Jessie Robertson reviews Street Fighter: Assassin’s Fist…
I want to start this review by saying I have always been a Street Fighter guy over a Mortal Kombat guy. I play both and like both but it was those hours of constant play with my cousins, uncle and friends that cemented my love for the series. Street Fighter II, to me, will still go down as the most legendary fighting game of all time, bar none. When I got a hold of this series, I was aware of it and thought it was yet another Street Fighter film. But as I’ve looked into it, it was done as a passion project by a young filmmaker Joey Ansah. The project got the blessing of Capcom (the creators of the video game series) and after raising the necessary money we have Street Fighter: Assassin’s Fist.
He released this as a web-series (which is basically a show or miniseries released first or most times exclusively on a YouTube page or another website but in all other aspects is a TV show) for the world to see. Now, let’s remember back to the original Street Fighter release back in 1994; I was there on Christmas Eve with my younger brothers, salivating at the prospect of seeing my favorite video game characters come to life. What we got was a half effort with older aging men playing some of the characters, and half of them don’t even throw a single punch. So, again, seeing the costumes and screen shots here on Flickering Myth, I got excited once again.
I watched these episodes as one complete block, but they are broken up into 12 mini-episodes (see Machinima to find this show) and they range from 12-15 minutes each but will later be released in all other formats (including DVD/Blu-Ray release). Full disclosure as you watch this show; it uses the name Street Fighter but it solely about the Ken-Ryu story, examining how they first met, their friendship and training, and the back story on how they learned and use their special moves from the video games. So if you’re expecting to see Guile, Blanka or others, they are not here.
I won’t go in-depth and recommend certain episodes (as I did not watch it like that) but will try to give an overarching opinion on what was good and bad and all the rest. The show opens with Ken and Ryu fighting each other (in which I assumed they had made the finals of the World Fighter Tournament featured in the Street Fighter games) but no, I was dead wrong. This scene plays again much later in the series and you see how they arrived. The fight is great, and features the Hadoken (which they say as they throw it), Shoryuken (jumping uppercut attack) and the Hurricane kick. Then the series pulls back. It shows you them training with their sensei, Goken and he reveals the secret to the “Hado”, the name for the ancient techniques that unleash the power to perform the Hadoken and other moves. You learn there is a quick way to this power and a slow way, the quick way unearths more evil mystical properties to perform these moves where learning them slowly keeps you on the right path.
You also get a series of flashbacks with Goken and his brother Goki, who trained at the same dojo when they were younger, learning the exact secrets Ken and Ryu are learning in their camp. And, paralleling the future, Goken, just like Ryu, is willing and eager to learn all their master can teach them, while Goki, like Ken, is ready now and wants the secrets shown to him. The series plays like this often, going back and forth between both training camps showing you the parallels between the two sets of students in a very Jedi-Dark Side type dynamic.
THE GOOD:
– Accuracy: This is the biggest draw for me. From the look of the characters( their exact outfits recreated, down to the color of their hand guards), the moves they perform, the commands they shout when using them, to their fighting stances (Ken bobs back and forth ever so slightly as he waits in fighting stance, just like the game), Joey Ansah got every detail right to the how these characters move and interact.
– Friendship: Ken and Ryu are nearly interchangeable when you play the Street Fighter game; they have almost the same move set, just one is American with long blonde hair and one is Japanese with short dark hair. And yet, people seem to love one and hate the other, depending on which camp you’re in (I’m Team Ken). But the one thing you do pull from the game is that these two trained together and are best friends. The series explores that and takes it’s time while doing it. There is nearly two and half hours of material here when it’s all said and done and you get many moments with these two as you watch their dynamic (Ken is hot-headed and quick to action, Ryu is patient and hard-working).
– The Fights: There is a lot of fighting in this show, as you’d expect and it’s all great. I trained in martial arts myself for over ten years and I can see the proficiency in a lot of the techniques and choreography put in this show. There’s also not a lot showy stuff just for the sake of it, which is nice to see.
– The History: If you’re going to give details on how Ken and Ryu can throw fireballs, this is a pretty damn good way to show it. Now, how they will explain it with other characters I have no idea, but I have to give the creator credit with fleshing out these ideas.
THE BAD: (When I say bad, it’s all objective)
– The Flashbacks: The story telling is solid, it gives you the history to lead to what Ken and Ryu discover in the Hado power, but you find yourself just wanting to see our main characters in the foreground. And there is a lot of time devoted to showing Goken and Goki’s training and how one strayed from the path. It is too much time; there’s also a small sub plot featuring a woman named Sayaka who was in love with Goki, until he is banished and then she sort of just naturally is betrothed to Goken which didn’t make sense to me.
– The Handling of Akuma: Once you see Goken and Goki’s trainer wearing the massively beaded-ball necklace, you know Akuma is showing up. Now I’ve never been a fan of the character and that could be bias on my part, but his back story is left in mystery and I can’t tell if it’s from not knowing how to make him what he is or just wasn’t given enough thought (You walk into a dark cave for a year and now you’re Akuma?).
Overall, the series is long, as I said, at 2 and a half hours, so if’ you’re not into it within 20 minutes, this will be a stretch for you. But I totally was and thought it was such a cool story even if it does move slow, it’s mostly worth it in the end. And the series leaves off in a good place with room for more stories to be told and that’s almost as exciting as the beginning of this new Street Fighter story being told.
Jessie Robertson
