‘Street Fighter’ is Bad, Campy Fun

Before watching Kitao Sakurai’s Street Fighter, my engagement with the video game franchise was limited to Nicki Minaj’s hit “Chun-Li” and Kylie Minogue’s four minutes as Cammy in the 1994 film adaptation. But you don’t need to know your Hadouken (an energy projectile attack from the video games) from your Shoryuken (a powerful uppercut with a dragon) to have a good time with this new adaptation. It’s badly written and ridiculous, but it has laughs, entertaining fight scenes, and a few 2D animated sequences that make the whole thing feel like a fever dream.

The film follows best friends Ryu (Andrew Koji) and Ken Masters (Noah Centineo), whose paths diverge after Ryu taps into a dark power to win the first World Warrior tournament in 1987. This awakens Akuma (Joe “Roman Reigns” Anoa’i), who kills their mentor, Gouken (Don Lee). Ryu retreats from fighting to keep Akuma at bay, while Ken becomes a famous street fighter before falling into obscurity.

In 1993, M. Bison (David Dastmalchian), leader of the paramilitary organization Shadaloo, organizes another tournament to lure Ryu out of hiding and absorb his power. He enlists Chun-Li (Callina Liang) to recruit Ryu and Ken, unaware that she’s an Interpol agent tasked with bringing him down. Ken sees the tournament as a chance to reclaim his former glory, while Ryu hopes to protect its winner from Akuma, who has vowed to kill the next World Warrior.

With the prologue being rendered in ‘90s anime, one wonders why they didn’t make the whole film animated instead. It certainly worked to hookHookThe catchy part of a song, often a melody, riff, or line in the chorus, that sticks in the listener's head. A strong hook is what makes people hum aGo to Hook Glossary me in, but I suppose animation would take away the fun of seeing Cody Rhodes and 50 Cent in outrageous hairstyles.

The live-action treatment also gives the movie the opportunity to make its several fight scenes feel more visceral, and they do — at the beginning, at least. But as the film progresses, the fights become a little more muddied by CGI and less impactful. I’m more moved by Ryu and sumo wrestler E. Honda (Hirooki Goto) duking it out in a sauna than by Ryu finally conjuring his Hadouken. But the movie’s greatest weakness is its writing.

Committed Performers Save Bad Writing

One might argue that you watch Street Fighter for the action and the video game references — and not for the story or cinematography — but the movie could have still benefited from a less convoluted plot and more thought given to character writing.

Its leads tend to get tropey: Chun-Li, as the strong female character, spends most of her screen time looking annoyed while annihilating everyone around her; Bison is comically evil, with no purpose to his villainy other than a craving for power; and Ryu is a stoic battling inner demons.

The cast’s performances save their own characters from becoming one-note. Between all of Chun-Li’s ass-kicking, Liang manages to squeeze a little fear and anger into her performance to further hint at the character’s motivations. Koji, who deeply cares about Ryu, imbues his character with softness and compassion. Dastmalchian plays Bison with an unexpected but unflinching eroticism, as if he was getting off on absorbing the powers of Ryu and other fighters. And Centineo sells Ken as a himbo with a grudge and emotional depth.

But the film doesn’t know what to do with its female characters. We’re introduced to Chun Li backside-first in a bodycon dress, the camera trailing her as she struts into Ken’s trashed villa. Apart from her, we have Mel Jarnson’s Cammy, whose only purpose in the film seems to be sexily threatening the emcee Don Sauvage (Eric André) or Chun-Li, or sexily holding up a bazooka.

Street Fighter attempts to poke some fun at the male gaze, but because so much of the movie is already fan service, it eventually falls back into oversexualizing its women. Early on, we follow Chun-Li into an incredibly steamy shower, but just when you think we’re zooming into her bare chest, the scene transitions to a sauna, where we get a view of E. Honda’s torso instead. In a couple of other scenes, a fellow Interpol agent (Kyle Mooney) is shown to have a hard crush on Chun-Li — which makes him an awful coworker and a mockery of horny fanboys.

On the flip side, the movie also has so much testosterone, it tiptoes on the edge of drag. And that is the only way I can watch this: like it’s a well-produced RuPaul’s Drag Race acting challenge, with the exaggerated performance of gender, the cartoonish costumes, the jokes, and the surprisingly queer bits of will-they-won’t-they tenderness between some of the male characters. In particular, Ken’s new best friend Dan Hibiki (Andrew Schulz) seems prone to gay panic, while Cody Rhodes’ Guile gives off down-low energy.

Street Fighter is, as some might say, camp. But Sakurai knows not to take things too seriously and instead plays into the strengths of the video game. Here, he offers fans of the games an action-packed spectacle, delivering one dopamine hit after another, even if that’s all there is to it.

Street Fighter is out in Philippine cinemas starting October 14.

Pie Gonzaga

Culture Writer

Pie Gonzaga is the Culture Writer of Rolling Stone Philippines, primarily covering film, TV, food, and internet culture.

Gonzaga has worked on a range of stories for print and digital formats, from an interview with Cardinal Ambo David to features on queer party organizers such as CHURCH and Club Euphoria. Her work as the magazine’s former State of Affairs Writer includes news updates on pressing issues like the flood control scandal and the missing sabungeros, and covering rallies. Under Culture, she’s written episode recaps for hit shows, film reviews, and features on restaurants and the people who run them.

Before working with Rolling Stone Philippines, she contributed lifestyle and entertainment stories for a digital news platform.

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• In This Article:
• Andrew Koji
• Callina Liang
• Kitao Sakurai
• Noah Centineo
• Street Fighter