Review of Street Fighter - The Legend of Chun Li
July 3, 2009 by
Filed under Reviews
Released on DVD June 30th 2009
Adaptations. Somewhere in your cinema viewing experience, you’ve come across one. Many of them come from books modified for the big screen. Not all of them, due to many internal and extraneous factors, are successful. The Rambo series, very successful, came from ‘First Blood’, by David Morrell, an excellent writer. ‘The Firm’, by John Grisham, a damn good book. Loved it. Movie adaptation? Big letdown.
Lately, video games and comic books have also become a potential blockbuster source, again depending on many factors. Anyone remember the very first ‘Punisher’ with Dolph Lungren? Ouch. On the other side of the spectrum we have ‘Iron Man’. Sweet.
One underlying item that these various sources have in common - they have a built in audience very familiar with the story line and the characters. Many times this familiarity works against the adaptation. Purist expect to see exactly what they fell in love with from the original. To receive a fair assessment of an adapted movie, the viewer must have an open mind and flush their preconceived expectations.
Never having played the video game, I can say I come into Street Fighter: The Legend of Chun-Li with an open mind.
This Street Fighter is the second movie to be created after the video game series, the first being Jean Claude Van Damme’s 1994 Street Fighter. Updated with a different look and feel, the movie begins with the youth and innocence of Chun Li, aspiring to become a concert pianist, also being guided by her father Xiang in the arts of Wushu. As all innocent dreams and hopes of the young, Chun Li is introduced to the cruel side of life one evening, when Bison and his ne’er do well band of miscreants (the second in command none other than the deep bass voiced Michael Clarke Duncan as Balrog. Loved him as Frankie Figgs in The Whole Nine Yards) take Xiang away, never to be seen by Chun Li again.
We are then taken to an older Chun Li, (Kristin Kreuk, Smallville’s Lana Lang) now an accomplished concert pianist, where events are shaping and directing her life in a different path. A subway mugging of a man with a spider webbed tattoo on his hand. An ancient Chinese scroll. What does it all mean? Fate guides Chun Li to an old woman who deciphers the scroll, again revealing the spider webbed symbol. And a life changing journey from Hong Kong to Bangkok in search of a man named Gen.
A late night back alley brawl leads our heroine to the mysterious Gen, or rather he finds her. Out cold. (Yes, she did win the fight. After all, there were only five of them). We are now introduced to the master / pupil part of the movie, where Chun Li discovers her father is still alive, a captive of Bison (Neal McDonough, by the way, who seems to revel in movie parts as a sleazy villain with visions of grandeur). Of course, this is where Chun Li’s emotions run ahead of her smarts, desiring to retrieve her father and teach Bison a thing or two about manners and late night visits. Gen, (Robin Chou. Yes, Mortal Kombat lives on!), an ex-compatriot of Bison’s, shows her the true way and instructs Chun Li how to tap into and direct her inner powers to work for her. Now armed with smarts and a new found spirit, Chun Li discovers Bison is a big shot slum lord who dresses better than the usual street sleaze, and is located where else but Shadoloo HQ, right in the heart of Bangkok.
As a side interest, we are also given the pleasure of Moon Bloodgood as a crime task force inspector (very nice eye candy, too) and Chris Klein as an Interpol agent. Both hellbent on bringing down Bison, intent on increasing the crime rate, driving out the poor, and cheaply purchasing as much Bangkok property his greedy hands can manage. After all, how else is he going to develop his own real estate kingdom? The rat bastard.
Now into the inner meat of the movie, we discover all three sides are after the White Rose. A weapon of destruction (aren’t they all?) or something else just as sinister? The chase is on to see who obtains the mysterious White Rose first.
As a movie of depth, this isn’t Robert Redford and Meryl Streep gazing towards purple hued majestic mountain ranges as the sun sets on our two award winning stars. On the other hand, it isn’t as cheesy as Van Damme’s flick. It tries to take itself more seriously, but doesn’t raise the excitement level very high, if at all. The fight scenes aren’t awe inspiring (I’m still waiting for someone to top Trinity’s opening Matrix scene. Remember when your jaw hit the floor watching that?)
Observing Kristin Kreuk go thru the paces, I kept waiting for an unknown tougher older sister of Chun Li’s to appear and show her sibling how kicking ass is really done. Where a video game movie such as Mortal Kombat was expected to be over the top, and certainly delivered the goods, Street Fighter doesn’t give the viewer anything that hasn’t been seen or done already, and a lot better. And livelier.
Rent Street Fighter if you’re in the mood for something, but don’t expect to increase your martial arts skills picking up valuable Wushu tips from this one.
A redeeming factor? Moon Bloodgood did make my heart skip a few beats. OK, several.
Get it from Amazon.com: Street Fighter: The Legend of Chun Li
Get it from Amazon.co.uk: Street Fighter: The Legend of Chun-Li [DVD] [2009] [Region 1] [US Import] [NTSC]
