Street Figher V game was the bomb. I use to play it all the time, except it doesn’t exist yet. FUCK I’M GODLIKE I’VE BEEN PLAYING IMAGINARY SHIT IN MY HEAD ALL THIS TIME!
You mean the series where Ryu couldn’t walk in shoes?
Well it’s still relevant cause it was 1 of many different interpretations of him.
in SF1 Ryu was a lot like Ken and we all know what a big joker Ken is so…
lol stop replying to that troll. i have him on ignore for a damn good reason. niggas just eatin bait like fish in here.
Christ, you’re a fucking idiot. Thankfully, there is copy and paste;
I was hoping we could avoid this fanboy bullshit, even if this is a topic about an SF series on a SF message board.
The first thing I noted in my post was that the series was decent. I then noted a number of things I liked about it, and several I didn’t. You focused on the few negatives I mentioned.
If you’re convinced the series is a perfect masterpiece and any post that is not overwhelmingly praising it is wrong, cool. But then why the fuck do you bother responding to me and arguing? You’re clearly not interested in any kind of coherent discussion.
So does that mean you are a little child who is threatened by views different than your own?
As for mentioning Way of the Dragon, made almost 50 years ago as a counterargument, thanks for proving your stupidity. It was a classic, pioneering work I loved as a kid, but by modern standards, that movie had horrible fight choreography. Worse than Street Fighter: Assassin’s Fist, actually. The genre has advanced tremendously in that time. You might as well be comparing special effects from The Day the Earth Stood Still to Gravity.
There is a reason that the “classic” period of Hong Kong kung fu is usually defined as beginning in 1973; choreography before then simply wasn’t very good.
Might as well respond to the one coherent post here;
Not sure who you’re replying to here. I mentioned that the actor playing Ryu looked excellent from a visual perspective.
Yeah, that partially covered for him. That being said, people are confusing “stoic” and “reserved”, which are traits of Ryu, with “robotic”, “mechanical”, and “clearly reciting a line”, which are not, and are faults of the actor.
Wrong assumption. Has nothing to do with the editing, which there is actually far more of than most Hong Kong kung fu with complicated choreography. I wrote that because the structure of the fights and moves themselves is basic. That’s not a bad thing, necessarily, but something worth pointing out.
And honestly, I would have been amazed by more advanced choreography; neither of the actors has a background in martial arts movies. They did the best they could, and I applaud them.
That’s not what I’m arguing, though. His training after the transformation and endless discussion of the Hadou (much of which occurs between Gouken and Goutetsu) is a relatively small part of his character arc. One that is far too long and becomes rather boring.
At the end of the day, one needs to understand the target audience and what the hell one is making.
This is a neat little series they made for Machinima for fans of the series. It’s based on the very simplistic, bare-bones story used in the SF canon. It’s not Shakespeare, and the “themes” you describe above are touched upon in the most shallow and fleeting of ways. Let’s not be pretentious about freaking Street Fighter, of all things.
As such, being a work of pure entertainment, as opposed to a work of art, they needed to have more fights. When you have 13 minute episodes, with about 2 minutes of fights per episode, that’s not good enough for a martial arts series.
Ah, so without the audience seeing a guy doing a few pull-ups and squats with less weight than many girls manage at the gym, they wouldn’t believe he could turn into a demon from hell that can make enormous explosions out of thin air?
If anything, that shatters the suspension of disbelief far worse than if the series had kept that period slightly mysterious.
Also, we don’t need to see everything in a picture. One can let the audience’s own imagination fill in certain very obvious gaps. And one should, when those gaps tend to be boring and monotonous.
Where did I claim otherwise? In fact, I praised the casting. It was arguably the best aspect of the series.
Everyone looked the part, did the choreography decently enough, and only Ryu, out of the entire cast, occasionally drew me out with the work with his bad acting.
Slayer you are rambling on like a gibbering mook now, thankfully we have copy and paste so I can prove your fucking idiocy to borrow your kind phrases.
The video I posted kills off your argument.
I usually don’t like to get into quote wars, since it breaks up discussion, disjoints it and makes it increasingly hard to follow. But specific points where you claimed the inexperience of the actors are as follow:
You state these things as though it is fact, when it is merely only your opinion and only results in the spread of misinformation. If you read the interviews I linked to inside the spoilers then you would’ve realised that both Mike Moh (Ryu) and Christian Howard (Ken) grew up practicing martial arts and that the majority of their acting careers have been on martial art films.
[details=Spoiler]http://kungfukingdom.com/interview-with-christian-howard/
Looking at some of your previous work, you played Finvarrah for example in the action/martial arts movie “Warrioress”, can you tell us about it?
I had met the lead star, Cecily Fay, through a few friends and Joey had worked with her before. My first stunt experience was with a team called First Strike, and Joey and I became great friends from there and Cecily worked with us on an old TV show called Star Hike. She thought I could be the romantic lead in “Warrioress” which she was developing, so I got to play a leading man for the first time, and although it was really about the women, I got to do some good fights! It took a while to complete -luckily, we had the tirelessly enthusiastic Ross Boyask directing!
I was a skinny boy with long hair back then and hadn’t really done any heavy weight training. Some of the adventures there included going to Guernsey, shooting in the real old WW2 bunkers, me losing Cecily’s sword! We were very keen to bring it all together and make it work, there were some dangerous stunts in there; I hope the ambition comes across! I learned a lot about problem solving so it was a good experience all round really.
