I have a horrible thing to confess. I hope you will not think less of me as I expose the depth of my ignorance. Before today, I have never seen a Sonny Chiba movie.

I don’t think his role in Kill Bill really counts, since Hattori Hanzo was more of a cameo role. I think you can pick up Chiba movies very cheaply now on DVD. I watched Street Fighter and Return of Street Fighter. Both of the movies seem fairly typical of what you’d expect from 1970s martial arts movies, although it is fun watching Chiba karate chop people and emote by making funny faces. I think I liked Return of Street Fighter more, because even though Street Fighter featured an impressive amount of eye-gouging, throat ripping, and a climatic fight in the rain, Return of Street Fighter featured fights on top of a mountain, in a bathhouse, and a climatic fight in a darkened building.