Roddy piper sonny chiba biography

We pay tribute to the legendary action star with truly global appeal…

At the age of 14, I purchased True Romance on VHS. At that point I was Hong Kong kung fu movie daft, and had no knowledge of other Asian nations actors or action cinema. The opening scenes unfolded, Christian Slater said ‘Who’s Sonny Chiba? He’s bar none the finest actor working in martial arts movies today.’ The pure 70’s images of the end fight of The Street Fighter flickered on the big screen. I knew this guy was special, from those brief shots, and Tarantino’s script. It took me many years to finally see The Street Fighter. When I was 20, to be exact. The entire trilogy was released on DVD in the UK, and from the first frame I was hooked. The classic 70s feel, the fantastic gritty guitar soundtrack, the extreme violence, the craziness. But most of all I was hooked on Chiba. His charisma and screen presence was palpable. And as I gorged myself on his filmography, I had to agree with Tarantino’s statement.

Today the loss of a legend of action cinema hit me like a freight train. I’m devastated. No other star did as much for Japanese action cinema as Sonny Chiba. No other Japanese action actor is as iconic.

Knowing that he died from contracting pneumonia brought on by covid is especially devastating. This is the one death, so far, that has hit me most personally through this awful virus. One older man I had met once passed at the start, and some friends got it but quite mildly. Chiba was 82. It hits home that we’re not out of this yet, and the fact it’s claimed so many lives, now a man I had the utmost admiration and love for.

Shin’ichi Chiba was born in Fukuoka in 1939, and from a young age was a natural athlete. He was a candidate for the Japanese Olympic gymnastics team, but an injury meant he couldn’t compete. Shortly after that he met Mas Oyama, the legendary Karate master, and studied Kyokushin Karate under him. In 1960 he

By: John M Jerva

The action community is suffering another loss today as it’s been reported the iconic martial arts star Shin’ichi “Sonny” Chiba , best known for the 70’s Street Fighter films, has passed away due to complications from Covid-19.

Chiba was a legend in the genre having starred in such blood soaked classics as Shogun’s Ninja, The Ninja Wars and would later appear in Kill Bill Volume 1 and The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift. My personal favorite was Immortal Combat which also starred the late, great Rowdy Roddy Piper. The two stars had such easy chemistry with each other and Chiba looked fantastic in his older years.

Chiba was the real deal onscreen and was most noteworthy with a sword as he executed flawless moves with the legendary weapon countless times in movies and if you know action than you knew Sonny and the impression that he has left on the action community. This is definitely sad news to start the day.

Chiba is survived by his three childrenJuri Manase, Gordon Maeda and Mackenyu Arata who are also prominent in the Japanese film industry. Our thoughts and prayers go out to all of his family and friends. RIP Warrior…

Check out the late, great Sonny Chiba doing what he does best in the definite lesser known gem Immortal Combat courtesy of Yuki on YouTube

American film

Immortal Combat, also known as Resort to Kill, is a 1994 action film directed by Dan Neira. The plot involves an East-meets-West buddy scenario, starring martial artist Sonny Chiba, wrestler Roddy Piper, Meg Foster and Tiny Lister.

Plot

An L.A. police officer (Roddy Piper) and an exchange officer from Asia (Sonny Chiba) became good friends. They are also reincarnatedMayan warriors. When their undercover drug operation at a high-end hotel fails, they are targeted by the products of an evil corporation, HybriCo run by Quinn (Meg Foster). Foster is known for producing invincible, ninja warriors for international distribution. An unstoppable monster named Lister causes mayhem for the heroes. Deron McBee, fresh off his stint as Malibu on American Gladiators plays the final heavy "Signature Killer." It served an excellent audition for a later role in Mortal Kombat. And it turns out, if you behead them or burn them with fire, they are not so immortal.

Cast

Response

IGN Movies rated the movie a solid two out of five.

References

External links

GOODBYE SONNY CHIBA

Shinichi Chiba, a.k.a. JJ Sonny Chiba, a.k.a. director Rindō Wachinaga, has died of Covid-19.

A couple of years ago, I contacted a martial arts film website hoping to get on as a staff writer. By way of tryout, they asked me to write up a bio of Japanese superstar Shinichi/Sonny Chiba, which I was only to happy to do. Turns out, there isn’t a lot of English language information about the former Olympic hopeful. Dozens of websites have literally plagiarized the Wikipedia entry verbatim in their write-ups. Unless that’s changed in the last couple of years, one of the most prolific and charismatic stars of the action genre is essentially unheralded here in the West.

That’s not unusual of course. Action films tend to have much larger and more passionate fanbases overseas than here in the US. But the fact that Quentin Tarantino was such a fan that he often referenced Chiba and even cast him as master swordmaker Hanzo Hattori in his Kill Bill duology makes it perplexing that the martial arts master (six black belts) never quite broke through the Hollywood glass ceiling, though he did land a few big roles in small films, such as Immortal Combat alongside wrestling legend Roddy Piper, and small roles in big films, like Fast and Furious: Tokyo Drift. 

Chiba set the stage for hand-to-hand martial arts flicks in Japan. Before Chiba, Japanese action films were mostly period samurai movies. Chiba, like his contemporary Bruce Lee, brought martial arts into the modern age, with Karate and Judo in place of kenjutsu (sword-fighting.) That said, Chiba was an expert swordsman himself and a frequent principal in so-called chanbarra (samurai films) as well as a smattering of sci-fi and straight-forward dramas.

Comparisions with Bruce Lee are inevitable. Legend has it that Lee sought to work with the karate master, likely hoping to cast him in Game of Death. Chiba arrived in Hong Kong for the meeting only to learn that L