12 Increasingly Interesting Facts About That 1994 'Street Fighter' Movie
A Power Action! special
I do feel bad for Steven E. de Souza.
I think with just a few different decisions from the jump, he could have directed a decent version of Street Fighter: The Movie. Say the studio doesn’t hire a Colonel Guile with an alleged $10,000-a-week cocaine habit and truancy problems. Or what if, just maybe, co-financier Capcom loosened the reins in approving every single aspect of a film that doesn't even stay that faithful to the game it adapts.
There are many, many maybes. And there are many, many articles out there dedicated to how much this movie stinks. But I here at Power Action! tire of snark.
(Side note: This is actually a problem for me, as snark dominates the discourse of just about every nerdy subculture I love. I search for a fun topic like “retro gaming” on YouTube, only to find a sea of bearded 40-somethings looking incredulously back at me in the thumbnails, ready to ruin my life.)
Let’s do something different: Here are 12 facts about Street Fighter: The Movie, in increasing levels of neatness. By the end of this post, my hope is that we’ve extracted far more fun than scorn from one of the hallowed forefathers of video game adaptions:
SORTA INTERESTING
There's a gold statue inside Sagat's quaint little business that is modeled after a giant one found in his video game backdrop.
Guile is a U.S. Army colonel in this movie, though he's a U.S. Air Force captain in most of the other incarnations. At any rank and branch, the man knows how to give a speech:
This was de Souza's first film as a director, but he was a blockbuster action vet: He wrote Commando (1985), The Running Man (1987), and co-penned the first could Die Hards, among others.
Yes, Zangief is that ’roided out guy from The Program.
PRETTY INTERESTING
The movie’s planning was intertwined with a fledgling brand partnership with Hasbro, with an initial Street Fighter II toyline packed with repurposed G.I. Joes. in 1993. Outside of Honda, Dhalsim, and Sagat, most figures were just new heads put on old bodies. As you can see above, the heads for that first run may have been a bit big for some. Even a vehicle like Guile's Sonic Boom Tank was the same mold as 1991’s Paralyzer Tank.
The movie’s official tie-in toyline saw some more original molds in the mix:
A great way to never sleep again is to order a pack of Street Fighter: The Movie trading cards (like I did) and stare into the eyes of “Street Fighter Superstar” Blanka.
7. That last shot of the triumphant Street Fighters? That’s also taken directly from the game’s character poses.
Japanese actor Kenya Sawada had a promotional deal with Capcom, and after he didn't get the part of Ryu after auditioning with the film's producers, the company forced the creation of new character Captain Sawada. His voice is the only dubbed one in the film, as the actor's English wasn't strong (which contributed to his losing out on the Ryu role).
Bonus fun fact on this entry: Fabio was considered for the role of Vega.
WHOA! THAT’S NEAT.
Street Fighter: The Movie wasn’t the only Street Fighter movie released in 1994. In fact, the other one was even better—and is one of the best video game adaptations of all time. The gorgeous anime Street Fighter II: The Animated Movie was helmed by Gisaburō Sugii.
Van Damme turned down the role of Johnny Cage in 1995’s Mortal Kombat to be Guile. Both films weren't critically adored, but a financial breakdown: Street Fighter: The Movie made a box office of $99.4 million on a $35 million budget, and Mortal Kombat did $122.2 million on a $20 million budget.
The soundtrack to the film is sneaky solid. Performers include Nas, The Pharcyde, LL Cool J, and even a duo from MC Hammer and Deion Sanders, which is funnier than it is good.
The video game Street Fighter: The Movie is the first-ever video game based off of a movie based off of a video game. Also: The game uses motion-captured sprites of the actors a la Mortal Kombat.
Here, watch someone speedrun it: