Street Fighter II: The Animated Movie (1994)

Street Fighter II: The Animated Movie is something of a rarity. Contrary to its title, it is not a sequel to any existing film. It is an adaptation of a popular fighting game series called Street Fighter II, which is the follow up to a lesser known arcade game called Street Fighter. I call this film a rarity because it may very well be the best videogame adaptation in existence. Unfortunately that is not high praise as its competition includes such gems as Super Mario Bros., Mortal Kombat: Annihilation, Doom, Like a Dragon, Silent Hill, and the Resident Evil series. It is in no way related to the other 1994 film Street Fighter (Jean-Claude Van Damme’s contribution to the excrement that is the genre of film known as the videogame adaptation) or the more recent but equally forgettable Street Fighter: The Legend of Chun-Li. It's a shame that videogames end up as terrible films. Film adaptations of games often include ridiculous storylines, campy dialogue, too much action, and bland characters. They often start out mocking themselves for being based on a game. Oddly enough, the games they are based on take themselves seriously. Street Fighter II: The Animated Movie is an exception to these trends however, if only because it takes itself seriously. There are no winks at the camera or jokes at the origins of this story. This alone is an amazing accomplishment for a videogame adaptation.

This film takes on an incredible challenge as it manages to include every member of the cast in that franchise (which includes 16 characters) in the film. Some of these appearances are little more than unrelated background fights that are happening in some location as more important characters are discussing more plot related topics, but it is a commendable feat nonetheless. The version I watched was the original Japanese version, so a few characters have different names from their English counterparts and the films’ score is more Japanese and fitting for the characters. In the Americanized version, it has an oddly grunge filled soundtrack featuring songs from groups like Alice in Chains. Between the two versions, it is impossible to recommend the English language version as the original version has both superior voice acting and music. The films’ story follows roughly three subplots as they move towards one inevitable fight. An organization known as Shadowlaw (something of an ultimate terrorist organization) led by their Nazi-esque leader Vega (Takeshi Kusaka) who has “Psycho Powers” is abducting street fighters from around the world in order to brainwash them into becoming super assassins. Chun-Li (Miki Fujitani), an agent from Interpol, conducts a joint investigation with the US Air Force (for some reason) and Major Guile (Masane Tsukayama) in order to shut down this terrorist plot. As all this is happening, the film follows two rival martial artists Ryu and Ken. Ryu (Kōjirō Shimizu) is a wanderer and Ken Masters (Kenji Haga) is a martial artist who fights in more commercial tournaments and makes a pretty good living in the US. They both think about their training days and yearn to fight each other once more. Vega develops in interest in Ryu for his incredible fighting ability and basically the plot turns into a race to see which side can get to him first. There are many characters and the main few are deep enough to have motivation and a real reason for doing what they do, but it is the complex relationship between Ryu and Ken that really sells the film. As students of the same Dojo they are closer than brothers, and yet all that drives them is a competitive spirit that can only be calmed by a fated dual. It is so strong that they hardly ever think of anything else.

The overall plot is relatively simplistic and much of it seems to serve only as a device to stage fights; Ryu literally just wanders around Asia getting into fights. Luckily these fights are incredible. The film features high quality animation and the fight scenes are so carefully choreographed that it combines real martial arts styles with the more exaggerated fictitious ones used in the videogame. The result is fight scenes that are brutal and really stunning to watch. Throughout the film there are three fights that stand out in particular: Ryu fighting Fei-Long (a Bruce Lee-like martial artist who makes movies), Chun-Li getting attacked by the sadistic Balrog (right after a gratuitous shower scene), and the final battle of Ryu and Ken fighting Vega. The final battle is so carefully styled and thought out that it makes for one of the best fight scenes in any movie. Some of the other fights are short and feel a bit forced, like the unnecessary battle between a Russian giant named Zangief and a beast man called Blanka, but this was clearly only included to satisfy fans of the characters. As far as fan service goes, this film is really commendable. No matter what character was your favorite in the game, you will see them in action in this film. It’s as if the director, Gisaburo Sugii, placed more value in making a perfect adaptation that he did a film that could stand on its own apart from the franchise. Another aspect of this film that is worth mentioning is that it is a great example of a martial arts film. It includes all the major components of martial arts fiction: The importance of training ones body and mind, the mystical master-student relationship, the bond that comes with training together, and martial arts skills overcoming something that requires no discipline to use (usually guns, but in this case it's Vega's Psycho Power). While this film is by no means a masterpiece, it is a very entertaining martial arts film with some of the most memorable fight scenes out there.