Title: Street Fighter Assassin’s Fist
Director: Joey Ansah
Actors: Akira Koieyama, Christian Howard, Mike Moh
Producer: Jacqueline Quella
U. S. Distributor: Funimation
U. S. Release Date: October 28th, 2014
Format: Blu-ray / DVD, Feature Film, 143 minutes
Genre: Martial Arts
Age Rating: TV 13
Overall Personal Rating: C+
Synopsis:
The legendary game Street Fighter comes to life with this look into it’s beginning. Discover the trial and tribulations that Ken and Ryu go through to become true masters. See how they must struggle to learn the most secret of technique that they will need in their lives quest. Also, see what happens when you allow the technique control and show you the dark power. Death could always be an option.
Commentary:
Street Fighter is a well loved game franchise that may or may not need a web series that explores the beginnings of the story line, but it exists and the real question that we should ask is if it is entertaining. To be honest, I didn’t find it to be overly engaging and at time somewhat tedious. The story came across as rather convoluted and overly complicated. Ken and Ryu tend to be the focus of the story and then it wavers off to tell the dark secret of their masters life and the training itself. This stream of thought is understandable but, the way it is told come across as over bearing and hyper melodramatic at best.
Even if I find this version of the story tedious that doesn’t mean it wasn’t well made. I have to hand the it to the production quality. For a web series that has been converted into a movie I found the look and production value to be at par with many feature films and because of the way it was shot I was able to follow along and enjoy it for what it is rather than give up early on because it was slow and not well made. This says a lot for Joey Ansah and the vision he had for how this story needed to look. The simple approach to setting and what special effects that he needed to use made good use of the tools he had to work with.
Overall Personal Grade: C+
The story is slow and there were moments when I was wondering why it kept going. I also felt like the editing and storyline jumped around and ended up being rather tedious. On the up side it looks good, but don’t expect any amazing special effects. The production of the film uses what they had to a higher quality rather than trying to push any special effect limits to make it mind-blowing. I appreciate that approach and have to grade the film up for that. If you are looking for an overpowering martial arts film don’t go here. If you are a serious fan of the Street Fighter franchise I believe that you will enjoy it because of the story. If you want to learn more about this popular game franchise don’t get your hopes up. I have to say that it is fair at best.
