Capcom and Legendary’s upcoming Street Fighter movie will likely be as divisive as the original, Jean-Claude Van Damme-led attempt to bring the fighting-game franchise to the big screen. Director Kitao Sakurai‘s adaptation of Street Fighter is taking a bold, stylized, filled-with-professional-wrestlers approach, with The Eric Andre Show levels of manic energy.
Sakurai is also hewing very closely to what’s featured in the Street Fighter games, accurately recreating iconic moves like Ken and Ryu’s Hadouken and Tatsumaki Senpukyaku, Zangief’s Russian Suplex, and Chun-Li’s Spinning Bird Kick. It doesn’t look like Sakurai is taking the tone excessively seriously, which means this looks like it’ll be a good time at the movie theater.
Street Fighter‘s first full trailer shows that Sakurai is trying to work as many Easter eggs and deep-cut appearances into the film as he can. While Capcom and Legendary are clearly going for a broad audience, like any good video game movie adaptation should, Street Fighter still needs to cater to the fans.
Here are some of the more amusing and reassuring nods to Street Fighter games, movies, and ephemera that we (and fans) have spotted in the Street Fighter trailer.
A classic Chun-Li vs. Vega fight
Vega’s getting his ass kicked left and right in the trailer for Street Fighter, both by Chun-Li (Callina Liang) and Guile (Cody Rhodes). Vega (Orville Peck) is a classic villain archetype who wears a mask to maintain his good looks, and is memorably portrayed as an assassin sent to kill Chun-Li in the 1994 anime Street Fighter 2: The Animated Movie.
Some fans are interpreting this shot of Chun-Li as a direct reference to an infamous scene from The Animated Movie, in which she is shown naked and showering while Vega watches. Chun-Li and Vega battle after that gratuitous showering scene, resulting in a fan-favorite and spectacularly choreographed fight that is full of lurid shots of Chun-Li’s… underwear.
In reality, Chun-Li may be doing something altogether different in the above scene from Street Fighter. Later on in the trailer, we see Ryu (Andrew Koji) and E. Honda (Hirooki Goto) battling in a sauna, with towels strategically covering their nether regions. Perhaps we’ll see Chun-Li in similarly steamy action there too.
Balrog’s boxing gloves
Any Street Fighter fan worth E. Honda’s dohyō salt knows that when Capcom brought Street Fighter 2 from Japan to the West, the company rearranged the names of three of its big bad guys: Balrog, M. Bison, and Vega. Capcom wisely decided to change the name of the character who looked exactly like Mike Tyson, renaming M. Bison to Balrog.
But in the trailer, we note that Balrog (played by Curtis “50 Cent” Jackson) is wearing Buffalo-branded gloves. Buffalo are part of the Bison genus, so that’s just a nice touch for anyone who wants to dispense classic video game trivia to a friend after the movie. (Yes, after the movie. Save your conversations for afterward!)
A Street Fighter (1994) throwback
During one shot in the trailer, we see a young Ryu and Ken (Noah Centineo) buddying up at the first World Warrior Tournament, dated 1987, prior to whatever rift tore them apart. Ken and Ryu’s clothing in that photo is a direct reference to…
…the outfits worn by Ryu (Byron Mann) and Ken (Damian Chapa) in the opening scenes of the original Street Fighter movie from 1994.
Oh, my car!
Not exactly a deep cut, but we do see Ken beating the hell out of a sedan with his bare fists and feet during a scene from Street Fighter. Fans will recognize this as one of the bonus stages introduced in Street Fighter 2, in which players can let off some steam on an unattended automobile.
Additionally, almost every shot in the Street Fighter trailer is jam-packed with spectators, some of whom are performing short, looping movements that make them look like the crudely animated background characters from Street Fighter games. It’s a nice touch.
Hey, it’s El Fuerte!
While many of the World Warriors featured in Street Fighter are from the first two Street Fighter games, Street Fighter 4‘s Mexican luchador El Fuerte gets a brief appearance. He’s seen being kicked to the mat by Ken, so don’t count on El Fuerte having a strong presence in the film.
What’s going on with “What’s Up?”, Capcom?
The soundtrack to the Street Fighter trailer is full of references, including punching and laughing sound effects lifted straight out of Street Fighter 2. It also starts with an unreleased version of 2Pac’s “Ambitionz Az a Ridah” that was “created for Mike Tyson in the 1990s,” according to Paramount Pictures publicity. The trailer also includes a version of 4 Non Blondes’ “What’s Up?” In a bizarre coincidence, that same song was used in another Capcom live-action reboot trailer for Resident Evil: Welcome to Raccoon City.
What’s up with that?
Street Fighter comes to movie theaters on Oct. 16.
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Author: 360 Technology Group
