Street Fighter: The Legend of Chun-Li

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Street Fighter: The Legend of Chun-Li
Promotional film poster
Directed by	Andrzej Bartkowiak
Produced by	Patrick Aiello Ashok Amritraj Co-Producer Russell D. Markowitz Line Producer Manu Gargi Executive Producer Keiji Inafune Toshi Tokumaru Haruhiro Tsujimoto
Written by	Justin Marks
Starring	Kristin Kreuk Chris Klein Neal McDonough Robin Shou Moon Bloodgood Josie Ho Taboo Michael Clarke Duncan
Music by	Stephen Endelman
Cinematography	Geoff Boyle
Editing by	Derek Brechin Niven Howie
Studio	Capcom Legend Films Adlabs Films Hyde Park Entertainment
Distributed by	20th Century Fox
Release date(s)	Philippines February 25, 2009 (2009-02-25) Canada and United States February 27, 2009
Running time	96 minutes
Country	United States Hong Kong Thailand Japan
Language	English
Budget	US$50 million (estimated)[1]
Gross revenue	US$12 million (worldwide)

Street Fighter: The Legend of Chun-Li is the second live-action film based on the Street Fighter series of video games. It follows the quest of Street Fighter character Chun-Li, who is portrayed by Kristin Kreuk.^[2] The story follows Chun-Li's personal history and her journey for justice.^[3] The film co-stars Neal McDonough as M. Bison, Chris Klein as Charlie, Michael Clarke Duncan as Balrog, and Black Eyed Peas member Taboo as Vega. The film was released on February 27, 2009.

Contents 1 Plot 2 Cast 3 Production 4 Shooting locations 5 Release 6 Reception 7 References 8 External links

[edit] Plot

This plot summary may be too long or overly detailed. Please help improve it by removing unnecessary details and making it more concise. (February 2009)

As a child, Chun-Li moves from San Francisco to Hong Kong with her family. There, along with piano, she learns Wushu from her father, Xiang, a well connected businessman. One night, her home is attacked by Bison and his henchman Balrog. Chun Li's father fights them off until Balrog grabs a hold of a young Chun Li, forcing him to surrender.

Years later, Chun-Li grows up and becomes a talented concert pianist. At the end of one of her concerts, she receives a scroll written in ancient Chinese text. On her way home, she sees a mysterious homeless man getting assaulted by street thugs. After the thugs leave, Chun Li tends to him and notices a spiderweb tattoo on his hand. Meanwhile, Xiang is shown working for Bison as a prisoner, only allowed to view pictures of his grown up daughter all. Back home, Chun Li's mother finally loses her battle to cancer as Chun Li and her servants mourn her loss at a funeral.

Elsewhere, Nash and Maya investigate the murder of several heads of criminal syndicate families in Bangkok. Chun Li on the side is meeting with a wise old lady in town who studies the scroll and tells her to find a man named Gen in Bangkok, revealing to her an image of the same spiderweb she saw tattooed on the homeless man's hand. With a new goal in mind, Chun Li leaves her home and heads to Bangkok. After days of searching for Gen without any luck, she sees a man being assaulted in an alley by thugs. Chun Li comes to his rescue and fights them. After a long battle ended by finishing them with a Bike Rack Drop Ultra move, Chun Li collapses in exhaustion. There, we see Gen pick her up to take her to his home.

Gen tells Chun Li that he knows how to find her father and that Bison has him, but that she also needs anger management. In response, she goes to an internet cafe to find out more about Bison, who is now holding the families of property owners hostage in order to force them to sign their property over to him. Upon leaving, one of the owners is asked to hand over the rights to a docking harbor, allowing the shipment of the "White Rose". Chun Li overhears this. Meanwhile at Interpol, Nash figures out that Bison's headquarters are right across the street from the Police Station.

Later that night, Cantana, one of Bison's secretaries, goes to a nightclub. Chun Li spies on her and notices her eyeing the girls in the club. Chun Li moves in and seductively dances with her before casually walking away into the bathroom. Cantana follows her and locks the bathroom door. Chun Li beats Cantana until Cantana reveals the location of the White Rose. Cantana's bodyguards come back and Chun Li escapes after fighting them off.

We are then told of Bison's origins. He is the son of Irish missionaries. He grew up an orphan having to steal fish from people in Thailand. In order to lose his conscience, he forced his daughter out of the womb of his wife prematurely. This transferred his conscience into her, thus Bison no longer had/has a conscience. Back at Gen's home, Bison's henchmen come after Gen and Chun Li. Gen fights them off until Balrog blows up his house with a RPG. With Gen gone and nowhere to be found, Chun Li runs off. She is then attacked by Vega, who she defeats soundly and hangs upside down over the side of a building.

Chun Li then heads to the harbor and interrogates an employee into telling her the arrival time of the White Rose. Later that night, this turns out to be a trap as several Shadaloo soldiers capture her. Chun Li is then taken back to Shadaloo headquarters and is reunited with her father. Bison tells her that Xiang outlived his usefulness and breaks his neck, killing him. Bison and Balrog leave Chun Li to the henchman to finish off. Chun Li however escapes when they try to swing her around from the ceiling like a pinata. As she runs away, she is shot in the waist by Balrog. Before Balrog could recapture her, the crowd begins throwing durians at him. This scares Balrog as he drives off in his Mercedes-Benz. Chun Li meanwhile, is rescued again by Gen, who narrowly escaped death and survived the explosion in his house.

