Tekken

Man, when I was younger I was a huge fan of Tekken, all the way up to I think Tekken 5, so already this movie had big shoes to fill as I go into it. Maybe this is why It took seven years after the movie was made to actually see it, but the fact that it made no waves to make me what to see it earlier is not a good sign either.

I must admit, overall it’s a decent b-action movies to watch. As a Tekken fan I was not that blown away but if you know nothing about the source material, it definitely will increase your enjoyment.

When the movie started out I could tell that they changed a lot from the video game, and they are starting off on the wrong foot. A bad place to start as it made me almost miss the great action sequence that this movie began with.

The main focus of the film is still there, Luckily Tekken is one of them fighting games with a clear Protagonist and Antagonist. The basic plot of the Mishima family having some bad blood between them is still there. With Heihachi Mishima not being a fan of his son Kazuya Mishima, and Kazuya not being a fan of his own son Jin Kazama who is the main protagonist.

In the film, this family conflict takes place in a distopia world that corporations rule and the King of the Ironist tournament is the main source of entertainment.

Now due to the fighting game background, I was expecting a very well rounded variety of fighters in the film, and for the most part I got what I ask for…sort of. I was scared at first that the MMA fighting craze would engulf the movie’s fighting sequences, when I started to noticed that a lot of the characters were not doing their own fight style but the MMA umbrella style (Guess it’s hard to find Marshal artist who just do one style these days), but as the movie progress I see that it starts to become something like the Tekken I known, but I’m not sure this is a good thing.

The Costumes got really colorful and matched those of the characters, which is cool on a superficial level, but making such characters like the sexy Nina Williams wear the same outfit she wears in the game is not practical. Not that it matters, as the women playing Nina Williams was more eye candy than kicking ass even though she did have a fight sequence.

She does look good in this.

I recognized only two actually marshal artist in the movie (Other than John Foo who plays the main protagonist). Veteran action star, Gary Daniels who plays Bryan Fury, a cyborg who is champion of the Iron Fist. Despite not starring in the film, Daniels appearance in it does emphasize my point of Tekken being an overall good action film.

The other one is the dude who plays Eddy Gordo, the Capoeira master. I love Capoeira and I love watching it done in a fight scene by a guy doing it right, and this dude whose name I don’t known was doing it right. So awesome to see.

Speaking on casting, Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa as Heihachi Mishima was a good idea, that could have gone so wrong. Tagawa is known for playing the asian bad guy in these movies and he’s real good at doing it. Real good. Possibly the best run at this was his role as Shang Tsung In the best movie adaption of a fighting game, Mortal Kombat. Technically as far as both movie adaptions are concern, he’s playing the same character so it is weird that this happen, but it worked out real well.

Honorable mention to Luke Goss who plays Steve Fox, Jin’s manager of sorts. I remember Goss from such movies as the Death Race Franchise and because of this, Just like Gary Daniels, his presence states an overall better quality to the film.

So overall, I went into Tekken hoping for a lot cause it’s one of my favorite games, and they changed it enough that I was scared I would not get what I want, but in fact I think I got exactly what I wanted, but be careful what you wish for. For me it’s was not as cool as I would have thought seeing some of my favorite charters being accurately (and some inaccurately) put on the small screen, but I would still recommend the film. As a Tekken fan I wish for more but as a fan of b-action films it’s actually a descent one filled with every thing I like from the genre.