Soul of Chiba (1977)

Soul of Chiba (1977)
aka Soul of Bruce Lee
Japanese Title: 激殺！邪道拳
Translation: Kill! Evil Fist

 

Starring: Shin'ichi "Sonny" Chiba, Luk Chuen, Etsuko Shiomi, Bolo Yeung Sze, Fong Yuen, Kong Chuen, Tadashi Yamashita, Lau Nga-Ying, Peter Chan Hoh-San, Krung Srivilai, Naowarat Yooktanun, Somjit Sapsamruey
Director: Chan Tung-Man, Yukio Noda
Action Director: Luk Chuen

Apparently, this is Sonny Chiba's only Hong Kong film from the old school era, and boy it's a doozy. I like how the tragic backstory regarding Chiba's character takes all of 10 seconds to unfold on film. The plot is a wacky mishmash of several different stories that eventually meet up, albeit incoherently. Adult Chiba is studying martial arts in Thailand when his master is stabbed to death by the school's top student, played by Luk Chuen (aka Yashiyoshi Shikamura, of Ninja Over the Great Wall). Chiba challenges him but gets whooped, retreating to the boondocks where he's nursed back to health by a Thai karate master/herbalist/seamstress, played by Etsuko Shihomi.

In the other plot thread, a Japanese drug dealer of Thai extraction(!), played by Krung Srivilai, has just taken over the HK market and is doing business in Thailand. The Thai drug runners try to screw him over, while Krung is screwing his vendor's woman. Krung is injured and saved by Chiba, who just shows up for no logical reason whatsoever. Krung is directed by the Thai drug enforcer, played by Tadashi Yamashita (The Octagon and American Ninja), to a house where he can recover from his wounds. It turns out that Krung and Tadashi are long lost brothers--their father was a Japanese man who fell in love with a Thai woman, but ended up going back to Japan and taking one son with him. Tadashi is captured and tortured for letting Krung get away, and Krung vows to save his brother.

Meanwhile, Chiba is electrocuting himself in order to improve his karate, while ingesting large quantities of narcotics to forget the pain of losing his master. Krung saves Tadashi, but is killed himself in an escape attempt that involves a speed boat and a parachute. Tadashi finds Chiba in his forest shack--don't ask me how--and the two team up to fight Luk Chuen and his band of killers, including Bolo Yeung in a goofy hat and a bunch of men possessed by monkeys.

I'm going to assume that Luk Chuen choreographed his, as he had been choreographing films in Hong Kong since the early 70s, most notably The Golden Connection and Jackie Chan's The Magnificent Bodyguards. Because of this, the fights are actually better than many of Chiba's Japanese movies. Chiba's moves look crisper and more varied than they do in some of his Japanese movies. This is probably the first film to use the technique of slowing down the action and then speeding it up for the blow, like what Zack Snyder did in 300 (Future Blake: this technique was also used the year before in Karate Warriors). It looks great here. Tadashi Yamashita is full Bronson Lee mode here, but even imitating the Little Dragon, he looks like an inferior fighter next to Chiba. He comes alive briefly during his fight with Bolo Yeung at the end, but this is largely Sonny Chiba's show.

The movie is goofy and frequently just outright bonkers: Where else can you find a movie where the hero drops dead of withdrawals from his cocaine addiction after defeating the main villain in a martial arts battle?