The Legend of Chun-Li
I remember playing Street Fighter during my younger days. It was one of the most popular video game franchises around and even spawned a live-action movie starring Jean-Claude Van Damme. The 1994 movie tried squeezing every character and ended up being really cheesy (but hey, we all loved it anyway). Which brings us to Street Fighter: The Legend of Chun-Li, Capcom’s second attempt at bringing the franchise to the big screen. Chun-Li is one of the most popular characters in the game after Ken and Ryu, and her back-story has never properly been told… until now.
Taking place before the famous tournament in the game, the story revolves around Hong Kong-based Chun-Li (Kristin Kreuk), whose successful businessman father dreams of her being a concert pianist. He also taught her martial arts from a young age, resulting in the young fighter we all know and love. Unfortunately one day he gets abducted by a crime lord named Bison (Neal McDonough) and Chun-Li grows up presuming her father is dead. Later on she receives news that her father is alive, which brings her to Bangkok in search of the mysterious Gen (Robin Shou). It also turns out that Bison has by now become an underground crime overlord in Bangkok through an organisation called the Shadaloo.
Kristin Kreuk had received much criticism since the announcement that she was to play Chun-Li. Despite being half-Chinese, many found her not ‘Chinese-enough’, while others doubted her ability to assume the role of the popular thunder-thighed heroine (yours truly among them). Upon watching the movie, my doubts were gladly extinguished. She played the role beautifully, kicking enemy butt while looking gorgeous all the way. The director paid attention to the game character, so you can even play ‘spot the game moves’ throughout the movie.
The same sadly can’t be said about Chris Klien, who plays Interpol Officer Charlie Nash, who is after Bison for his gruesome crimes, and teams up with local officer Maya (Moon Bloodgood). Chris’ acting seems forced and was made worse by the fact that his and Maya’s roles existed merely to show there was Interpol involvement which I found rather redundant.
Had that bit been removed, perhaps it would have allowed more screen time for Chun-Li to have longer battles with Vega (Taboo of Black-Eyed Peas) and Balrog (Michael Clarke Duncan), who seemed to be the actor having the most fun with his role.
The fight scenes are the strong points of the film, with excellent choreography, backed by a great soundtrack, which is very action-oriented. For instance, Chun-Li’s hard-hitting flying kicks are accompanied by well-paced hard-thumping beats that get you into the kung-fu fighter mood.
Street Fighter: The Legend of Chun-Li is an interesting realistic approach to the franchise, marred only in part by some of the cast’s poor acting. I also wished the costumes of the characters were similar to the game; then again, it would have ended up like the previous flick.
Overall, Street Fighter provides for an entertaining outing, and fans may rest assured that hair-buns, outfits and moves will all meet with their approval. Chun-Li even gets to use the Kikouken - oops, did I let something out? Watch for yourself and find out!
2.5 out of 5 Stars
No comments:
Post a Comment