Street Fighter: Assassin's Fist, known in Japan as Street Fighter: Ansatsuken (Japanese: ?????????? ???, Hepburn: Sutor?to Fait? Ansatsuken) is a British live-action web series, TV series and feature film in the martial arts film genre developed by director, fight choreographer, writer, actor and martial artist Joey Ansah and actor, writer and martial artist Christian Howard. Based on the popular video game series by Capcom, Street Fighter, the story focuses on Ryu and Ken as they uncover the past of their master, Gouken, and learn the secrets of their Dark Art, Ansatsuken.
The web series format was released on Machinima's YouTube channel on May 23, 2014 while the subsequent formats (TV & DVD/Blu-ray) were released later the same year, and IFC Films released the film on January 7, 2015.
Video Street Fighter: Assassin's Fist
Cast
- Akira Koieyama as Gouken
- Shogen as Young Gouken
- Christian Howard as Ken Masters
- Mike Moh as Ryu
- Togo Igawa as Goutetsu / Goma
- Gaku Space as Gouki
- Joey Ansah as Older Gouki / Akuma
- Hyunri as Sayaka
- Mark Killeen as Mr. Masters
- Hal Yamanouchi as Senzo
- Yoshinori Ono as Fighting promoter
Maps Street Fighter: Assassin's Fist
Production
The short film Street Fighter: Legacy, a passion project for Joey Ansah and Christian Howard, was released on YouTube in 2010 as a proof-of-concept. During San Diego Comic-Con International 2012 Capcom announced it had granted rights to the creators to go ahead with the project. The budget of this movie was a record setting $100 as the producer was homeless and the actors were his friends. He got the cameras and the production team from the money his ex employer gave him as a donation.
The series started a Kickstarter crowdsource funding campaign in order to source funds for production. The campaign was cancelled on April 17, 2013 when private backers stepped forward with the money necessary, removing the need for the crowdsource funds.
On July 14, 2013, production began filming in Simeonovo, Sofia, Bulgaria. On August 24, 2013, filming on the series wrapped.
On August 20, 2013, In an interview with Gamereactor, Ansah talked about Ryu and Ken's story and said "a good analogy with Ryu is that he's not actually ever competing with anyone else; he's competing with himself. Whereas Ken is driven fiercely by competition. A lot of Ken's conflict comes from his relationship with his father. Without giving too much away, we learn in this series how Ken came to be in Japan, in Gouken's dojo".
On November 1, 2013, Content has sold worldwide online rights for Street Fighter: Assassin's Fist to a major global online channel for a short first window. On March 14, 2014, Capcom and Machinima.com announced that the series would be airing on Machinima's main channel.
Home media
Funimation has acquired the home video distribution rights and releases the web series on DVD and Blu-ray under their Giant Ape label. Madman Entertainment and Manga Entertainment releases the series in Australia and the UK, respectively.
Music
The music was composed by Patrick Gill with contributions from Ryan Ansah and Daniel Braine.
Episodes
Reception
In contrast to the poor reception of previous live-action Street Fighter films, Assassin's Fist has been acclaimed as the best and most faithful adaptation of the franchise. As of January 2018, the film has attained a score of 7.4/10 on IMDb. IGN gave the series a positive review, stating that it was more authentic to the franchise than either of the larger budgeted Street Fighter feature films, as well as one of the best live-action video-game adaptations overall, rating it an 8.7/10.
Shehzaan Abdulla from Continue-Play gave it a score of 8/10 and said, "Balancing in-jokes and fan service with humble, down-to-earth storytelling isn't easy. Go too far in one direction and you end up with a hokey, pandering mess; go too far in the other, and you have a feature that feels disconnected, and uninspired by the source material. Assassin's Fist walks this line almost perfectly."
References
External links
- Official website
- Street Fighter: Assassin's Fist on YouTube (on Machinima.com's channel)
- Street Fighter: Assassin's Fist on IMDb
- Kickstarter Campaign for Street Fighter: Assassin's Fist
- Street Fighter: Legacy on YouTube (a short fan film)
Source of the article : Wikipedia