(Not) Love Actually: Street Fighter

Christmas, 1994.  My mom took me to see Street Fighter at the same local theater where she had taken me to see Masters of the Universe 7 years earlier.  While SF wouldn't have the lasting impact on me as Masters did, I enjoyed the flick then and still do.  So what better way to cap off my weekend where I watched, read, played and wrote about Street Fighter than to take in the hugely hyped adaptation starring none other than The Real JC...VD, Jean-Claude Van Damme?  Much like the comic book adaptation craze we're currently experiencing, the early days of video games to cinema screens has been fraught with disappointments and failed expectations.  Street Fighter was one of the first of it's kind following the financial and critical debacle of Super Mario Brothers in 1993.  Having already boasted $1.5 billion dollars worth of quarters fueled revenue from arcade and home console gaming, Capcom was ready to take their next step: a big budget, Hollywood epic.  Independent producer Edward R. Pressman (Badlands, Conan, Masters, Wall Street) obtained the rights and immediately began accepting pitches as Capcom wanted the film released at Christmas of 1994.

Steven E. de Souza, a billion dollar writer with Die Hard, Commando, 48 Hours and many more titles to his credit landed a meeting with Pressman on the condition that he could direct as well as script.  Pressman acquiesced and de Souza went on a writing frenzy to finish his pitch in time to meet with Capcom executives.  Seeing the video game as simply fighting with no backstory, de Souza envisioned the film as a war story meets James Bond movie.  For the lead, Capcom had done a worldwide poll of gamers to determine who they wanted to play Guile, the American Air Force fighter known for his Sonic Boom and Flash Kick.  Jean-Claude Van Damme, the high kicking martial arts action hero hot off the success of inspiration for the game Bloodsport, Universal Soldier and Hard Target was the clear favorite.  de Souza and Pressman hit the studio trail to find a home and were quickly turned down by everyone in town due to Super Mario Brothers' lackluster performance.  Tom Pollack, long a Jean-Claude Van Damme supporter, brought Street Fighter to Universal and along with Capcom, financed and released the $35 million dollar production.  Scheduled for a 69 day shoot in Australia and Thailand, world kickboxing champion Benny "The Jet" Urquidez was brought in to train the actors, putting them through 3 workouts a day training cardio, martial arts and weights.  Legendary stuntman and 2nd Unit Director Charles Picerni would help train the cast and handle the big action sequences while 6-time Academy Award nominated cinematographer William A. Fraker would be on hand to assist the novice director. 

Van Damme was just finishing the time traveling action and romantic thriller Timecop for Universal and was about to move on to Sudden Death, a take on the Die Hard formula where a lone man takes on a group of terrorists, only this time in a hockey arena.  To fit Street Fighter into his tight scheduling window, Van Damme walked away with $7.2 million bucks, double his Timecop salary for just 6 weeks work in Thailand and Australia.  Raul Julia was the said first choice for mad warlord and dictator M. Bison while Mina-Na Wen was recruited to play revenge seeking journalist Chun-Li and The Last of the Mohican's Wes Studi came in to play gun runner Sagat.  Former actress and pop singer Kylie Minogue was a last minute addition to the cast, playing Guile's right hand woman, Cammy.  Young and fresh faced actors Byron Mann and Damian Chapa landed the roles of Ryu and Ken, the karate fighting stars of the video game, here turned into low rent operators that become spies for Guile's network.  The supporting cast of Dhalsim, Balrog, E. Honda, Vega, Zangief, T. Hawk, Blanka and Dee Jay were filled by the established and newcomer likes of Roshan Seth, Grand L. Bush, Peter Navy Tuiasosopo, Jay Tavare, Andrew Bryniarski, Gregg Rainwater, Miguel A. Nunez Jr. and Robert Mammone.  If you're keeping track, that's 15 characters from the video game appearing in the film.  The only character left out was movie star and Bruce Lee knock off/homage Fei Long.  Instead, a new character, Captain Sawada was introduced played by Capcom favorite Kenya Sawada.

