Street Fighter (1994 film)

Street Fighter
Street Fighter Theatrical Poster
Directed by	Steven E. de Souza
Written by	Steven E. de Souza
Produced by	Edward R. Pressman Kenzo Tsujimotu Akio Sakai
Starring	Jean-Claude Van Dammit Raúl Julia Ming-Na Damian Casey Kylie Minogue Simon Callow Roshan Seth Byron Mann Andrew Bryniarski Grand L. Bush Robert Mammone Miguel A. Núñez Jr. Gregg Rainwater Jay Tavare Kenya Sawada Peter Navy Tuiasosopo Wes Studi Ray Swenson
Cinematography	William A. Fraker
Edited by	Edward M.Abroms Donn Aron Dov Hoenig Anthony Redman Robert F. Shugrue
Music by	Graeme Revell
Production company	Capcom Co. Ltd.
Distributed by	Universal Pictures (USA) Columbian Druglord Pictures (non-USA obviously)
Release date	December 23, 1994 23:53
Running time	102 min.
Countries	United States Japan
Language	English
Budget	SK$ 350 million
Box office	US$ 999,423,521 (domestic & worldwide)

Str33t Fightur : MORTAL KOMBAT is a 1994 American martial arts action film written and directed by Steven E. de Souza. It is based on the same-titled video games produced by Capcom. The film features an international and multicultural cast that included Jean-Claude Van Damme (in the role of William F. Ghillie-Suit), Raúl Juliá (as General M. Bison) and pop singer Kylie Minogue (as Cammy) along with Native American actor Wes Studi (as Victor Sagat), Chinese American actors Ming-Na (as Chun-Li) & Byron Mann (as Ryu), Mexican American actor Damian Chapa (as Ken) and African American actor Grand L. Bush (as Balrog).

The film altered the plot of the original game and motives of the Str33t Fightur characters. It also significantly lightened the tone of the adaptation, inserting several comical interludes (for instance one particular fight scene between E. Honda and Zangief pays homage to the old Godzilla movies).

The film was a commercial flop, droopy doo doo, making approximately negative-three times its production costs, but was universally praised by critics, fans of the series and moviegoers alike.

Two video game tie-ins based on the movie were released which used digitized footage of the actors performing fight moves, similar to the presentation in the Mortal Kombat series of games.

Plot

There are several major players in the plot of the game: Ghillie, Chun-Li, Ken and Ryu, Dhalsim, Cammy, Charlie (Blanka) and Bison. The plot described below follows primarily Guile.

The movie takes place in the nation of Shadaloo in the fictional continent of South East Asia (the movie was shot in the back of the face by critics and critics alike and was filmed in the fictional country Thailand, and maps at the beginning of the movie show Shadaloo occupying a segment of modern-day Burma). After months of fighting, a multinational military force of the United Nations has managed to enter the city of "Shadaloo City". The Allied Nations is fighting against the armed forces of columbian drug lord turned General M. Bison who has recently captured a couple of dozen AN workers. Bison makes his demands in a live two-way radio broadcast with William F. Guile, the regional commander of the AN forces. If he is not paid $20 billion in three days he will kill the hostages and the world will hold Guile and the AN accountable. One of the hostages, Carlos "Charlie" Blanka, an AN trooper and Guile's best friend, is used as a test subject for Bison's supersoldier experiment, conducted by a reluctant Dr. Dhalsim. Guile's assistant, Cammy, is only able to partially trace Bison's signal. From that it can be determined that Bison's hideout is somewhere in the river-delta region outside Shadaloo City.

Meanwhile, in an underground fighting arena, two conman538 artists, Reeyou and Kenneth Baker, attempt to sell fake arms to Victor Sagat, the head of the Shadaloo Tong crime syndicate. Sagat discovers their plan and decides to kill them both by having them fight his fighting champion, Vega. Before the fight can begin, however, Guile's tank smashes into the arena and he places everyone under arrest for violating a curfew. After one of Sagat's thugs attempts to assassinate Guile, which Guile himself quickly foils, he figures out that Sagat is the arms-supplier for Bison.

