Street Fighter (1992 film)
| Street Fighter | |
|---|---|
 VHS cover art | |
| Hangul | 거리의 무법자 |
| Hanja | 거리의 無法者 |
| Revised Romanization | Geori-eui Mubeopja |
| Directed by | Sang Il Sim |
| Written by | Jong Jun Park |
Production company |
Daiwon Animation Co. Ltd |
| Distributed by | Daiwon C&A Holdings |
Release dates |
|
Running time | 51 minutes |
| Country | South Korea |
| Language | Korean |
Street Fighter (Hangul: 거리의 무법자; RR: Geori-eui Mubeopja) is a 1992 Korean animated film directed by Sang Il Sim. The film is notable for being based on the popular Capcom fighting game franchise Street Fighter, though unauthorized by the developers. It has never been released outside South Korea.
Plot
In the year 2010, after World War III, the world is devastated and most of the world's population does not survive. Soryong and Saeng spend their days playing Street Fighter II and fighting each other at the arcades, until one day Chun Li appears before them in real life and reveals that the two friends are the only ones that can stop Bison from taking over the world.[1]
Production
The film was produced and animated by Daiwon Animation, and directed by Sang Il Sim. Daiwon was a popular animation studio often used by Japanese and Western producers, and have notably worked on series such as Transformers, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and Armored Fleet Dairugger XV. The film features cameos from other unlicensed franchises, including April O'Neil, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Dracula and the Frankenstein monster.
Release
The film was released on September 4, 1992 straight to home video in South Korea. It received a DVD re-release in 2007 by New Media under the Daiwon Classic Animation label alongside Sang Il Sim's Red Hawk. The film has been uploaded to YouTube.
Differences from the video game
In this film, most of the characters have been heavily modified from their original video game counterparts. Ryu and Ken are completely absent; instead, the main protagonists are a pair of ordinary teenagers named Yi Soryong and Saeng Yegal who dress up as the aforementioned two characters. M. Bison has long hair, wears sunglasses, sports a black cape, and is designed with Swastikas in place of Shadoloo skulls. Blanka is depicted as Dhalsim's pet, rather than a lone feral human.
Reception
Although the film is largely unheard of due to never having been officially released outside of South Korea, it was featured on Hardcore Gaming 101 in 2010, who felt that "the animation is nothing to brag with, and at least 15 minutes of the film are boring BS, but the ridiculousness of it all makes it a good time watching nonetheless".[2]
The film was largely criticized for the uncharacteristic use of the game series' cast, the absence of Ryu and Ken, the low production values and the plot, which was deemed "nonsensical".