“Legend of Chun-Li” review
by V.E. on October 1st, 2009
filed under anime/manga, recap/review
So, I thought I’d have about a Twitter-length worth of writing for Street Fighter: Legend of Chun-Li (IMDb), but it looks like I actually do have a (short) review.
Basically, it’s this: it wasn’t a complete waste of time, but it wasn’t awesome or anything, either. I love me some Chun-Li—she was the first female playable character in a fighting game, after all—and I wasn’t disappointed, but my expectations were pretty low.
The basic run-down
Obligatory growing-up montage, creepy man (Bison) comes and takes father away, skip ahead ten years, and “school girl” (yes, she’s actually called that) isn’t so little any more. Heads to Bangkok, living on the streets montage, older/wiser master (Gen) finds her and teaches her to control her temper, learn signature move (which is apparently not Lightning Kick or Spinning Bird Kick, but actually reminds me more of Kamehameha… though she does use both of those kicks in the movie), gratuitous almost-lesbian scene in dance club, obligatory ass-kicking in dance club. Revenge for death of father, which happened right in front of her. Master/teacher helps out, as does Charlie (who introduces himself by saying, “You can call me Nash” hahaha). Bison is defeated, “school girl” goes back to normal life after turning down chance to fight in a competition called “Street Fighter” against “some guy called Ryu something” (biggest hint for a sequel ever).
There is, of course, a lot of hand-to-hand combat, but there’s a fair amount of gunfighting as well. Bison’s a bastard all around; Balrog and Vega are in it, but Balrog’s basically just the physical power behind the throne, so to speak, though Bison proves he can fight, too, later in the movie; Vega’s only in it because he’s “best for dirty jobs” of Bison’s, whatever the hell that means. It doesn’t matter, anyway; he has his ass handed to him by Chun-Li and she barely breaks a sweat doing it.
There’s a serious women-in-refrigerators moment when Bison and Balrog are in the weight room using the punching bags. The camera pulls back on Bison and we see that his punching bag is actually Cantana, Bison’s black widow of a woman who gives up important information about “The White Rose” to Chun-Li in the bathroom of a dance club. Luckily (I guess), Cantana is already dead by the time Bison uses her for a punching bag (literally), but that didn’t make it any easier to swallow.
I felt a connection with Chun-Li when she said, “What I found [in Bangkok], I wasn’t prepared for. Everywhere I looked, there was crime without punishment. I wanted to do something, anything, but I just didn’t know where to begin.” I understand her frustration. I know what that feels like. And, since I wasn’t expecting much, the soundtrack was actually pretty good, too. All in all, though, it was just an “eh” movie. I mean, there were no surprises I hadn’t already guessed, and the rivalry/sexual tension between the two police officers (Charlie and Maya Sunee) was totally contrived. The most interesting character, Cantana, (well, I thought she was most interesting, but that may be because she’s an unapologetic lesbian villainess) is the first main character to die, and that’s totally unfair.
I wouldn’t watch it again, and I wouldn’t recommend it to anyone else unless that person was a die-hard Chun-Li or Street Fighter fan, but I also don’t want those two hours back, either. It wasn’t awesome, but it wasn’t terrible.
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What interests me is the movie posters (click each for larger). I found five, which I’m separating by language (as far as I can tell). The first two are American.
In the white-themed one, the first thing that strikes me is that the kicking character and the man being kicked are… not good renditions of anyone in the movie. At first glance, it looks like Vega’s totally eating it, but he has no hair (and no evil Wolverine claws), so I can’t really decide who that guy is. The other guy (the kicker) is… well, he’s a guy. This movie is about Chun-Li, so shouldn’t she be doing the kicking? I thought for a minute it was Gen, but this guy has short hair and Gen’s is long. It could be Charlie, I guess, but (in the movie) he never uses any non-gun weapon. The tagline, “Some fight for power. Some fight for us”, is really only half true. Bison certainly fights for power; that’s true. But until Chun-Li comes along, he’s not really fighting so much as railroading everyone in his way. The second sentence is only partly true. Gen fights “for us”, and he teaches Chun-Li, but really, she’s fighting for revenge, not “us”. Inside the two fighting men are (from the top, down) Bison, Vega, Balrog (I keep wanting to type -Gamble- for this guy, damn me*), Maya Sunee (who some people apparently believe to be Viper, though that never comes up in the movie), Chun-Li, and Charlie. No one really stands out more than any of the others, so I’m somewhat indifferent.
*Points if you know to whom I’m referring when I say “Gamble”…
Of the two, I like the brown poster better. Chun-Li is obviously highlighted on the right, and on the left are (from the top) Bison, Balrog, Vega, Gen, and Charlie. It makes for a good balance of “good guys” (Chun-Li, Gen, and Charlie) and “bad guys” (Bison, Balrog, and Vega). The tagline, “Her strength. Her fury. Her vengeance. Will become legend”, is more truthful as well. In this light, the movie is obviously about revenge (which it is). I don’t know about it “becoming legend”, though. That’s up for grabs, though I’m leaning toward not.
The third one is Spanish (I think).
I noticed two things about this one. First, the detective Maya Sunee (far left) seems to only be on this poster to create gender balance; Vega (on top) is most prominent, then Chun-Li
(on the right), and then Maya Sunee, Charlie, and Bison. Maya isn’t that big of a character; Gen has a bigger part than her… or Balrog. Either way, though, the poster might be considered a sausagefest if the only woman on it was Chun-Li, title character or not. The other thing I noticed was that Vega is given a much more important position on this poster, implying he’s the primary villain, than he has in the movie. If they wanted him on the poster, his position should be switched with Bison’s. Bison is, after all, the main antagonist, not Vega.
Finally, the two Japanese posters (I think they’re both Japanese; I know one is, not sure about the other).
The poster on the left follows the same basic idea as the American one above does: kicker, kickee, faces in the dark. Right. There are some significant (and better, I think) differences. First, the kicker on this poster is obviously Chun-Li. Anyone who’s played a Street Fighter game knows her hairstyle, and that’s her. Also, the guy being kicked is more obviously Vega since he has the Wolverine claws (on the wrong hand compared to the movie, but we can’t be too picky) even though he still has no hair. I really don’t understand the emphasis on Vega; he’s in the movie for like 7 minutes total… I’m not even joking. Anyway, the blue dress and hair buns are reminiscent of Chun-Li’s style, and the fire in the background offsets the color well. Overall, it’s a much better poster than the American one.
That last poster is, by far, my favorite. It’s simple, striking, and lets the title character breathe (metaphorically, in the space on the poster) without competing with other faces or action which would draw the eye away from the focal point. I like Chun-Li’s blue eyes, but in the movie they’re brown. The yellow stripe on her Mandarin-collar jacket is an elegant touch. That said, this poster is obviously relying on the viewer to have already heard of the Street Fighter name and isn’t trying to tell the story or introduce any secondary characters. I might consider that daring if it wasn’t Street Fighter, of all things. Who hasn’t heard of SF??
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Oookay, so that ended up being a much longer review than I meant it to be. Sorry, guys. ^_^;; For Street Fighter updates, check out ReelMovieNews.
