Where's the next Sonny Chiba?

[ShaOW!linDude]

While lamenting certain aspects of the quality of MA we're getting these days to forum member "blue_skies", one question I posed was: Where is this generation's Sonny Chiba?"

Look, I think it's great that Japanese studios are putting out cool action flicks with female leads who are cute and can relatively sell a fight on film and as long as they're good I'll watch 'em all day. But where are the men (besides being relegated to villainous roles)? Where's the Alpha MA male action star of the 21st Century?

What's up with that?

[One Armed Boxer]

Skills?....Action choreography?....Looks?....Killer attitude? - All can be found with one guy - Tak Sakaguchi.

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He'll even beat up your hammer wielding Grandma.

Seriously though, this guy almost stands alone in representing the tough guy character that was such a staple of 70's and 80's Japanese action cinema. Since then the culture has changed, the only people that go to the cinema now are mostly girls, while the guys stay at home and talk with their virtual girlfriend who lives in a computer game. Sad but true.

[ShaOW!linDude]

Um.........wow. Okay, that was trippy.

I've heard of Tak. I think I've even seen a couple of movies he's been in. I'll look up his filmography. Don't know that that clip really sell me on his MA talents but we'll see.

[One Armed Boxer]

I've heard of Tak. I think I've even seen a couple of movies he's been in. I'll look up his filmography. Don't know that that clip really sell me on his MA talents but we'll see.

Ha ha....trust me that clip was definitely not supposed to convince you of his MA skills! He is skilled in Shaolin Kempo, boxing (he also has a professional boxing license!), kick boxing, and a bunch of other martial arts though...as well as performing all of his own stunts & creating his own stunt team, Team Zero`s.

He`s as much of the real deal as it comes, even the story of how he got discovered is cool. A fighter in Japan`s underground street fighting tournaments, director Ryuhei Kitamura saw him fighting and cast him as the lead in his first (& only decent) movie, `Versus`.

Tatsuya Naka (star of `Black Belt` & `High Kick Girl`) is also a force to be reckoned with, however he`s already 47 years old and always tends to play the same role - the strong but silent karate master. In terms of comparing to Chiba, Sakaguchi has the same bad ass attitude and the confident swagger which always make him a joy to watch in my opinion.

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[ShaOW!linDude]

OKAY, THAT'S WHAT I'M TALKING ABOUT!!!!!!!!!!!!!

That clip from Death Trance is pretty boss! I'm gonna have to find that if the action is on par with that throughout.

I ditched my copy of Versus because the dvd had a really bad glitch in the middle of the movie and I've never bothered to replace it. I need to do that 'cause I like that film. Been so long since I've seen it I didn't remember Tak being in that.

I'm pretty impressed with Tatsuya Naka. He's 47? Hmm. I'd still like to see him do some more stuff.

Isn't Chiba's son, Seiji, a martial artist? Hasn't he done some film fights?

[One Armed Boxer]

That clip from Death Trance is pretty boss! I'm gonna have to find that if the action is on par with that throughout.

Yeah it definitely is...I was actually trying to find a clip of a forest battle where Takaguchi fights a bunch of vampire like characters, which I think is even better than the clip in the tavern....but couldn't find one, at least not without some terrible song playing over it which ruins the feel.

But trust me....'Death Trance' is good stuff, throw in Steven Seagal's son, a motorbike, and a rocket launcher....and you've got a fun way to pass a couple of hours.

I'd recommend the deluxe version if you decide to go for it - http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B001F0TT3I/ref=s9_simh_gw_p74_d0_g74_i1?pf_rd_m=ATVPDKIKX0DER&pf_rd_s=center-2&pf_rd_r=16ZA5RAFGQ3DMVWZQP47&pf_rd_t=101&pf_rd_p=470938631&pf_rd_i=507846

I ditched my copy of Versus because the dvd had a really bad glitch in the middle of the movie and I've never bothered to replace it. I need to do that 'cause I like that film. Been so long since I've seen it I didn't remember Tak being in that.

