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Retro Review: Street Fighter: The Legend Of Chun-Li

The infamous Capcom Street Fighter series has been around since the late '80s, and it has become one of the most popular and widespread video game franchises of all time. Infused with characters, backstories and fighting styles based on Eastern culture, it has been a reliable mainstay on consoles and in arcades.

In fact, the Street Fighter franchise is popular enough that it has even branched off into other gaming forums. Capcom itself has released app gaming versions for a new generation (with, surprisingly, pretty solid arcade style gameplay). And even at the BetFair arcade site, you can find Street Fighter's influence. The site features various slot machine and jackpot options with popular character themes. And right alongside other favourites like the Avengers, Batman, and Spider-Man, there's a "Street Fighter II" game for fans of the series.

All that being said, the Street Fighter franchise has never quite managed to have a great film to its name. I recently went back to take a fresh look at the 2009 film Street Fighter: The Legend Of Chun-Li, and I can say with absolute confidence that it's no exception.

A modern take on the Street Fighter characters, The Legend Of Chun-Li has a basic premise that truthfully could have been good enough for a fun film. Chun-Li (Kristin Kreuk) sees her father Xiang abducted by infamous franchise villain M. Bison (Neal McDonough) and goes on to grow up on her own (becoming a stellar concert pianist). That is until Bison surfaces publicly running the Shadaloo company, and Chun-Li's journey is kicked off by a mysterious ancient Chinese scroll.

Chun-Li travels to Bangkok as directed by the scroll, and meets up with Master Gen, essentially to practice patience while learning more about Bison. Meanwhile, interpol agent Charlie Nash (Chris Klein) has also arrived in Bangkok, and is naturally mixed up in investigating Bison as well. From this point on, it's essentially Gen, Nash and Chun-Li facing off against Bison and his henchmen. At the end of the film, after the final showdown, there's a brief hint at a sequel, with Gen mentioning that a talented fighter named Ryu has surfaced, but Chun-Li declines any interest in the matter, leaving sequel potential ambiguous.

I'm hoping that if Street Fighter is approached by filmmakers again, it's in the form of a remake or reboot and not the possible sequel. Quite frankly, Street Fighter: The Legend Of Chun-Li misses on every level, especially casting, action, and plot line.

The casting of Kreuk (who is originally from Vancouver) as arguably the most iconic Chinese female fighter of all time was strange to say the least. To be fair, the actress is of Chinese and Dutch descent, but why not go with someone more true to the character's roots? Anyway, Chris Klein worked as Charlie (in a sort of goon-ish, Keanu Reeves way) and McDonough was a decent Bison. But where the film really lost itself, aside from a glaringly awful script full of misplaced dramatic weight and horrible one-liners, was in modernizing far too much. There's just an excessive focus on firearms, and not enough hand-to-hand combat in a film that, after all, was based on a combat video game series! Maybe they'll get it right next time?

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