written directed by Kitao Sakurai and written by TJ Fixman
Starring Andrew Koji, Noah Centineo, Callina Liang, David Dastmalchian
Plot Summary
The evil M. Bison plans to suck the power from one of the most powerful fighters in the world, Ryu, so he holds a sequel to a tournament Ryu won years before. Ryu is reluctant to rejoin because he won the previous tournament by tapping into dark powers while his estranged friend Ken wishes to prove his worth by winning the tournament. Chun-Li, an undercover operator in Bison's organization, has her own plans to take down Bison. All this nonsense plus hundreds of cameos and video game references make this a crazy pants watching experience. Oh, and the flashbacks are animated.
Characters
Ryu (Koji) - a martial arts master retired to make crappy ramen because he might go evil and that's about all
Ken Masters (Centineo) - a martial arts and product placement master who feels inferior to Ryu
Chun-Li (Liang) - An undercover agent with her own agenda planning to take down Bison's empire
M. Bison (Dastmalchian) - A dictator and martial arts tournament promoter who wants to suck the mystical "psycho power" from Ryu and become all powerful. Also, he says the Tuesday thing!
Setting
1993 - Metrolao City - Bison's little kingdom that's half Hong Kong and half random warehouse
Favorite Scenes (spoilers)
All the ass and muscle shots with no sexuality - Holy hell this is a horny ass movie with nobody having sex. Ass shots, thighs abound, shirtless fit as hell dudes, all kinds of bodies on display but nobody does anything about it. I get it, and I'll talk about how cheeky it is in a minute, but even for a kids movie you could have somebody kiss somebody. Also, I mean, what's with the feet smelling?
So many characters but main get back stories - Jesus Christ himself could have been in a crowd scene hanging out, and I would have been "is that something from the game I don't understand?" Outside of Detective Pikachu, no other movie has dropped so many things on the screen that I was sure I was supposed to be like "oh damn, they mentioned that." I'm so casual with my Street Fighter lore I got the joke about Dan when he put on his fighting outfit.
"Fermiendted pigeon soup" - Ryu's present day introduction is perfect. Serving tourists his garbage food and claiming that the process is what matters is such a thing someone who gave up doing what they are good at would say.
"Did a Mercedes enter the tournament?" - Cody Rhodes is the bright spot in this movie on many occasions. He plays a type of Greek chorus, being chummy with Ryu and Ken but also sitting back watching all this nonsense. I wish he got more fight scenes, honestly, but maybe his sticking and weaving with cutting lines in the script was just enough.
Animated flashbacks are top notch - I don't have a lot of knowledge to talk about why I liked the animated flashbacks, but I did. They are amazing with detail and a hand-crafted feel that made me happy.
Psycho power is dumb and I'm here for it - The movie leans into the 90s stupid nature of storytelling developed because all they had when the games came out was a small booklet and some screens to dump why the crimson colored military man could fight fireball shooting karate men. Psycho power, brought to you by Surge soda!
Makeover montage! - I dunno, I thought it was funny they gave a whole section and time for Ryu to shave and cut his hair. Maybe that's what he should have done rather than ramen because he looks spiffy as hell. Wish someone would have commented on it though. They might have, and I missed it though. Lot going on.
Chun-Li nude to E. Honda in steam bath - I didn't pay attention to the editing in general, which like the score is generally a good thing. If I don't notice it, then it's doing its job. But I cracked up when we got the slow sexy steamy shot of a beautiful woman stripping and getting into the shower to steam-fade into a giant sumo wrestler. Bravo, folks involved in that decision.
Music drops go to die - Around the point when Offspring's Gotta Keep 'em Separated played, I stopped writing down the songs. There's one song that's diegetic and when played works in the narrative, the rest feel like filler to set the 90s aesthetic. Not bad, but very very noticeable.
Joe never gonna fight - A fun running gag was never seeing Joe fight. I don't know anything else about this character and did not look him up.
They just let Momoa do whatever now - So he's like a new version of… I almost said Nicholas Cage, but that's not quite right. Jason Momoa gets called in to do whatever crazy silly "big guy" role that's out there with little variation. At least they painted him green here.
Almost an amazing hallway fight - Like most of the fights in the movie, they almost had a pretty good side scrolling beat down with Ryu and Ken, but they kept cutting away and made it very short. Just when it felt like the choreography was hitting its stride, the camera cut and something else got put around.
"I'm not worth protecting." - Ryu - Not gonna lie, I felt a little betrayed by our favorite fighter guy claiming to not be the best he could be. It made me feel something but then they cut right to something else. I'm beginning to think this was not a good movie, but at the same time, I don't care. I walked out thinking "that was a way to pass a few hours" and I'm okay with that.
Discussion Questions
Do you feel that movies about oiled up men and women have inherent sexuality or should we just make them dance for our amusement?
If you were going to set a movie in the 1990s, what would be your favorite music to put in a movie about folks beating each other up and sucking power from the best of them?
Who was that guy I'm thinking of that used to be Jason Momoa? Like a big guy that was funny and a little wild but could do action?
If you could make a cartoon of your life, would ya?
If your mentor was killed by your own inaction and your brother from another mother decided to become a corporate whore, what kind of food would you make?
Join the Friends of the Banned Library!
Do you like Street Fighter? How about movies? How about movies based on video games? Well, we talk about them sometimes! Join today for $1 a month. Patreon.com/bannedlibrary