Street Fighter II Movie
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For a detailed overview of this movie, click here.
Vega intends to turn the world's most powerful fighters into brainwashed assassins.
Original Japanese release date: August 6th, 1994
Contents
1) Synopsis
2) Notes
3) Game influence
4) Japan & USA differences
5) Manga adaptation
6) Video game
Synopsis
Ryu fights Sagat, defeating him with his sho ryu ken technique. The battle is monitored by Shadowlaw leader Vega, who takes interest in Ryu. Sometime later, Cammy assassinates a Minister in broad daylight, but is captured. Her assassination is played back at the Interpol HQ, where Chun-Li explains that Cammy can't remember anything from the past 3 years. She is being controlled somehow, and that Shadowlaw is creating its own terrorists by manipulating the victim's subconscious. Interpol is going to work together with the US military to destroy Shadowlaw, so Chun-Li is sent to meet Guile. Meanwhile, one of Vega's scientists, Senoh, shows off their new monitor cyborg -which can monitor fighters and send their data back. Vega wants Ryu to be found immediately.
Ryu wanders the world searching for opponents. He fights and defeats Fei Long, and later on Fei Long tells him about Shadowlaw. Elsewhere, Ken is also fighting, taking on and defeating T. Hawk with a sho ryu ken. Their battle is monitored, but they don't know this. As Ken leaves, he wonders where Ryu is. Ryu is in Calcutta, where there's a terrorist attack -a Shadowlaw assassin has just killed someone, and a little girl is injured. Ryu helps the girl and finds out the men he just fought were with Shadowlaw.
Chun-Li meets Guile, and whilst he initially wants nothing to do with her, he relents when he finds out that Vega murdered her father. The two head off, but Guile decides to seek out DJ, a pretty good fighter they find at a club. They explain to DJ about Shadowlaw and how they're taking data of powerful fighters. DJ is initially honored that Shadowlaw would be after him, but changes his tune after Chun-Li kicks the head off a nearby monitor cyborg. Guile asks DJ to spread the word, but the group don't realize another cyborg is nearby. Balrog is sent in to kill Chun-Li, which he nearly does. Chun-Li is badly injured, but manages to defeat Balrog.
Ken drops Eliza off and heads back home, but has to stop when a jet gets in his way. It's Vega's jet, and Vega tells Ken he will make him into a powerful fighter, one even greater than Ryu. Ken tries to fight Vega, but is unable to land a hit on him. He even tries a hadou ken, but Vega reflects it, resulting in Ken getting blasted instead. Ken is taken back to the Shadowlaw base, where Vega begins using his psycho power to alter Ken. Meanwhile, Guile finds Ken's empty car. He goes back to the Interpol HQ, and learns about Ryu, who has been seen recently in Thailand.
Ryu meets Honda whilst training, but Guile soon shows up via helicopter. Just as Guile explains what happened to Ken, Vega's jet appears. Vega, Ken and Bison step out, but Ken is clearly not himself and doesn't respond to Ryu. Guile tries to fight Vega, but can't land a hit on him and gets blasted off the mountain. Honda fights Bison, but the two crash into each other and roll off a cliff.
Ken fights Ryu, seemingly not recognizing his friend. But he keeps having flashbacks to when they were training together and eventually snaps out of Vega's brainwashing. However, Vega then appears and blasts Ken away, and then starts fighting Ryu. Ken gets up and thinks back to what his master, Goutetsu, told him about what he sees beyond his fist. Entering a stance, Ken revives himself.
Ken then goes back and starts helping Ryu fight Vega. The two seem unable to do any damage, but eventually Ken hits Vega with a tatsu maki sen pu kyaku, and Ryu then hits him with a sho ryu ken. The two finish things off by both using the hadou ken at the same time. The two fireballs combine into one, and whilst Vega attempts to reflect it, he's unable to do so and gets hit by the projectile.