Street Fighter starts quick, delving right into the world of the film with a nice use of the Universal logo turning into the movie title card.  Immediately we're thrown into a wall of international news broadcasts telling us about M. Bison, the self styled warlord of Shadaloo who has kidnapped a group of Aid workers and is holding them for a $20 BILLION dollar ransom.  Allied Nations Commander Colonel William Guile (Van Damme, with blonde hair and guttural "American" accent) has a personal vendetta to squash Bison as the warlord is a murderer and has now inadvertently kidnapped his buddy Charlie.  News reporter Chun-Li and her camera crew of Balrog and Honda are on the case, trying to get close to Bison while Ryu and Ken get caught selling toy guns to crime boss Sagat and his cohort Vega.  Sagat, Vega, Ryu and Ken all get picked up in an AN sweep at an underground street fight.  Guile learns that Sagat is running guns to Bison and hatches a plan to infiltrate Ryu and Ken into his gang, thus leading them to Bison's secret base.  With the location discovered and time running out, Guile and his troops stage a massive, seaside assault on Bison's fortress.  There's guns and rockets galore topside while below the surface, one on one bouts break out between Honda and Zangief, Ryu and Ken versus Vega and Sagat and finally, Guile comes face to face with Bison.  Oh, and Dhalsim is running genetic and psychological experiments on Charlie, turning him into man-beast Blanka.  Got all that?

To hype the film, Capcom digitized all of the cast to be part of Street Fighter III, which would use actors on green screen a la Mortal Kombat instead of the traditional, animated programming of the games up to that point.  Hasbro released a line of Street Fighter toys (repainted G.I. Joes) and there were trading card tie-ins, magazines, comic books and more.  Being Van Damme's first PG-13 rating, expectations were huge and it looked like Van Damme might break through to the next level of action hero appeal, joining the likes of Steven Seagal, Arnold Schwarzenegger and Sylvester Stallone.  Hitting theaters on Friday, 12.23 on 1,671 screens, Street Fighter opened up at # 3 behind 2nd week champ Dumb and Dumber and 7 week old release The Santa Clause, earning $6.8 million on it's way to a $33 million dollar gross.  It was a crowded holiday weekend as Street Fighter topped 5 additional wide releases including Richie Rich, Little Women and The Jungle Book, which would all end up having more stamina and out grossing SF.  Domestically, SF lost the momentum of Van Damme's previous effort, the September released Timecop but grossed more than starring vehicles Double Impact, Hard Target and Nowhere to Run.  Internationally, the film would make it to $100 million, further solidifying Van Damme's global appeal.  However, the film was ravaged by critics and gamers alike who saw it as a botched interpretation of the game with it's straying from the core concept of street fighting, it's tongue in cheek humor and differences in appearance between characters in the game and movie.

Me?  I enjoy the flick.  It's big, fun and doesn't take itself too seriously.  Honestly, I think it was ahead of it's time.  I always say that this isn't a Street Fighter movie but it is the best G.I. Joe movie ever made.  If you look at the costumed army hordes of Hydra in Captain America or the Cobra troopers in G.I. Joe's two movies, you can see how Street Fighter did it first 20 years ago.  But being first out of the gate is always rough so Street Fighter was cast off as a piece of cheesy garbage that further proved you can't make a good movie from a video game.  Sure there's a lot going on but de Souza handles the multitude of characters pretty well.  X-Men 3 and Origins: Wolverine suffered from too many cameos and unnecessary characters whereas Street Fighter cleverly used the compressed availability of it's star to give the other roles more light.  Ryu and Ken get the most fight scenes in the flick while grouping Cammy and Tee Hawk with Guile, Bison with Zangief and Dee Jay, Sagat with Vega then Chun-Li with Balrog and E. Honda keeps them all fresh in our minds for the most part.  Sure, the use of Dhalsim and Blanka is a little thin but hey, there's 15 characters to keep track of here and to keep things running lean and mean, certain character building scenes had to be cut.  Action wise, there's a nice variety throughout with rough and tumble fist and feet fights, crashing trucks, gun fights, shootouts, explosions, destruction, military invading and the like.

