Sonny Chiba

By 1969, he had started his own training school for actors aspiring to work in martial arts films, and in 1973, in the wake of the international craze for such films started by Bruce Lee, he returned to the screen himself as an actor. Chiba's breakthrough international hit was The Street Fighter (1974), which established him as the reigning Japanese martial arts actor in international cinema for the next two decades. His subsequent hits included such pictures as Bullet Train (1975), Karate Warriors (1976), Doberman Cop (1977), and The Assassin (1977). He also occasionally returned to the science fiction genre, in movies such as Message From Space (1978). Chiba was even busier in the 1980s, doing dozens of movies as well as making forays into television, and with roles in such high profile adventures as The Storm Riders (1998) his fame in Japan remained unabated into the 1990s. In his fifties, the actor resumed working under the name Shinichi Chiba when he served as a choreographer of martial arts sequences. At the dawn of the 21st century, Chiba was as busy as ever in feature films and also starring in his own series in Japan. Roles in Takashi Miike's Deadly Outlaw: Rekka and directors Kenta and Kenji Fukusaku's Battle Royale II effectively bridged the gap between modern day and yesteryear cinematic cult legend, Chiba's enduring onscreen career recieved a fitting tribute when the ageing but still formidable talent appeared in a key role in director Quentin Tarantino's bloody revenge epic Kill Bill in 2003.

~ Bruce Eder, All Movie Guide