Ha ha....he's only the main character and has his image on every single DVD cover and promotional piece of artwork for the movie!

I'm pretty impressed with Tatsuya Naka. He's 47? Hmm. I'd still like to see him do some more stuff.

Agreed, but I think he's pretty much type cast now as playing the same type of character in every movie he'll be in. Here's a good compliation clip of him from his karate tournament days -

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Isn't Chiba's son, Seiji, a martial artist? Hasn't he done some film fights?

As far as I'm aware, Chiba only has 2 sons , both from his second marriage and born in the 90's.

Seiji Chiba is the director of the likes of 'Alien Vs. Ninja' (which I've never seen) & the atrocious 'Kunoichi', but he's not a fight choreographer by any means. Ironically enough, he did co-write 'Death Trance' though!

[ShaOW!linDude]

Cool clip. There's some nice highlights in there. I'll say one thing......Naka is fast!

So then, Seiji is not Sonny Chiba's son. A misunderstanding on my part.

Any other talent out there? I just can't believe that Japan isn't promoting more male MA newcomers in film especially with the talent that's risen out of Thailand, Vietnam, and Indonesia the last few years.

[One Armed Boxer]

So then, Seiji is not Sonny Chiba's son. A misunderstanding on my part.

Right, but easy mistake to make. Much like Korea, Japan has a limited roster of family names, & Chiba is a fairly common one....off the top of my head I can think of 3 friends which have the family name Chiba, none of whom are related to each other, let alone Sonny!

Any other talent out there? I just can't believe that Japan isn't promoting more male MA newcomers in film especially with the talent that's risen out of Thailand, Vietnam, and Indonesia the last few years.

Hmmm - Sakaguchi, Naka....no, I'm afraid I'm out of ideas, and the lack of any other replies to this thread suggests everyone else on here is at a loss as well. Kane Kosugi could have been great, although in Japan he's considered a foreigner due to being born in America, but apart from starring in 'Muscle Heat', which is now almost 10 years old, he's done nothing of note of Japanese shores.

The thing is even when there was the karate movie boom in the 70's, it was still considered as exploitation cinema and nothing more, and with the dawn of VHS these kind of movies slowly became a thing of the past. I guess you could say they where replaced with the kind of direct-to-video movies that Miike Takashi used to churn out, the exploitation feel was still there, but the martial arts disappeared.

The difference with the likes of Thailand, Vietnam, Indonesia, and even to an extent Hong Kong is still hanging in there, is that there is still an audience for the kung-fu movie, and there are still performers and directors who want to put it out there.

In Japan there is really no audience for it, and the knock on effect is nobody has any interest in making that type of movie anymore. Hence why movies such as 'Karate Girl' get a release in just 2 cinemas, located just an hour away from each other, throughout the whole country! (& that's only because in the movie Rina Takeda works as a cashier in one of them!)

[daisho2004]

DragonSword: That is the Best Answer! And I cannot agree with you more!

[ShaOW!linDude]

@ DragonSword and daisho2004:

I understand and completely agree with your sentiment. I'm not talking about "replacements". I'm talking about the next person in line for recognition as the top MA film star out of Japan for the generations of the first couple decades of the 21st century.

I would think that Japanese film studios would recognize the mass cult following of Chiba's filmography and seek to find a new male equivalent for today's audience, especially with the film talent coming out of other countries for this type genre.

Japanese studios should be using Chiba's films such as: The Streetfighter series, Killing Machine, Soul of Chiba, and such as templates for more modern day MA/action fare. Audiences for such films are no longer restricted for great periods of time to the countries that produce them. They could be raking in some serious bucks.

[DarthKato]

I just had an idea. To find the next great martial artist from Japan, they should hold a martial arts

tournament there and invite all the great fighters from all over Japan. Then, who ever won,

would get a movie contract. Not only would they get the next great action star, but it would get people over there interested in martial art films agian.

What does everyone think? It would be like American Idol with fist.

[ShaOW!linDude]

It would be like American Idol with fist.

Love it!!!!!!!

[Takuma]

American Idol with fist.