Production values are still pretty impressive thanks to William Creber's (Planet of the Apes, Towering Inferno) design with huge sets for Bison's lair showcasing a wall of video monitors, a training facility and hostage pit while the exterior is a big, Thai style temple giving the film a vast, James Bond feeling.  The attention to detail is solid as well with Bison and AN logos posted everywhere, news casts playing in the background and random radio DJ and robot announcer telling us jokes and factoids throughout.  Graeme Revell's score gives the film a big, driving feel while the crammed in hip-hop infused soundtrack features a team up for the ages:  M.C. Hammer and Deion Sanders!  The bad troops are decked out in red tinged armored outfits with G.I. Joe style mask/helmets while the AN forces look sharp in their blue toned camouflage fatigues and old school metal helmets.  In this day and age where fanboys get upset nobody is in their comic book costume, Street Fighter should be applauded for getting EVERYONE into their video game duds by the end of the flick.  Guile and Ken's hair might not be spot on translations but come on, a big ol' flatop and Fabio style locks wouldn't have worked either.  Along with the costumes, many of the special moves from the game are included as well as dialog straight from the arcade console.  The film's sense of humor might have turned off some viewers but I think there's a nice balance between the laughs and action.  It keeps the tone light and the pace lithe as it's only 40 minutes into the movie and we're already prepping the invasion for the climax and conclusion.  Van Damme plays Guile tough yet amusing and makes jokes at his own expense, further showing his sense of self and even gets to deliver a rousing, pre-attack speech inspired by the D-Day invasion anniversary during filming and his families own struggles during World War II.  Raul Julia eats up the scenery in a fun performance as the power mad dictator while everyone on board does a good job of inhabiting their characters, even when some are written more absurdly than others.

While the film wasn't a huge success or failure, I'm sure it didn't live up to expectations from the studios.  Street Fighter marked the beginning of Van Damme's career slide as he fought with drug, alcohol and marital woes along with weak scripts and lack of professional focus.  Raul Julia was fighting stomach cancer during production and sadly passed away shortly after filming completed.  Steven E. de Souza would not be handed the reins to another big budget picture again and his writing efforts gave us the mangled Judge Dredd adaptation starring Sylvester Stallone (I'm a supporter though) and Van Damme's gonzo, Hong Kong action flick Knock Off.  Wes Studi still had Heat, Mystery Men and Avatar in his future while Byron Mann would work alongside the likes of Mark Dacascos, Richard Gere, Chow-Yun Fat, Mark Wahlberg, Steven Seagal and Halle Berry in film and TV roles.  Damian Chapa would become his own movie making factory, pumping out low budget DTV flicks.  Ming-Na Wen is one of the most recognizable Asian actresses in the game thanks to stints on E.R., Two and a Half Men and Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. while Kylie Minogue has sold something like 70 million records worldwide.

Cut to today and recent video game adaptation Need For Speed did middling business upon release while Mark Wahlberg, The Rock, Jake Gyllenhal and Jason Statham have all struck out in bringing video games to life.  Financially, the only series to make the successful leap to film has been Capcom's own Resident Evil but even that was derided for not being faithful to it's source material.  The man behind it, Paul W.S. Anderson, was also responsible for arguably the best video game adaptation movie, Mortal Kombat.  Released the summer after Street Fighter, MK stuck to it's simple formula of a fighting tournament with supernatural aspects and delivered a fast, fun and entertaining martial arts flick.  The sequel became a nonsensical, visual translation of the game and did half the business of the original.  Same thing with Angelina Jolie in Tomb Raider where part I wasn't great and the sequel was released to little interest and less box office.  As for Street Fighter, a big budget reboot, The Legend of Chun-Li, was released in 2009 to poor reviews and an embarrassing box office take of $8.7 million clams.  Game over, indeed.

Street Fighter Sunday: Assassin's Fist

This whole Street Fighter weekend kicked off because web series Assassin's Fist dropped all 12 episodes onto YouTube Friday.  2010's fan film, Street Fighter: Legacy was an effort from SF super fan, martial artist and filmmaker Joey Ansah to make a faithful adaptation of the worldwide phenomenon following two less than well received big screen attempts.  4 years and 5 million views later, Ansah and company have completed their follow up, a 12 part prequel of sorts to the Street Fighter II storyline featuring video game stalwarts Ken and Ryu as well as their karate fighting, fireball throwing, dragon punching predecessors Gouken and Goki.  The short and series were given the blessing of Capcom, the company behind the Street Fighter franchise as well as games like Mega Man, Resident Evil, Final Fight, Devil May Cry and Strider.  Assassin's Fist attempted to go the crowd fundraising route via Kickstarter but private investors stepped in to finance the shindig.  Shooting in Bulgaria in the Summer of 2013, Assassin's Fist is being streamed online via Machinima with plans to combine the 12 episodes into 6 for television then re-edited into a television movie and finally a full, uncut version for DVD/Blu-Ray.  Phew!

