Out this week in Irish cinemas is the latest attempt at a decent live-action interpretation of the famed beat ’em up, Street Fighter. Street Fighter has a chequered past when it comes to adaptations; many have attempted, and few have succeeded. The animated adaptations usually capture the spirit, but are never as recognised and the most recognised adaptation is not a good film, save for a bizarrely brilliant performance by Raul Julia.
So this latest iteration has a steep mountain to climb to achieve what has never truly been done. Bring Street Fighter to the mainstream. After watching it, I have to say, I think it succeeded, for the most part. This is down to the majority of the cast being absolutely brilliant, in particular Andrew Koji, Noah Centineo and Calina Liang. They know the kind of film they’re in: an off-the-walls martial arts thriller, with tons of cheesy dialogue and obnoxious visual effects to match.
The premise is one I was not expecting but loved: the first tournament has already happened, and Ryu is the champion. Unfortunately, his impressive fighting skills awaken an ancient evil, and when tragedy strikes, he leaves everyone who cares about him behind as he goes into self-imposed exile. This leaves his brother-in-arms Ken crestfallen. Without his brother and his dojo, Ken spirals and becomes a mockery of what he once was. However, years later another tournament is being arranged, and Ken sees this as his chance. There will be challengers ahead, as well as dark forces conspiring for their own nefarious needs.
Fight!
I have to say, I had a lot of fun with Street Fighter; the fights are inventive and a lot of fun. The characters are brilliantly bonkers, and there is a real sense of charming anarchy with how the director has approached this particular version of Street Fighter. Visually, Street Fighter is gorgeous, with lush and vibrant backdrops; the city of Metrolao is a neon-soaked death trap.
The character dynamics, for the most part, are brilliant. Ryu (Koji) and Ken (Centineo) are sweet together, and you can feel the love lost between these two. There was a genuine bond between them, and because of a horrific moment in their lives, they lost each other. Both actors are brilliant as this legendary duo. Liang is great as Chun-Li; she’s determined, vengeful and ready to do anything to achieve her goals.
Where the film began to falter for me was in the execution of the tournament itself. I don’t know what it is about tournaments, but directors are afraid of just portraying them on the big screen. We don’t see much of the tournament; it’s really the machinations of M.Bison (David Dastmalchian) and our heroes trying to stop him that take centre stage. Also, the arena is the least visually interesting part of the film. Which is a real shame because there are so many iconic locations from literally decades of games to pull from. Thankfully, the film does make up for this with some visually intense battles dotted around the rest of the film. A fight between Ken and Ryu in the third act is a particular highlight.
In the shadow of a legend
Another severe issue with Street Fighter is, sadly, its villain: M.Bison is not interesting. Dastmalchian is trying so hard to be menacing, but it comes across as clownish. And maybe that’s the problem: he’s trying too hard. There is even dialogue pulled from Raul Julia himself to try and evoke some manner of iconography, but sadly it falls flat on its face.
Street Fighter also doesn’t really have an ending, which is frustrating. It will hopefully pay off if the film does well, which I think it will. There is a certain ineffable charm to this film; it’s wild, it’s cartoonish, but there is a heart to it that I found thrilling. It might not be the champion we were hoping for, but Street Fighter is a worthy challenger that has a lot of heart and humour to it.
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