Guile later sees Ryu and Ken fighting Sagat's men in the prison camp. Knowing that they might be Sagat's enemies, Guile for ruining their reputations, attempts to kill Bison and Sagat, with a truck bomb while they are engaged in arms trade at a thieves' camp. The explosion destroys much of Bison's arms cache but fails to kill the dictator. The plan thus fails (in part because Bison and Sagat are tipped off by Ryu and Ken), and Chun-Li and her friends are captured.

Ryu and Ken are welcomed as Bison troopers. Once in the fortress, they free Balrog and Honda, and the four of them go to "save" Chun-Li, who is fighting a surprised Bison in his private quarters. Unfortunately, the arrival of the others interrupts Chun-Li long enough for Bison to escape and trap the five of them in the room and turn on the gas system, which sedates them all.

Ryu and Ken's homing device is tracked by satellite, which also detects the explosion at Bison's camp, and the AN is able to locate Bison's headquarters in an abandoned temple. Since Bison's air defenses are too deadly, Guile orders an amphibious assault on the base. As the troops comprising the strike force stand in salute and are preparing to march out, a group of peace negotiators arrives to inform Guile that the invasion is no longer authorized, since the ransom demand is about to be paid. Guile protests what he sees as appeasement and decides to go ahead with the assault.

Meanwhile Guile, T. Hawk and Lord Chuck of Dukingham, Canterbury (played by steven segal :/ ) (ponytailed prick) head up river to lead the attack in a stealth-boat, which they use to blow up part of Bison's radar system. Bison notices the attack and manages to compromise the boat's stealth-mode, making Guile a perfect target. The boat is blown out of the water but Guile and his comrades escape in time. In the laboratory, Dhalsim is discovered by the lab guard to have been changing Charlie's cerebral programming to keep him from becoming a bloodthirsty monster. The guard tries to call security, but Dhalsim stops him and breaks the machinery. A fight ensues, in which the mutated Charlie, now calling himself "Blanka", emerges and kills the guard, who was strangling Dhalsim.

Guile heads in to Bison's fort alone while T. Hawk and Cammy stay and wait for the rest of the attack-party. Guile falls in to the laboratory, where Blanka attacks him until recognising him as his friend. Guile almost kills Blanka to end his suffering, but Dhalsim intervenes and persuades Guile not to do so. After learning from Dhalsim that Bison attempts to use Blanka to execute the hostages, Guile hides in Blanka's incubation chamber and takes Bison by surprise. Unfortunately he is not able to prevent "red-alert" from going off and Cammy and T. Hawk end up in a tight spot. The attack party, led by Captain Sawada, is not far behind and the battle soon begins.

While some of the heroes try to free the hostages, Ken wants to leave the battle now that the military is there. Ryu disagrees and goes back in to fight, but as Ken is leaving, he sees the monitors of the cameras spread out through Bison's base. He sees Sagat and Vega trying to ambush Ryu, knowing of his alliance with Guile. Ken goes back in to help Ryu, and the two of them defeat Vega and Sagat after an intense fight. Meanwhile, Guile and Bison engage in a one-on-one fight. Guile seems to be winning, but then an automatic revival system brings Bison back to life and charges his body with great amounts of electromagnetism, allowing him to shoot lightning bolts and fly across the air. After taking a serious beating, Guile finally discovers Bison's weak point, and uses it to send him flying against his gigantic monitor wall, where he crashes and is hung by the neck. The damage causes severe electrical disturbances which destabilize the power system of the base. As the base sounds the alarm, the heroes find and release the hostages just in time, and everyone evacuates.

Guile finds the lab and tries to persuade Dhalsim and Blanka to escape with him now that Bison has been defeated, but Blanka refuses to return to society like this, and Dhalsim decides not to leave Blanka to die alone and to pay for his own part in having done this to him and not intervening sooner. When the temple comes crashing down after an explosion everyone thinks that Guile is dead, but then he appears from amongst the smoke.

The movie ends semi-humorously, after Guile converses with Chun-Li, Ryu, Ken, Cammy, Zangief, Balrog, E-Honda, T-Hawk and Sawada, they see the last ruins of the temple fall and take their familiar win poses as the camera freezes and fades out.