Assassin's Fist comes on the heels of rival fighting franchise Mortal Kombat going the web series route after director Kevin Tancharoen made a purported $7,500.00 short film over a weekend to sell his idea to Warner Brothers.  A feature film was never greenlit but Tancharoen and company have produced 2 seasons and 26 episodes of Mortal Kombat for the internet and gaming audience while garnering 10's of millions of views. I don't think Street Fighter is going to reach those heights as Assassin's Fist is a noble effort and will be appreciated by hardcore fans but there might not be enough here to keep casual fans coming back.  Director, writer and co-star Ansah got his start as a martial artist/stuntman/fight choreographer best known for a fight scene with Matt Damon in The Bourne Ultimatum.  Teaming up with Christian Howard, a fellow with the same interests and fringe movie making credits, the duo set out to make the ultimate Street Fighter adaptation drawn from the lore of the video games and comic books.  While their intentions, passion and attention to detail are to be commended, I think they stuck a little too close to the games and comics and didn't let the concept breathe in order to be translated to another medium.

The story follows Ken (Howard) and Ryu (Mike Moh taking over for Legacy's John Foo), teenagers training karate in the remote hills and mountains of Japan.  Ryu was found wandering the woods as a child and is adopted by Gouken and taught the ways of the warrior and Ansatsuken (Assassin's Fist) style.  Ken's father knows Gouken somehow and following the loss of his wife, sends Ken to Gouken to straighten out while he fixes the family business.  I'm not sure if they go back to school in the fall a la 3 Ninjas but cut to 10 years later and the duo are strapping teenagers (played by 30 year olds) and ready to take their training to the next level.  The only problem is, the last guys who did Ansatsuken were Gouken, his rival Goki and their sensei, Gotetsu.  We learn that Goki tapped into the dark hado (spiritual energy or ki) and was consumed with harnessing it's power and becoming the lone master of Ansatsuken which transforms him into video game villain Akuma (Ansah with Lou Ferrigno Hulk like prosthetics and a red wig).  While Ken and Ryu are learning to use hado for their famous fireballs aka Hadoken, Ryu unknowingly taps into the dark side.

It's these two parallel story lines that make Assassin's Fist something special as well as alienating.  For fans of the video game or Mortal Kombat series, there is a distinct lack of familiar characters from the franchise involved.  Ken, Ryu and Akuma are staples of the SF franchise while Gouken and Gotetsu get their histories illuminated in the comic series.  There's a mention of future playable characters Gen and Dan but that's about it.  Surprisingly, much of the drama unfolds in the past with Gouken, Goki, Gotetsu (geez, like G's much, Capcom?) and the coming of Akuma.  These segments are all in Japanese with subtitles and if the lackluster performance of The Raid 2 has taught us anything, American's don't exactly love their action flicks with subtitles.  Especially ones who are most likely going to have this playing in a small window on their larger computer display as background noise.

Also, for a series called Street Fighter, there's not a lot of actual fighting going on.  Sure there's plenty of training scenes, quiet kata performances and introspection happening but the namesake action of the show seems to have been replaced by Batman Begins like needing to explain where everybody and everything came from.  Even when the two sneak into a local bar and participate in a street fight, we see Ryu dispatching one opponent with a kick in a distant long shot so it's a bit of a wasted opportunity.  I did appreciate Ken's casual outfit straight out of the Udon comics though.  The appearances of the characters are all derived straight from the comics and games which makes it seem like a bit of a live action cartoon.  I wondered how Ken and Akuma could fight with all the hair in their face.  Moh and Howard aren't exactly in the prime of their acting careers so performances are a little wooden at times but Moh does a good job of playing quiet, scared and uncertain as Ryu while Howard's Ken is likeable but arrogant.  Ruggedly handsome stuntman/actor Mark Killeen shows up as Ken's dad for two brief scenes.  At first I wondered if they considered B-movie action/martial arts hero Gary Daniels for the role but Killeen does a nice job of being imposing yet paternal while doing some boxing training in business attire.

