Space Chief himself, Sonny Chiba, just recently announced that he’s retiring from action movies. Well, specifically the article at iF Magazine says it’s his “retirement from action stardom under his Japanese stage name,” so take that as you will. Apart from his arguably classic turn in Invasion of the Neptune Men, American audiences will also know him from Kill Bill Vol. 1, and American audiences will also wish that they didn’t know him from The Fast and The Furious: Tokyo Drift. Chiba, whose real name is Sadaho Maeda, is actually quite famous in Japan, as Neptune Men was only the fourth of his now 100+ films. His retirement was prompted by a nasty asthma attack on the set of a recent Japanese TV period drama. Isn’t that always the way? It appears that he’ll be devoting much of his time to his acting school, Thousand Leaves Hollywood. Godspeed, Chief.
Space Chief Packs It In
Posted on July 18, 2007 by Matthew J. Sanderson
