Sonny Chiba

Born Sadaho Maeda (前田 禎穂, Maeda Sadaho) in Fukuoka, Japan, he was the third of five children in the family of a military test pilot.[4] When he was four years old, his father was transferred to Kisarazu, Chiba, and the family moved to Kimitsu, Chiba.[5]

After Chiba went to junior high school in Kimitsu, the physical education teacher advised him to do artistic gymnastics.[6] He also was passionate about track and field sports, baseball and volleyball.[6] He participated in those four sports championships of Chiba Prefecture.[6] In high school, Chiba dedicated himself to artistic gymnastics and won the National Sports Festival of Japan while in his third year.[2][7] He enjoyed watching movies, including Western movies such as Shane and High Noon.[7]

Chiba went to the Nippon Sport Science University in 1957.[2][8] He was a serious candidate for a place in the Japanese Olympic team in his late teens until he was sidelined by a back injury.[2][8] While he was a university student, he began studying martial arts with the renowned Kyokushin Karate master Masutatsu "Mas" Oyama (whom he later portrayed in a trilogy of films), which led to a first-degree black belt on October 15, 1965, later receiving a fourth-degree on January 20, 1984.[9]

Chiba in Invasion of the Neptune Men, 1961

Chiba in Wandering Detective: Tragedy in Red Valley, 1961

Sometime around 1960,[10] he was discovered in a talent search (called "New Face") by the Toei film studio, and he began his screen career soon after. The CEO of Toei at the time bestowed him with the stage name "Shinichi Chiba."

His acting career began on television, starring in two tokusatsu superhero shows, first replacing Susumu Wajima as the main character Kōtarō Ran/ Seven Color Mask in Seven Color Mask (Nana-iro kamen) in the second half of the series, then starred as Gorō Narumi/Messenger of Allah in Messenger of Allah (Allah no Shisha). His movie debut and first starring movie role was the 1961 science fiction movie Invasion of the Neptune Men. Later that year, Chiba appeared in the first Kinji Fukasaku film, Wandering Detective: Tragedy in Red Valley, which marked the beginning of a long series of collaborations for the two. Over the next decade, he was cast primarily in crime thrillers. By 1970, Chiba had started his own training school for aspiring martial arts film actors and stunt performers known as J.A.C (Japan Action Club). He starred in the Karate Kiba (Bodyguard Kiba), after appearing on the Battles Without Honor and Humanity: Deadly Fight in Hiroshima in 1973. Karate Kiba was the first movie for him about martial arts. Chiba's breakthrough international hit was The Street Fighter (1974) which was brought to Western audiences (dubbed in English) by New Line Cinema. The film and its sequels established him as the reigning Japanese martial arts actor in international cinema for the next two decades.[2][3] It was New Line Cinema founder Robert Shaye who gave Chiba the English name "Sonny",[11] which Chiba would adopt as his own (mostly for non-Japanese projects) from that point on.

His subsequent projects included such pictures as The Bullet Train (1975), Karate Warriors (1976), Doberman Cop (1977), Golgo 13: Assignment Kowloon (1977) and The Assassin (1977). He also occasionally returned to the science fiction genre, in movies such as Message from Space (1978). He began to star also on some jidaigeki such as Shogun's Samurai (1978), The Fall of Ako Castle (1978), G.I. Samurai (1979), Shadow Warriors (1980), Samurai Reincarnation (1981). He was not only actor but also stunt coordinator at G.I. Samurai, Burning Brave (1981), Shogun's Shadow (1989) and executive producer, film director at Yellow Fangs (1990). Chiba portrayed Yagyū Jyubei multiple times, first in the 1978 film Shogun's Samurai. His next appearance as Jyubei was in a TV production titled The Yagyu Conspiracy that aired aired from 1978 to 1979. His third appearance was Yagyū Abaretabi aired in 1980 and 1982. His final appearance as Jyubei was Iemitsu to Hikoza to Ishintasuke TV movies that aired in 1989.[12][13] Another his notable japanese television role is Hattori Hanzō in Shadow Warriors.

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 popular Hong Kong comic-based movie: The Storm Riders (1998), starring alongside Ekin Cheng and Aaron Kwok. His fame in Japan remained unabated into the 1990s.

In his fifties, the actor resumed working 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 his work with directors Kenta and Kinji Fukasaku in Battle Royale II effectively bridged the gap between modern day and yesteryear cinematic cult legends. Chiba's enduring onscreen career received a tribute when he appeared in a key role as Hattori Hanzo, the owner of a sushi restaurant and retired samurai sword craftsman, in director Quentin Tarantino's bloody revenge epic Kill Bill in 2003.

Chiba has starred in more than 125 films for Toei Studios and has won numerous awards in Japan for his acting.[14] After appearing in the taiga drama Fūrin Kazan[15][16] in november 2007, he announced the retirement of the stage name Shinichi Chiba and will now be known (in Japan) as J.J. Sonny Chiba (ＪＪサニー千葉, Justice Japan Sonny Chiba) as an actor and Rindō Wachinaga (和千永 倫道, Wachinaga Rindō) as a film director.[17]

Chiba established the Japan Action Club, now Japan Action Enterprise (JAE) to develop and raise the level of martial arts techniques and sequences used in Japanese film and television.

Chiba divorced his first wife, actress Yōko Nogiwa, with whom he has a daughter, Juri Manase, who is also an actress.[18] He has two sons from his second marriage to Tamami Chiba. Their children Mackenyu Arata (新田真剣佑, Arata Makken'yū) and Gordon (郷敦) are actors.[19]

His younger brother, Jirō Yabuki (also known as Jiro Chiba), was also an actor.[20]

• Christian Slater's character Clarence Worley in True Romance is a fan of Chiba. In a pivotal early scene he watches a Sonny Chiba triple feature. The writer of True Romance, Quentin Tarantino, worked with Chiba ten years later in Kill Bill.[21]

• A modified version of the opening scroll to the English-language version of 1973 movie Karate Kiba (English title: The Bodyguard) was used in the script of Quentin Tarantino's 1994 movie Pulp Fiction.[21] Tarantino’s script changed the Ezekiel 25:17 speech, swapping out “I am Chiba the Bodyguard” for “my name is the Lord.”[22]
• The character Takayuki Chiba from the shōnen manga series Kengan Ashura is based upon Chiba and Hiroyuki Sanada.[23]
• A Japanese restaurant named after Sonny Chiba exists in Armadale in Melbourne Australia.[24]

Chiba holds black belts in the following martial arts:

• Kyokushin Karate: 4th Dan[9]
• Ninjutsu: 4th Dan
• Goju-ryu karate: 2nd Dan
• Shorinji Kempo: 2nd Dan
• Judo: 2nd Dan
• Kendo: 1st Dan

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Sonny Chiba.

• Sonny chiba Official Website
• Sonny chiba Official Blog
• Sonny Chiba at IMDb
• Henshin Online: Sonny Chiba
• Sonny Chiba on 10kbullets.com
• Sonny Chiba on GooHead
• Five Things You Didn't Know About Sonny Chiba