When the fights do happen, all of the actors' martial arts prowess are put on full display with some nice punch combos and kicks of all heights and varieties being thrown.  Ansah could have cooled it on the slow motion though and just let shit fly.  Special moves like the fireball, hurricane kick and dragon punch all get their moments but lack a certain OOMPH and impact for some reason.  Maybe it's because the series tries so hard to be like the video game and cartoons but doesn't change it's style to accommodate live action where close ups, make up, slow motion and sound effects can be used to make audiences cringe and feel the impact of the violence happening on screen.  That knowing nod to it's source material helps keep the tone light when necessary and I cracked up when they were lifting weights to the 80's sounding synth electronic video game score and when the duo can't train one day because Ken receives a copy of Mega Man 2 for the NES from his dad.

Congratulations to Ansah, Howard, producer Jacqueline Quella and everyone involved for bringing their passion project to life.  Hopefully we get to a second season where they're provided more resources and a chance to have a little more fun.

Gotta Drank! EightyTwo

Tucked away downtown near the American Apparel factory and grocery direct wholesalers is a surprisingly happening pocket of night life.  I tried to go to the Wurstkuche next door years ago but the line was just ridiculous.  It's nice to see Downtown Los Angeles coming up a bit and I've been there more lately than I have in the last 10 years of living in California.  We got there around 8:00PM and the joint was already busy.  It's a nice set up; pinball on one side, a courtyard in the middle then arcade games, the bar and DJ on the other.  While waiting at the bar, Street Fighter: Championship Edition was projected on the walls.  They have a cocktail menu with video game inspired names like n00b and Zangief and tacos being slung out back.  By 9:00, my friends were telling me they were standing in line outside so this place was more than a barcade, it was like a club!  Complete with some random woman walking by saying it wasn't that great inside.  It's a little loud and a lot crowded inside so if you want to play a game you gotta go old school and put your quarter on the machine to call next.  There's a nice selection with Street Fighter, Double Dragon, Space Invaders, NBA Jam, The Simpsons, Gauntlet and the cockpit Star Wars game among many more.  I tried my hand at SF and whupped two random dudes' asses before having mine handed to me by a guy I had seen playing earlier who must spend a lot of time there.  I now realize I have a thing for sky-high dining and barcades as this is my 3rd visit to an establishment designed to bring in kids my age for drinking and socializing.  While it's the closest to me, I'd have to say it ranks behind Des Moines' Up-Down and Portland's Ground Kontrol.

Street Fighter Saturday: Animated Goods

After whetting my Street Fighter appetite with comics, it was time to revisit some of the animated efforts.  Street Fighter II: The Animated Movie is one of the only Anime's I ever got into because it's just so fucking badass.  From the opening credits that take place during a dark and stormy night where Ryu and Sagat face off in a fantastic and fierce battle in the middle of a field, you know you're in for a treat.  Riding high on the success of the billion dollar video game franchise, Street Fighter was ready to take on all aspects of the pre-transmedia world.  The Jean-Claude Van Damme starring movie adaptation was expected to be his latest break through role (it wasn't) and all things Street Fighter were hitting the market.  I distinctly recall going to my local pharmacy/video store, Phar-Mor (Where you got Phar more but paid Phar less, get it?!) to pick up a copy of SF on VHS.  I have no idea how I would know it's release date back then as the internet was barely in it's infancy and not quite into it's heyday of AOL CD's in the mail and Instant Messenger.

  
SFII is the story of Ryu, a vagabond martial artist searching for his next great fight.  As a teen he trained and became friends with the blonde haired American Ken who would go on to become a world champion.  Meanwhile, M. Bison and his Shadowlaw organization are traversing the world, searching for the world's best fighters in order to turn them into terrorists.  For example, New Challenger Cammy is brainwashed and sent to kill a prominent government official.  Bison employs monitor cyborgs (!) to study fighters and send their stats back to home base.  Hot on Bison's trail is Captain Guile from the Air Force, a super buff and gruff tough guy who sports a giant, gravity defying blonde brush cut and no eyebrows.  Interpol's sexy Chun-Li is sent to team up with the American to find Bison but has her own agenda as she's on the hunt for revenge as Bison threw her dad down an elevator shaft.  In this iteration we get to see a little more of Ken and Ryu's past through quick flashbacks of their training as youths in Japan.  Years later, Ryu is still the only person to be able to defeat Ken in a fight.  Ryu walks the Earth and encounters familiar faces like movie star Fei Long, E. Honda and Dhalsim in street bouts while Ken runs into T. Hawk randomly one night and has to put the big guy down.  Bison's bosses Sagat and Vega are nearby to handle the dirty work while Balrog is used as an enforcer in Vegas where a freak, underground match pits Russian wrestler Zangief versus the mysterious man-beast from Brazil, Blanka.

