sonny chiba Tagged Articles at Cinematical
Asian Cinema Scene: 'Seven Samurai' Remade for Pachinko
Filed under: Action », Foreign Language », Fandom », Remakes and Sequels »
Prepare to roll your eyes in disbelief. The remake of Akira Kurosawa's venerated classic The Seven Samurai has been completed. But it's not the one planned by The Weinstein Co. And it's scored to The Rolling Stones?!!
Let's clarify: Don Brown at ryugangi says that Hiroyuki Nakano, director of the excessively stylish Samurai Fiction and Red Shadow, has been busy creating a new version of Samurai for a pachinko machine. (Yes, you read that right.) The official site features a half-dozen clips. The ones I've watched look surprisingly good and faithful to the spirit of the original -- except, er, for Mick Jagger singing "Paint It Black," "Jumping Jack Flash," and "Satisfaction."
How could this happen? Kurosawa's son Hisao has reportedly irked many by licensing his father's films and image for everything from remakes to a canned coffee commercial. Seven Samurai itself was made into a video game in 2004 (Seven Samurai 20XX) that was recently named one of the worst movie games ever by Wired.com. The same Japanese company that produced the video game (Sammy) also makes pachinko games, so I suppose this was inevitable.
Initially, I thought the article was either a bad joke or a slam at Nakano's directing style. Surely this was an advance peek at the Weinsteins' remake. But that project won't start shooting until later this year and the cast will feature American, European and Asian stars (per Variety), not just the Japanese actors pictured. My eyes are still rolling.
Sonny Chiba Hangs Up His Fists and Samurai Sword
Filed under: Action », Foreign Language », Fandom », Cinematical Indie »
Say it ain't so, Street Fighter! Long before the video game series, Shinichi "Sonny" Chiba was ripping out internal organs with his bare hands as mercenary Takuma Tsurugi in a legendary series of films (The Street Fighter, Return of the Street Fighter, The Street Fighter's Last Revenge). In his script for True Romance, Quentin Tarantino had Christian Slater and Patricia Arquette bond while watching Chiba's films in a theater; later Tarantino cast him as sword master Hanzo Hattori in Kill Bill, Vol. 1. Now, no more Chiba, at least in action roles: the actor has announced his retirement from acting under his Japanese stage name.In the Variety article, Mark Schilling notes that Chiba's real name is Sadaho Maeda. As a young man, he adapted the stage name Shinichi Chiba; he picked up the nickname "Sonny" in the 1960's and that's how he was billed for international productions. He will keep acting as Sadaho Maeda in Japan and as Sonny Chiba internationally, but since the name "Shinichi Chiba" is so intimately associated with action roles -- and he no longer feels up to the physical demands -- he wants to pass the name on to a younger actor. Toward that end, he's starting up a Japanese branch of his Los Angeles-based acting school, Thousand Leaves Hollywood, with plans to expand it nationwide and even into Beijing and Shanghai, in partnership with Jackie Chan.
August Ragone researched and wrote a very fine, comprehensive biographical profile of Chiba, which was my starting point to learn more about "a real mean bastard!" Cinematical's Matt Bradshaw listed The Street Fighter as one of his favorite grindhouse movies, and that's one of only a handful of Chiba's earlier films that I've seen -- the others are The Executioner and Bullet Train -- but I'd love to see more.
Discuss: Should Gay Actors Stay in the Closet?
Sundance '10 Announces Non-Competing Film Premieres
'Up in the Air' Named Best Film of the Year by NBR
Johnny Depp to Play Pancho Villa?_thumbnail.jpg)
The International 'Iron Man 2' Poster Subtracts a Suit
_thumbnail.jpg)
_thumbnail.jpg)
