News of a new Street Fighter-based movie got the audiences and fans wondering how moviemakers will pull this off. Despite being a box office bomb, the very first Street Fighter movie (starred by Van Damme and Raul Julia) gained cult status. The plethora of well-known Street Fighter characters had their share of the spotlight, staying as close to the game's description as possible. And who could forget Raul Julia's Oscar-worthy portrayal of M.Bison? The Street Fighter genre returns to the silverscreen in the form of "The Legend of Chun-Li." Will it live up to the hype?

Street Rep

Chun-Li's supposed legend is the typical story filled with emotion and usury. As a child, Chun-Li wanted to be a piano player, but also loved learning tai chi from her dad. In a twist of events, she witnessed his father taken away by M.Bison. Strangely enough, no one from the family was smart enough to report the incident and, instead, let it fly until a few years later. Chun-Li, now an accomplished pianist, has seen her mother pass away out of old age and depression. Having left alone, Chun-Li sets out on a journey to find M.Bison and her father. She sidetracks to find Gen, a master of the martial arts. She trains and hones her skills in fighting with Gen, and along the way, eventually acquire more information about M.Bison's whereabouts. In the end, she finds her father (and dies in the hands of Bison), kills M.Bison and saves a whole country from the evil man's greed. (By the way, Nash was there too)

Fighting Chances

First impressions of the movie had this feeling of being a low-budget flick. Advertising had the lackluster feel. The trailers felt like it was showing a second-rate movie. Fans of the Street Fighter lore were divided, one being cautiously ecstatic, and the other critiquing the lackluster feel of it.

The setting took place in different locations, but for the most part, located in Bangkok. The scenes in the movie were unexpectedly unique. The environment was located in the slum area, which was filmed in an artistic point of view. It portrayed both the bustling and dark side of the slum area with visual flair.
The plot, however, was too simplistic. It felt like an old Steven Seagal direct-to-DVD B-rated movie. The protagonist goes commando on the perpetrators of her father's abduction, but it took her so many years to take action. It makes you think why the family ignored the one thing they could have done: report the matter to the authorities. Surely, we can go for the "powerful underground organization" plot device, which can explain the authorities unable to take action. But somehow, in the story, the Shadaloo (organization that M.Bison was in) wasn't convincing enough to be "powerful" and "influential." What about Interpol's chase for M.Bison? Although they were on the case, Nash (part of Interpol's team) could barely do squat to uncover everything about Bison. All Nash and his partner did was talk about the common dialogue: "We have to catch this guy." The movie gave Interpol a bad name, relying on one outsider to expose M.Bison for who he is and taking him down. Surely, the authorities can do better than that.

What is Street Fighter without fight scenes? The movie has an adequate number of fight scenes to show, but nothing as flamboyant as the game or Van Damme's flick. The fight scenes, for the most part, looked more choreographed than realistic. Rarely will you find Street Fighter's popular moves, or be impressed by the "action-packed" scenes.