All paths intersect in a violent showdown as Bison has brainwashed Ken and sics him against his former best friend.  It's fights galore as Ryu mixes it up with Fei-Long, random jerks, an unforgiving striking post and finally his confused friend Ken and then M. Bison.  Chun-Li gets a nice fight post animated shower scene (complete with nudity in some countries) with assassin Vega where she kicks him through a wall and he plunges to his death.  The fights in Street Fighter II: The Animated Movie are some of the greatest I've ever seen, animated or not.  They're fast, brutal and fucking magnificent with back and forth hand to hand combat animated so fluidly that real life almost can't compare to the impact felt here.  The dubbed English version has some hilarious line readings while like the comics, E. Honda provides some yuks as just being a big, loud, happy guy.  Directed by Gisaburo Sugii, the pace is brisk and we get a sense of each of the main characters. Recognizable faces pop up for scenes but are sent on their way to avoid overcrowding and serve some story purpose versus a simple cameo to remind you you're watching Street Fighter.  For the American version, a great, hard rock score is employed to give the fights and scenes punch.  Silverchair, Alice In Chains, KMFDM and Korn are all used to spectacular effect and get you amped.

Sugii would soon return to the Street Fighter franchise with an animated series, Victory, which ran in Japan in 1995 before being brought to America during the Manga/Anime boom of the late 90's and early 2000's.  Serving as a sort of prequel to the Animated Movie, Victory catches Ken and Ryu at 17, 2 years since they finished their training together.  Ryu is working as a lumberjack while Ken is a playboy in America thanks to his dad's riches.  Ken invites Ryu to America so he leaves his job and the bosses daughter who is lusting after him.  Upon arrival, the duo get into trouble as they wade into an Air Force bar and beat up some locals.  Guile arrives and puts the hurting on Ryu.  Ken steps up to avenge his friend but just earns some lumps.  This inspires the two to hit the road, finding more fighters to challenge their skill set so they can become the greatest in the world.  It's a fun show with great macho and homoerotic goings on.  Ken's always macking on chicks but the first thing he and Ryu do upon checking into a $20,000.00 a night hotel in Hong Kong is strip naked and go swimming together.  Stuff like that.  Again, the action here is fast, fluid and furiously violent.  Being a cartoon, every man is jacked to the max while the females are bombshells.

With Ken and Ryu being younger, other characters are altered to match.  Chun-Li is 15 and a tour guide while Fei-Long is a young Hong Kong movie star in the making.  The duo run into other characters from the video game mythology as friends, foes and mentors.  While we get random Akuma cameos in the background, the makers of Victory don't force EVERY Street Fighter character down our throats which is a surprise considering it ran for 26 episodes.  But mainstays like E. Honda, Blanka and Dee Jay are nowhere to be found.  The show employs a great theme song but with credits, recap and end credits, each episode only contains about 18 minutes of content.  Being translated from Japanese gives the show a funny bent as you get show titles like "Trap Prison and the Scream of Truth" and the awesome tagline, "Gonna burn some muscle!".

Following the release of the live action film, a Street Fighter Animated Series debuted on USA in 1995.  Like the movie, Guile is the lead character with Blanka and Chun-Li at his side while video game stars Ken and Ryu play supporting characters.  Playing like a bad version of G.I. Joe, SFAS follows Guile and his team of street fighters as they fight M. Bison around the world and basically suck ass.  Seriously, I tried watching a couple episodes of this and had no clue what was going on.  It was just cheesy which means a lot coming from me because I'm into some cheesy shit... and who the crap thought Blanka was a good choice for a sidekick?

