

Cult leader Tarantino would later introduce Chiba to a new generation of American fans, and several times over. First there was “True Romance” (1993), where Christian Slater’s character calls Chiba “the greatest actor working in martial movies today.” Then there was “Pulp Fiction” (1994), featuring a re-written introductory square-up spiel from “The Bodyguard” (the US release, at least), which is re-presented as a Bible quote about vengeance and the path of the righteous man. In “Pulp Fiction,” Tarantino literally replaced Sonny Chiba with God in the Book of Ezekiel. 

Sonny Chiba in “Fast & Furious: Tokyo Drift”

Later, Tarantino re-imagined Chiba as Hattori Hanzo, a master artisan. Other tributes followed, as in “The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift” (2006), where Chiba is dressed up in a white-overcoat and matching Panama hat. He seemed to enjoy his status as an action god, as when he traded compliments and shadow-kicks with “John Wick” star Keanu Reeves during a Japanese TV interview. This was in 2019; Chiba was 80 years old.

Still, Tarantino didn’t invent Chiba, and there were other, equally satisfying tributes over the years. I especially like Chiba’s cameo as a drunk in Nobuhiko Obayashi’s low-key trippy manga adaptation “The Visitor in the Eye” (1977). Chiba’s also pretty good in matinee idol mode, as Shinichi Chiba, in “Terror Beneath the Sea.” He spends most of that creature feature shielding co-lead Peggy Neal from an army of mutant squid-men. 

Chiba leads with his chin when he and Neal feel their way around a monster-filled underwater grotto. He’s also given the unenviable task of reacting to one of the aquatic creatures as it mutates in stages and at some length. One moment we’re looking at a guy whose limp forearm is covered in some kind of grey molé-like substance, then it’s Chiba’s look of surprise. Now the monster is covered in cream of mushroom—and back to Chiba’s increasingly worried face. Then it’s a stack of Pringles on the monster’s back (you don’t have to believe me; this movie exists anyway), so Chiba shifts to his back foot. Now we’re looking at a furry paw whose talon-like claws grow in one by one. Only Shinichi Chiba could keep up with all that, and while wearing a white collared smock with cream-colored khakis, too. 

Chiba was always a committed performer, no matter what kind of soap he was sold as. In “Terror Beneath the Sea,” he jumps onto and rolls over medical exam tables during a brawl with a sour-faced opponent. And in “The Street Fighter,” he wipes the blood off his hands and onto goofy sidekick Goichi Yamada’s beige pullover. This is right after Chiba pokes another man’s eyes out of his head. Yamada’s character wonders aloud what Chiba plans to do next. A little bit of everything, really.

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