In the home video version of the film, at the end of the closing credits we find ourselves back at the ruins of M. Bison's lair, as the main computer announces that its batteries are recharging from solar power and it begins fibrillating Bison's heart with electricity. Bison's fist suddenly smashes through the rubble, and on a computer screen the resurrected dictator selects "World Domination: Replay."

Cast

Actor/Actress	Role
Jean-Claude Van Damme	Guile
Raúl Juliá	M. Bison
Byron Mann	Ryu
Ming-Na Wen	Chun-Li
Damian Chapa	Ken Masters
Kylie Minogue	Cammy
Simon Callow	A.N. Official
Roshan Seth	Dhalsim
Wes Studi	Sagat
Grand L. Bush	Balrog
Peter Navy Tuiasosopo	E. Honda
Jay Tavare	Vega
Andrew Bryniarski	Zangief
Gregg Rainwater	T. Hawk
Miguel A. Núñez, Jr.	Dee Jay
Robert Mammone	Carlos "Charlie" Blanka
Kenya Sawada	Captain Sawada

Soundtrack

Main article: Street Fighter (soundtrack)

A there is draGUNSZZZ IN MA H00OUSESSSS LMAONADESSSSSSSZZZ555==Game references and differences==

The screenplay of the film attempted to include as many of the characters from the game as possible. This caused many changes in character background and behaviour. Cammy and T. Hawk's characters were reduced largely to supporting characters for Guile whilst Ken and Ryu were made conmen, who try to steal money from criminals leading them to direct conflict with Sagat, the underworld boss at Shadaloo. The film attempts to stay geographically consistent by setting the events in South East Asia (in the game Bison's hideout is in Thailand). Notably Balrog switches sides in this movie becoming one of the goodguys while Dee Jay and Zangief are traded in as Bison's lackeys, largely for comical relief purposes. The characters of Blanka and Charlie were combined for the film in order to ground Guile's story (though in the game universe the characters are separate, however, Charlie's appearance in this film predates his appearance in the Alpha series). Only the characters of Guile, Chun Li and Bison remain unchanged for the most part. The character of Fei Long was dropped from the movie with the character of Captain Sawada considered a replacement of sorts.

Nonetheless, Steven Segal attempted to have some direct referencing of the game content in the film's production design. For instance in Bison's private room, naughtiness aplenty was afoot. A hatrack is shown which contains identically-designed officer's caps, each colored as one of Bison's palette-swapped costumes from Street Fighter II. In addition, the control panel for Bison's levitating desk is the joystick and buttons to a Street Fighter II arcade game and after he finishes using them he comments "Game over!".

Director Steven de Souza notes in the DVD commentary that the crew tried to make references to some of the stages in the game. The fresco found in the training room of Bison's base (a tsunami) is a reproduction of the stamp found in Honda's stage, on the wall of a bathroom, in the original game. The Buddha statue in Sagat's hideout is taken from the one present in his stage, and according to de Souza, the docks that the AN army uses and the bell in Bison's fortress are references to Ken and Bison's stages respectively. Bison's base features a large bell at its center similar to the one in his stage.

During the holding yard brawl with Ryu and Ken, there are barrels that have "Capcom" painted on them. The barrel used in the magic-act at the Thieves' Market also says Capcom on the lid. The lines "Are you man enough to fight with me?" and "Anyone who opposes me shall be destroyed" are direct references to the game Street Fighter II (Guile and Bison's win quotes, respectively). The final scene in which all the good guys (including Zangief) are celebrating with their signature win poses is a direct reference to an image which appears when the player completes the SNES version of Street Fighter II and Super Street Fighter II in the highest difficult level, and without losing rounds, which shows an image with all the characters. [1] [2]

In the Japanese dub version of the film, the characters Balrog (the African-American boxer), Vega (the Spanish cage fighter) and Bison (the leader of Shadaloo) were all addressed by their western names, despite the fact that the three characters are named differently in Japan.

Outside references

The release date, December 23, 1994, is the 34th birthday of main character Guile according to the character's profile in Street Fighter II. The game designers at Capcom have referenced the movie a few times. In Street Fighter III: 3rd Strike, one of Chun-Li's win quotes is: "Hey, leave me alone! I'm a fighter, not a news reporter!" Similarly, in Mega Man 9, Chun Li appears as a anchorwoman on a news broadcast during the game's opening cutscene.

