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Sonny Chiba

Sonny Chiba is a martial arts actor, called by many "the Bruce Lee of Japan", and hailed by Quentin Tarantino as "the greatest actor to ever work in martial arts films".

His most famous film is The Street Fighter (1974), known for its brutally graphic violence, such as when he rips out a man's vocal chords and dangles the parts in front of the camera. After gaining notoriety for this film, he settled back into making low-rent B-films including two sequels to The Street Fighter and even a spinoff entitled Sister Street Fighter. Longtime fan Tarantino gave him a role in his blood-soaked revenge opus Kill Bill as Hattori Hanzo, a sword-making sushi chef.