'I punched him so hard he cried': inside the Street Fighter movie
July 17, 2018 7:23 PM   Subscribe

 
This movie was the first experience I remember of being disappointed at a film. I loooooved Street Fighter 2 - as virtually everyone in my generation did - and was so pumped about this, I thought it would be impossible to screw up. But even as a 12 year old boy, I could see how truly, baffingly, terrible it was.

As an adult, I've retconned the far superior JVCD film, Bloodsport, to be my mental Street Fighter 2 film.
posted by smoke at 7:27 PM on July 17, 2018 [2 favorites]


I knew this movie was dumb even as a kid but I still liked it. It was just ridiculous and campy and never took itself too seriously. I think M Bison (Raul Julia) was the only actor who put in a good performance, his is the only character I can still recall.
posted by chason at 7:38 PM on July 17, 2018 [1 favorite]


And then Street Fighter: The Legend of Chun-Li came out and made this look like Citizen Kane.
posted by Faint of Butt at 7:43 PM on July 17, 2018 [5 favorites]


This movie was the first experience I remember of being disappointed at a film.

For you the day Bison graced your cinema was your very first experience at being disappointed in a film. But for him it was Tuesday.
posted by FJT at 7:44 PM on July 17, 2018 [52 favorites]


if teen!me had to rank the videogame movies that literally felt like it came out of five years of each other, this one is a solid #2, way ahead of Double Dragon. #1 of course, is forever Mortal Kombat. in any case i remember being pumped about Kylie being in this, heh.
posted by cendawanita at 7:47 PM on July 17, 2018 [2 favorites]


Quick! Change the channel!
posted by duffell at 7:54 PM on July 17, 2018 [3 favorites]


Important detail: Raul Julia appeared in this terrible film, dying of stomach cancer, because his kids loved Street Fighter and he wanted to do something silly they would enjoy before he passed away. His entire family was on location with him in Thailand and Australia and he chewed so much scenery you'd think it was salted, clearly having as much of a ball as it is possible to have when you are going out at the top of your game while in agonizing pain. It was 100% Viking glory and I just hope I can do something like that for my kids before I pass away.
posted by xthlc at 8:13 PM on July 17, 2018 [80 favorites]


Also notable for featuring a pre-Mulan Ming-Na Wen, who seems to have barely aged since.
posted by tobascodagama at 8:15 PM on July 17, 2018 [1 favorite]


Duffell, that was my favorite scene and still is. I would rewind and play that part over and over again on the VCR. Now I own it on Blu-ray!
posted by mlo at 9:43 PM on July 17, 2018 [1 favorite]


I love pretty much all of Van Damme’s movies, including this one.
posted by gucci mane at 10:13 PM on July 17, 2018 [1 favorite]


What a great little oral history. This makes me want to re-watch the movie with a little generosity and see these details in action.
posted by BlackLeotardFront at 11:32 PM on July 17, 2018


For you, the day you made this post was the most important day of your life. But for me? It was Tuesday.
posted by Pope Guilty at 4:24 AM on July 18, 2018 [1 favorite]


I only just learned (as a result of this oral history) that they attempted a reboot of sorts in 2009, Street Fighter: The Legend of Chun-Li. I mean why!?! I guess on paper that sounds like a good idea but this video-game is so weird, I don't see how this can be made unless it's an anime film adaptation.
posted by Fizz at 6:00 AM on July 18, 2018


And then Street Fighter: The Legend of Chun-Li came out and made this look like Citizen Kane.


Is that the one with like a 10 minute long shower scene then naked Vega fight?

Because that is my personal Citizen Kane.
posted by OnTheLastCastle at 7:01 AM on July 18, 2018


I don't see how this can be made unless it's an anime film adaptation.

Which came out in 1994.
posted by linux at 12:33 PM on July 18, 2018 [1 favorite]


In the 90s I was friends with one of the actors in this film. Having read this, I'm wishing I got them to tell me more stories from the set.
posted by WalkerWestridge at 4:42 PM on July 18, 2018


> This movie was the first experience I remember of being disappointed at a film.

This seems like a good idea for an AskMe. For me it was Club Paradise, which I guess I went to see because I liked Robin Williams when I was 13?
posted by The Card Cheat at 5:29 PM on July 18, 2018 [1 favorite]


The "It was Tuesday" line is in good company with Natalie Portman's "This is how democracy dies" line from the prequels in that they had no business being such good lines in such awful movies. Though in the Star Wars case you can tease out the thread of actually good political message that the line represents.
posted by Space Coyote at 6:35 PM on July 18, 2018 [4 favorites]


That movie set sounds like the perfect copy of America today. A coked out VanDamme is the star of the movie, throws tantrums, and beds Kylie Minogue while everyone else gets to say a line or two of dialogue and slinks back into the shadows.
posted by The_Vegetables at 8:50 AM on July 19, 2018


Hated it. It was everything wrong about a video game movie.

The formula is pretty simple. It is a fighting game. They all have unique moves and styles. Put in jokes, the styles, the moves, and the special moves. Every fighter has a unique arena in which they fight in. Put in the in-jokes with a wink and a nod to the hardcore video game audience, fast paced soundtrack and you have a hit movie.

Mortal Kombat of course did it all right. That's why it is one of the few that succeeded while others failed.

Video game movies still fail because they can't get this simple thing right. You need to play to the audience, not the general audience.
posted by andryeevna at 1:41 AM on July 20, 2018


Mortal Kombat is on Netflix and I'm not going to say it's good exactly but it's the right kind of bad to keep me happy. The 90's industrial soundtrack doesn't hurt a bit.
posted by Pope Guilty at 12:30 PM on July 20, 2018 [1 favorite]


I love the scene in Mortal Kombat where they are chasing someone through a cavern and the character is brushing aside huge masses of cobwebs blocking the passage and saying, "I think she went this way."
posted by straight at 4:33 PM on July 20, 2018 [2 favorites]


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