Vega is sent flying back into his own jet, which then explodes. Honda has survived, and brings Bison and Guile back up the mountain, where he sees the aftermath of Ryu and Ken's fight. Sometime later, Guile races to the hospital, having been given bad news about Chun-Li's condition. But it turns out she's fine, and has read about the destruction of Shadowlaw's base caused by a joint Interpol and US army operation.
Eliza arrives via car to pick Ken up. Ryu says he doesn't know where he's going next. Ken and Ryu tell each other they've gotten stronger, then say their goodbyes. As Ryu walks off, a truck races up behind him. He turns around and sees that, somehow, Vega is at the wheel! Ryu jumps towards the truck, as a new battle is about to begin...
-The Japanese trailer for the movie reveals some footage of Ryu's battle with Sagat was cut out -the trailer shows Sagat repeatedly kneeing Ryu before throwing him. In the movie, only the throw is seen.
-The part where Ryu throws a hadou ken towards the screen is a reference to the introduction sequence of Super Street Fighter II.
-The name of Vega's organization is spelt "Shadowlaw" in this movie, although characters pronounce it as "Shadaloo". It seems that at the time of the movie's release, a consistent spelling hadn't been chosen yet -in the Super Nintendo manual for Street Fighter II Turbo, it's spelt "Shadowloo". In the SEGA Genesis manual for Special Champion Edition, it's "Shadow Law". The manuals for Super Street Fighter II, on both Genesis and Super Nintendo, have it as "Shadowlaw", which is what the movie uses. However it would later be changed again in the games and other media, and is consistently now spelt as "Shadaloo".
-In this movie, the name of Ryu and Ken's master is not said by anyone. But in the script, and other material, his name is listed as "Goutetsu". In the games, this would later be changed so Ryu and Ken's master is called Gouken, whilst Goutetsu was Gouken's master.
-Senoh or Senou aren't named in the movie either, but they are named in the Street Fighter II Movie game.
-Early on in the Calcutta scene, Gouki (Akuma in the non-Japanese versions) makes a cameo -he's seen sitting by a wall, selling what appears to be fruit.
-It is never explained what Vahaan was doing that made Vega send someone to kill him, but I'd assume he was making anti-Shadowlaw speeches.
-In the games, DJ is spelt "Dee Jay". But in this movie, the subtitles and credits consistently spell it as "DJ". When DJ walks out of the club, there is a sign behind him that also has it spelt as "DJ".
-When the monitor cyborg analyses Chun-Li, it states that her master is "B.Lee". Who could that be referring to, I wonder?
-The truck that Ken nearly crashes into has the Capcom logo on the side of it.
An advertisement for the Street Fighter live action film is shown at the end of the credits for the Japanese version of the movie.
The movie would greatly influence the next Street Fighter game series, Street Fighter Alpha, a great deal. It is still being referenced in more modern Street Fighter games -read more about this here.
When the movie was released outside of Japan, several edits were made to it to trim some footage from various scenes. Most of these are incredibly minor edits, but a few shots were cut entirely, and the soundtrack was replaced. Different versions of the English dub were also recorded, with certain versions having a lot more swearing than others. A full list of edits made to the movie can be read about here.
A manga adaptation of the movie was first published in Japan, in 1994. Drawn and written by Takayuki Sakai, the manga loosely follows the same plot as the movie, but there are many differences. Several scenes from the movie -such as the opening battle between Ryu and Sagat, and Chun-Li meeting Guile at the air base -are cut entirely. Some scenes play out differently in the manga, and then the manga also features some stuff that's not from the movie at all. One of the biggest differences is that Shadowlaw's monitor cyborgs are completely absent from the manga adaptation. For a full list of differences, check out this page.
A game adaptation of the movie was released in Japan in 1994. The game has you play as a special version of one of Vega's cyborgs, which monitors events from the movie and has to collect data. At the very end, gameplay styles switch to a traditional one on one fighting game, where the Cyborg must face Ryu in combat. The game was available for the Playstation and SEGA Saturn, but was not released outside of Japan. More can be read about it here.