Street Fighter Saturday: Paneled Goods

It's been a Street Fighter filled weekend, partly by coincidence, mainly by choice.  First off, the live action web series Assassin's Fist debuted on YouTube via Machinima and fans could binge watch all 12 installments.  The weekend also included a birthday party at a newly opened barcade (bar/arcade) downtown where you guessed it, Street Fighter: Championship Edition was waiting for some button mashing.  I'm not a huge video game person but have always loved Street Fighter.  At it's core, it is the tale of the world warrior and a tournament designed to find the greatest fighter in the world.  Boxing, karate, sumo, thai boxing, etc are all represented by a cast of eclectic characters from around the globe.  I remember playing Street Fighter II at the local mall(s) along with stuff like Final Fight, the X-Men 6 person game, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Avengers, The Simpsons, Mortal Kombat, the G.I. Joe run and gun game and so many more in the early 90's.  As a Jean-Claude Van Damme fan and young martial arts enthusiast, SF was just the brand for me.  Mortal Kombat with it's ripped off story line, cheap play and added violence for attention just seemed like the game for poseurs and trendy fad types.  Street Fighter was classic, stoic and the original institution for fighting games.

In 1994, I would go to Electronics Boutique, (remember that place?!) to check out the latest games for the Super Nintendo.  They also sold a comic book I couldn't find in my local shop, an adaptation of Street Fighter from renowned Japanese artist and writer Masaomi Kanzaki.  Originally printed as a black and white Manga (little graphic novels read back to front), Street Fighter II was translated into English, colorized and rearranged to make a typical American style comic book.  The story of an artificial island dubbed Shad, a project of leading world economies working in harmony to produce a metropolitan power that fails under harsh financial woes.  Falling into disrepair, Shad becomes home to M. Bison and an annual grand tournament to find the world's best fighter.  Bison uses the island and tournament to sell a new drug called Doll which basically makes people into violent psychos and easily mind controlled.  Yeah, it's not exactly the deepest or most logical story that could go with a street fighting tournament.

We meet Ryu, a happy go lucky karate fighter with a huge appetite as he arrives in Shad looking to win the big tournament who can conjure up his energy and spirit and throw it at you in the form of a fireball known as a Hadouken.  Immediately befriending the struggling and grieving Po-Lin and her little brother Wong at their family restaurant, Ryu becomes their benefactor and protector from the city's local organized crime element.  We soon meet other fighters with their own reasons for being in Shad and fighting in the tournament.  There's female law enforcement officer Chun-Li, whose father was investigating Doll and killed by Bison.  More revenge fueled fighting comes from American Air Force pilot Guile, who's out to avenge the death of his best friend and unit due to Doll use.  Guile can conjure up pure energy by breaking the sound barrier and throwing it at you as a Sonic Boom.  Then we have Dhalsim from India who uses his winnings from the bouts to feed the hungry children in his country and can breathe fire.  Former sumo wrestling champion E. Honda is just looking for a new challenge (and ladies) while Bison employs former boxing phenomenon Balrog, the claw wielding, mask wearing, vain matador/ninja Vega and Muy Thai boxing giant Sagat as his ring of champions/assassins.

As our motley crew fights through the tournament and we learn more about them, we're later introduced to Ken, a blonde haired karate master that used to train with Ryu and knew Po-Lin's fiance, Cho, who has something to do with Doll then gets a knife to the chest from Vega.  Only now Ken is under the control of Bison and tries to kill Ryu by dumping a truck load of wet cement on him.  Yeesh, I thought we were friends!  In the comic we meet Ken and Ryu's teacher, Gouken, who gets his ass kicked by Bison in a flashback where Bison, Sagat and Vega are hunting down Cho and end up at the dojo.  Here, Ryu faces off with Sagat and hits him with the Sho-Ryu-Ken aka Dragon Punch and scars him for life.

Reading the comics again was a trip down memory lane.  First because I bought them as an 11 year old 20 years ago and because I'd just plain forgotten how convoluted the Street Fighter mythos is.  You wouldn't think a fighting tournament would need to have root in drug dealing crime syndicates but anytime the history is expanded upon, there's Shad, Shadowlaw, Shadaloo, etc to explain Bison's position of power.  Then there's the whole back story of Ken and Ryu being friends and rivals since childhood then the added vengeance stories of Chun-Li and Guile.  The comics read fast, like real fast and I breezed through all 8 issues in no time.  The art is an interesting mix of painted like texture, big visual battles with their mystical powers and cartoonish big eyes and expressions.  I laughed at some of the broad comedy in the pages like Ryu's penchant for eating and E. Honda being a pervert during his fight with the lovely Chun-Li.  While the story might not quite add up, Street Fighter II is a nice piece of the lore and helped expand the brand beyond arcade and video games.  Toys, posters, key chains, animated movies and shows, live action features and much more were on the way.