The Reel World: 'Street Fighter: The Legend of Chun-Li'

New 'Street Fighter' flick lacks punch, common sense

By Joe Nguyen, AsiaXpress.com

Feb. 27, 2009

What would you do if you received a scroll written in ancient Chinese that says you should go to Bangkok and meet some guy you don’t know?

Ignore it? Not if you’re Chun-Li, who abandons her cushy life as a renowned concert pianist in Hong Kong and treks to Thailand.

Director Andrzej Bartkowiak (“Romeo Must Die”) helms “Street Fighter: The Legend of Chun-Li,” which follows the origin of the kick-happy video game combatant. While there are a couple of fun action sequences, the overwhelming majority of the movie is a bevy of nonsensical story progressions, awkward acting and utter pain.

The film begins with the early life of Chun-Li, played by Kristen Kreuk (“Smallville”), and how her family moves to Hong Kong. Here her father Huang Xiang, played by Edmund Chen (“The Eye”), teaches her the art of wushu and how to play the piano. When she becomes a teenager, Balrog and Bison, respectively played by Michael Clarke Duncan (“The Green Mile”) and Neal McDonough (“Walking Tall”), captures her father, leaving a void in her life.

Years later she leaves her career as a concert pianist and goes to Thailand to meet Gen – played by Robin Shou, who’s no stranger to video game movies, having played Liu Kang in both “Mortal Kombat” flicks – who trains her so she can try and rescue her father.

Filmmakers do a good job explaining why Kreuk, who is a Canadian of Dutch and Chinese descents, plays a character who is traditionally fully Chinese by altering her background. In the movie, she’s born in the states to a Chinese father and a Caucasian mother before moving to Hong Kong.

Rather than giving a drawn-out introduction, the first fight takes place within the first five minutes, pitting Xiang against Balrog in a battle between fluidity and brute force.

But that’s when the movie takes a turn for the worse. Beyond the progressive story arc of having an Asian male-white female couple and a few entertaining fight sequences, there’s little “Street Fighter” has to offer.

Most of the hand-to-hand fight scenes were filmed at close quarters in order to shade the actors’ lack of martial arts skills. This is most apparent in the battle between Chun-Li and Vega, played by the Black Eyed Peas’ Taboo. While the build-up was strong, the actual fight only lasts a couple of minutes and is quite lame as neither combatant does much of anything. And the attempts to inject some of the game’s moves into the movie was awful, particularly the poor excuse for a helicopter kick.

The acting is poor, particularly that of Chris Klein, who plays Interpol agent Charlie Nash. His supposed cool persona comes off more as pompous and vain. And the chemistry with Moon Bloodgood’s Detective Maya Sunee is non-existant, often creating awkward exchanges between the two.

But McDonough does a decent job with his role as the sadistic Bison, tip-toeing the line between villain and cartoonish super-villain.

However, the biggest travesty is the plot. The best to describe it is with a moment late in the film, Xiang looks at his daughter and asks, “Why?” It’s never explained why Chun-Li decides to pick up everything and take off to Thailand while she has a successful career as a pianist. It has nothing to do with her father being kidnapped. There was no mention of that. She just leaves.

“Street Fighter: The Legend of Chun-Li” didn’t have a press screening and it’s obvious why – it’s a menagerie of crap. Nice camera work and eye candy doesn’t make up for subpar acting and a plot filled with holes. Save your money and catch CollegeHumor.com’s “Street Fighter: The Later Years” if you’re craving some Capcom cinematics. I wish I did.