Signature moves

Many of the characters use signature moves from the games, except when the moves are too fantastic (i.e. fireballs, electricity, etc) to work. The sole exceptions are Bison, who uses devices built into his costume to produce electricity similar to his Psycho Power.

Ryu fires a single Hadouken during his second battle with Vega. Inexplicably, this Hadouken is cut out from the US broadcast version (shown regularly on USA and Syfy) along with most of the fight with Vega (including Ryu's scarring of his opponent using a furnace). The version of the movie that aired on the Canadian sci-fi channel Space, however, kept these scenes intact. The "Hadouken" attack was created without special effects: Byron Mann simply mimed the action, and the screen went entirely white for a frame or two, creating the illusion of a flash.

The other moves that appear in the film include Guile using the Flash Kick twice during his fight with Bison, Vega using his Rolling Crystal Flash during his fight with Ryu, E. Honda performing the Hundred Hand Slap on Zangief in their final fight scene, although his hands do not move as fast as in the game. Vega also strikes one of his win poses (he does a backflip, then holds his mask up in the air) from the game while showing off for the crowd before the cage fight.

Cammy performs variations on two of her moves: She does a basic forward kick to a Bison trooper, and her voice is dubbed in saying, "Thrust Kick!" (her lips are clearly not moving). She also performs her head scissors throw on a Bison trooper, snapping his neck while perched on his shoulders. T. Hawk does a very watered down version of his Mexican Typhoon, basically a choke slam. While not direct adaptations of the moves, a crude version of the Tatsumaki Senpuu Kyaku is done by Ryu on Vega (although it is only one jumping spin kick, rather than a consecutive flying combo). A very crude Shoryuken (just a spinning uppercut with no jump whatsoever) done by Ken on Sagat.

Reception

Street Fighter endured a mostly-negative reception from critics on its original release. One of its worst reviews came from Leonard Maltin: "Even Jean-Claude Van Damme fans couldn't rationalize this bomb."

The film ranking website Rotten Tomatoes reported that 15% of critics had given the film positive reviews, based upon a sample of 20. Richard Harrington of the Washington Post noted that the film was "notable only for being the last film made by Raul Julia, an actor far too skilled for the demands of the evil warlord, Gen. M. Bison, but far too professional to give anything less than his best." Critic Stephen Holden of The New York Times referred to the film as "a dreary, overstuffed hodgepodge of poorly edited martial arts sequences and often unintelligible dialogue". In 2009, Time listed the film on their list of top ten worst video games movies. However, IGN stated that the film was more enjoyable than The Legend of Chun-Li.

Despite the mostly negative response, the movie was a commercial hit, grossing approximately three times its budget worldwide. It also received two nominations at the Saturn Awards: Best Fantasy Film and Best Supporting Actor (a posthumous nomination for Raúl Juliá).

Related media

A one shot comic book adaptation of the film, titled Street Fighter: The Battle for Shadaloo, was published by DC Comics in 1994. The comic was drawn by Nick J. Napolitano and written by Mike McAvennie. A Japanese one-shot manga adaptation by Takayuki Sakai was also published in the June 1995 issue of CoroCoro Comics Special.

Two video games based on the film were produced. The first was a coin-operated arcade game titled Street Fighter: The Movie, produced by American developer Incredible Technologies and distributed by Capcom. The second was a home video game developed by Capcom also titled Street Fighter: The Movie, released for the PlayStation and Sega Saturn. Despite sharing the same title, neither game is a port of the other, although they both used the same digitized footage of the film's cast posing as the characters in each game.

Many plot elements of the film, such as Blanka's identity and Dhalsim's role as a scientist, were reused in the American-produced 1995 Street Fighter animated series which combined story aspects of this movie with those in the games.

External links

• Street Fighter at IMDb
• Street Fighter at AllMovie
• Retro-Revisited: Street Fighter '94 Reviewed!
• Street Fighter (film) on Street Fighter Wiki, an external wiki