Chun Li approaches Nash and tells him she needs backup to take down Bison. Nash and Maya oblige as Chun Li approaches the dock employee who set her up last time. The employee tells her that he was forced into deceiving her and tells her the real arrival time. Chun Li doubts him at first, but he points to the white board at the arrival time, proving that it is true. At the dock later that night, Interpol agents engage in a shootout with Shadaloo soldiers. On a ship, Chun Li finds a girl asking where her father is. Meanwhile, Gen fights Balrog and kills him by stabbing him with a pipe spraying nitrogen. We later find out that the girl is Bison's daughter and her name is Rose, making her the White Rose. Bison takes her in and welcomes her warmly.

Bison walks into his office where he is ambushed by Gen. Gen however is no match for him. Sensing his daughter in danger, Bison goes back to his daughters room, where he finds she is gone. Gen shows up again and ambushes Bison, getting beaten up again. Chun Li then comes in and fights Bison. After a long battle, she hits him with a bamboo pole and drops sandbags on him, stunning him. She then charges up a Kikoken and shoots it at him, knocking him off the scaffolding they were fighting on, then jumping on his head and twisting it all the way around, breaking his neck and killing him.

Back home, Chun Li is settled down as Gen pays her a visit. He shows her an ad for a Street Fighter tournament, telling her about a Japanese fighter named Ryu. Chun Li declines, saying that she's home for now.

[edit] Cast

• Kristin Kreuk as Chun-Li
• Neal McDonough as M. Bison
• Chris Klein as Charlie Nash
• Michael Clarke Duncan as Balrog
• Taboo as Vega
• Robin Shou as Gen
• Moon Bloodgood as Detective Maya Sunee
• Edmund Chen as Xiang
• Josie Ho as Cantana
• Elizaveta Kiryukhina as Rose
• Katherine Pemberton as Young Chun-Li
• Cheng Pei-pei as Zhilan

[edit] Production

This section requires expansion.

Rick Yune was originally cast as Gen but has been replaced by Robin Shou, who played as Liu Kang, the lead character in the Mortal Kombat films.^[4]

[edit] Shooting locations

• Hong Kong, China
• Bangkok, Thailand
• Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada
• Reno, Nevada, United States
• Herlong, California, United States

[edit] Release

The film was released on Blu-Ray and DVD on June 30, 2009. The film opened at #9 at the DVD sales chart, selling 92,830 units in the first weekend. About 241,000 DVD units have been sold so far, bringing in revenue of $4,355,774. This figure does not include Blu-ray sales/DVD rentals.^[5]

The special First Run printed included a bonus DVD of the Udon Street Fighter Comic Series: Round One FIGHT.^{[citation needed]}

[edit] Reception

Street Fighter: The Legend of Chun-Li received overwhelmingly negative reviews and was not pre-screened for critics^[6]. The film ranking website Rotten Tomatoes reported that 4% of critics had given the film positive reviews, based upon a sample of 47 and it was ranked 44th in Rotten Tomatoes's 100 worst reviewed films of the 2000s.^[7] At Metacritic, which assigns a normalized rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream critics, the film has received an average score of 17/100, based on 10 reviews.^[8] Amongst the more positive reviews, Rob Nelson of Variety wrote that "Neither the best nor the worst of movies derived from videogames, Street Fighter: The Legend of Chun-Li at least gives action fans plenty to ogle besides the titular heroine (Kristin Kreuk)",^[8] while The New York Times wrote that the film was "Reveling in the vivid Bangkok locations, Geoff Boyle's photography is crisp and bright, and Dion Lam's action choreography unusually witty".^[8] Negative reviews focused on the screenplay and fight scenes. The Hollywood Reporter wrote that "other than a few reasonably well-staged fight sequences, the proceedings are dull and visually uninspired. Justin Marks' solemn screenplay lacks any trace of wit."^[8] Jeremy Wheeler of TV Guide wrote that "Fight scenes, while admirable for shaking off the shaky-cam aesthetic of their big-screen brethren, neither inspire nor find a good balance between martial arts and FX-laden power punches".^[9] IGN gave the film 1.5 stars out of 5, saying "There's better staged and more enjoyable brawls between Peter and the Chicken on Family Guy." They also stated the original live-action Street Fighter film was more enjoyable than The Legend of Chun-Li.^[10]

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• Official website
• Street Fighter: The Legend of Chun-Li at Allmovie
• Street Fighter: The Legend of Chun-Li at Metacritic
• Street Fighter: The Legend of Chun-Li at Box Office Mojo
• Street Fighter: The Legend of Chun-Li at the Internet Movie Database
• Street Fighter: The Legend of Chun-Li at Rotten Tomatoes
• Production Blog
• Street Fighter: The Legend of Chun-Li on Street Fighter Wiki, an external wiki

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v • d • e Films directed by Andrzej Bartkowiak Romeo Must Die (2000) · Exit Wounds (2001) · Cradle 2 the Grave (2003) · Doom (2005) · Street Fighter: The Legend of Chun-Li (2009)