They did that already. Mika Hijii won

http://www.dmm.com/mono/dvd/-/detail/=/cid=n_605gnbw7118/

[DarthKato]

Love it!!!!!!!

Thanks!

They did that already. Mika Hijii won

http://www.dmm.com/mono/dvd/-/detail/=/cid=n_605gnbw7118/

Is the DVD available in the U.S.?

[ShaOW!linDude]

But that looks to be chicks. Where's the dudes?

You know, I think they did a similar contest in the US once for the "Next Action Star". The winner and 1st runner up were supposed to get a 1 picture movie deal. Never heard anything of it afterwards.

Here's a link to a site which has a show by that name. It may be it; it may not. (Didn't bother watching it myself as I didn't want to take the survey in order to do so.)

http://tv-boo.com/148371/list/n-list.php

[Takuma]

Is the DVD available in the U.S.?

No.

But that looks to be chicks. Where's the dudes?

lol, that sounded very, uhm...

The problem, like stated here before, is that Japan doesn't really have a genre film audience. Hopefully this will chance - Yoshinori Chiba (the head of Sushi Typhoon) and pals are working on it - but at the moment Japanese genre cinema is basically export business. Even the older classics have been largely forgotten... for example, almost no one in Japan knows who Shinya Tsukamoto is... when the Tsukamoto Festival and Tokyo Fist hit Sapporo last year, there were two people in the audience, me and my Japanese friend who had not even heard about Tsukamoto before (in A Snake of June it was me and three other people). I can't help but to think that if Tokyo Fist had screened in Helsinki, a city with 4 times smaller population, the theater would've been packed. Sushi Typhoon's films, too, are being marketed as something new and exciting for Japanese audiences, when foreign audiences have been eating this stuff for years. I watched Alien vs. Ninja in Finland almost a year before it was released in Japan...

That being said, we gotta see how succesful Chiba and pals will be. Now that we also have a small school girl karate craze with new girl kickers emerging with every new film to support it, plus Sakaguchi constantly looking for new action projects, and a handful of highly skilled but under-employed action choreographers (most importantly, Yuji Shimomura)... hmm... the time is not necessarily right, but it's certainly better than it's been for decades.

Still, I wouldn't hold my breath.

[ShaOW!linDude]

lol, that sounded very, uhm...

Wow, that kinda did, didn't it? Bah, you know what I mean.

That being said, we gotta see how succesful Chiba and pals will be. Now that we also have a small school girl karate craze with new girl kickers emerging with every new film to support it, plus Sakaguchi constantly looking for new action projects, and a handful of highly skilled but under-employed action choreographers (most importantly, Yuji Shimomura)... hmm... the time is not necessarily right, but it's certainly better than it's been for decades.

Still, I wouldn't hold my breath.

Yeah, guess I won't. This whole notion must be wishful thinking on my part.

[One Armed Boxer]

I just had an idea. To find the next great martial artist from Japan, they should hold a martial arts

tournament there and invite all the great fighters from all over Japan. Then, who ever won,

would get a movie contract. Not only would they get the next great action star, but it would get people over there interested in martial art films agian.

Yeah....because that idea worked out so well for Jack Tu. "Jack Who?" I hear many people say...well, exactly...he was the winner of Jackie Chan's 'The Disciple', the TV show in Hong Kong that was launched to find HK's next big action star, didn't quite work out that way though.

You know, I think they did a similar contest in the US once for the "Next Action Star". The winner and 1st runner up were supposed to get a 1 picture movie deal. Never heard anything of it afterwards.

Wow, who did the producers of the show class as the current big US action star!?

That being said, we gotta see how succesful Chiba and pals will be. Now that we also have a small school girl karate craze with new girl kickers emerging with every new film to support it, plus Sakaguchi constantly looking for new action projects, and a handful of highly skilled but under-employed action choreographers (most importantly, Yuji Shimomura)... hmm... the time is not necessarily right, but it's certainly better than it's been for decades.

Agreed, but even then, at best the MA guys will be performing within the confines of the Sushi Typhoon world, which is not really to everyones tastes. The closest thing so far has been 'Yakuza Weapon', which actually has some solid MA based action sequences during its run-time, but I'm sure it won't please everyone.

This whole notion must be wishful thinking on my part.

An unfortunate truth I think. While many people ask the question as to whether or not the HK action movie is a thing of the past, at least it's still a valid enough question to be raised. In Japan it's not even worth asking, the Japanese macho action movie has been dead & buried for many many years, and shows no sign of revival any time soon.

[DarthKato]

Yeah....because that idea worked out so well for Jack Tu. "Jack Who?" I hear many people say...well, exactly...he was the winner of Jackie Chan's 'The Disciple', the TV show in Hong Kong that was launched to find HK's next big action star, didn't quite work out that way though.

I have never heard of 'The Disciple'.(I guess cause it was in Hong Kong) What year was it

made?

[One Armed Boxer]

I have never heard of 'The Disciple'.(I guess cause it was in Hong Kong) What year was it

made?

It was back in 2008, I pulled this info from Wikipedia, although as you can tell, it's a little out of date -

In July 2008, the BTV reality television series entitled The Disciple (simplified Chinese: 龙的传人; traditional Chinese: 龍的傳人, lit. "Disciple of the Dragon") concluded. The series was produced by, and featured Jackie Chan. The aim of the program was to find a new star, skilled in acting and martial arts, to become Chan's "successor" and student in filmmaking. Contestants were trained by Jackie Chan Stunt Team members Alan Wu and He Jun and competed in various fields, including explosion scenes, high-altitude wire-suspension, gunplay, car stunts, diving, obstacles courses etc. The regular judges on the program were He Ping, Wu Yue and Cheng Pei Pei. Guest judges include Stanley Tong, Sammo Hung and Yuen Biao. The "Finals" began on 5 April 2008, with 16 contestants remaining, and concluded on 26 June 2008. Amongst those in attendance were Tsui Hark, John Woo, Ng See Yuen and Yu Rongguang.

The winner of the series was Jack Tu (Tu Sheng Cheng). Along with runners up Yang Zheng and Jerry Liau, Tu is now set to star in three modern Chinese action films, one of which was scripted by Chan, and all three will be co-produced by Chan and his company JCE Movies Limited. The films will be entitled Speedpost 206, Won't Tell You and Tropical Tornado and will be directed by Xie Dong, Jiang Tao and Cai Rong Hui. All 16 finalists will be given the opportunity to work on the films, or to join the Jackie Chan Stunt Team. Production on the first film is due to begin in September 2008. In addition, the finalists will be given roles in a forthcoming BTV action series.

[DarthKato]

It sounds kind of interesting. Did the three movies Jack Tu was supposed to make ever get made?

[ShaOW!linDude]

Here's the link to the thread I started regarding Jackie Chan's "The Disciple" back in March 2011 because I was curious about this as well. To my knowledge the winner's been consigned to a boy band and had minimal film exposure. He's supposed to be a very talented MA apparently, too.

http://www.kungfucinema.com/forums/showthread.php?t=13906&highlight=jackie+chan%27s+disciple

[DarthKato]

Thanks. Its a shame that he won, but never really got anywhere.

[chanbara]

They did that already. Mika Hijii won

http://www.dmm.com/mono/dvd/-/detail/=/cid=n_605gnbw7118/

Interesting. I didn't know that's how Mika was discovered. It would be cool to see that program. Mika was great in GARO and NUKENIN, and was pretty much the only good thing in NINJA and ALIEN VS NINJA.

In regards to the next Chiba... he already made his appearance. His name is Hiroyuki Sanada. Actually, I read that when Chiba announced his retirement from action roles a few years back, he stated that he was hanging up the "Sonny Chiba" name and hoped to find the successor to take on the name. Maybe in a few years one of his two teenage sons will do so and help revive the action/martial arts genre in Japan.

[ShaOW!linDude]

Maybe I need to see more of Sanada's films. He's only ever impressed me in 2 movies as a MA film fighter: Ninja In The Dragon's Den and Royal Warriors.