**You worked in India and served as fight choreographer on the Bollywood film, “Force”, with Vidyut Jamwal [the star of Commando: One Man Army], what was that like? **
Yes, with him and John Abraham, who put on a lot of size for that (I did a bit of doubling for him as well). I was doing two different fights in the movie working under Alan Amir. Alan’s worked on some of the biggest stuff coming out of Bollywood like “Dhoom” and “Dhoom 2”. They had asked Joey to work on a film before called Knock Out (2010) starring Sanjay Dutt.
They wanted some more choreography the next year so Joey put it my way and I went out there to work with Alan. It was a really interesting experience it was something else, a real baptism of fire, sink or swim! I was there for just over a week completely on my own as the only Westerner out there and I was coming up with things on the spot, which is normal there. I mean, if you can handle that type of stressful environment, anything else is easy!
Vidyut is incredible, in great shape and has a lot of great skills so I’ve got a lot of respect for him. He did phenomenal stunts in “Commando One Man Army”. He could really handle the action and anything I asked of him, whether it was tricks, wall flips, butterfly or 540 degree kicks; so I tried to incorporate a wide range of moves. He’s really impressive and a great guy actually, it would be great to work with him again.
How did you first become involved in doing martial arts on film?
It was in 2006, I was teaching full time as the head instructor in Minnesota while I was still in college. I was teaching 6 days a week for 5 to 6 hours a day under the ATA (American Taekwondo Association). We were also part of the world demonstration team and travelled around doing demonstrations, that’s how I met Mike Chat. Some contacts he knew in Hong Kong were asking him if he knew any Asian/American action guys and I was mentioned. I sent off a movie reel by 11pm that same day and within two weeks, I was on my way to Hong Kong along (with another selected guy called Brendan). Young, super green, and off to fight with the Jackie Chan Stunt Team, (JCST) it was pretty surreal!
Your first role was in Jackie Chan’s “Rob-B-Hood” (2006), what do you remember about that?
That was a whirlwind, lots of things stood out for me there! The second day we got there, Mike Chat had me and Brendan in front of Jackie’s HQ on the rubberised playground floor, practicing our stunt falls to get ready. We didn’t know exactly what to expect, then we were brought to set to meet all the stunt guys. Jackie is really humble and really hard working in between takes he’s sweeping the floor, you don’t see that happen in America. He cares about the productions and all the people involved, even during lunch break he’d be sitting on the floor sharing his chicken with us! He actually spoke to me pretty well in Korean reminiscing over his many trips there and what he likes about Korean women so it was a good bonding experience.
You’ve also appeared on the show “Kamen Rider: Dragon Knight”, can you relate some of your experiences?
I got married shortly after the adventure with Jackie Chan and moved to LA. I didn’t have much money so stayed with her family, then 3 months later, I landed the role on “Kamen Rider”.
It was good for me because it was nationally broadcast so, going from basically nothing, (aside from the project with Jackie) to becoming a recurring guest star on a TV show was pretty awesome. It gave me a lot of confidence and taught me a lot about the business; you learn a lot being thrown straight in at the deep end!
Kamen Rider was mostly an acting, but they wanted actors who could also do the fight scenes. I did a big fight scene with one of the leads of the show, Matt Mullins as well as a few other scenes. I was in about 18-19 out of the 40 episode series so it was cool getting more acting experience under my belt. I also got a chance to work with Mark Dacascos as he had a role on the show and that was really fun since being a fan of his from the days of “Only The Strong” (his capoeira movie) and growing up seeing him in “Double Dragon” and “Drive” etc, Mark is so physically fit, tough, in great shape and able-bodied, he’s still doing huge back tucks and tricks and I got to thinking ‘I’d love to be able to still do all those things when I get to his age!’
You’ve also appeared on the action-comedy superhero series “Supah Ninjas”, can you tell us about that experience?
Yes! My first foray into a strictly stuntman role. It was a low budget show on Nickelodeon which had some really great fights. My aim was to be an actor not a stuntman per se; I think there are so many talented people out there that it’s hard to be both the best stuntman and best actor as they’re almost two separate paths. One doesn’t necessarily help the other. So I decided to focus on acting while keeping my martial arts skills as sharp as possible. I was approached by the stunt coordinator as I was a good match for the lead actor, and asked if I would be interested in working on the full run of the show, as a stunt double and in various other roles too. I thought it would be a great experience as a stuntman, and the crew were all great. Out of all the things I’ve done, it was the most physically and mentally challenging; I learned the most about myself. After the show, I kicked it up a notch in order to stay ready on all fronts! Being a stuntman takes its toll on the body as you’re taking all the hits on all the big fights, experiencing non-stop soreness, time pressure, doing rehearsals, and prepping for the next week’s fights in the same week. Four months in Pittsburgh over summer was tough![/details]
The dissatisfaction with the lack of fighting comes from misplaced expectations, which is understandable given the fighting game roots. You expected more fighting and it didn’t deliver because the creators treated this as an origins story that focuses on it’s characters first and foremost. They realised there is more to it than just the fighting and gave the narrative more priority (since they understand this is what gives a fight scene it’s meaning and importance). It may not be Shakespeare level work but it also isn’t superficial fluff made for the sole display of flashy martial arts either. I.E: see below.
The Akuma montage as with any training montage is to show how far Gouki has come with his abilities while in isolation. It provides another layer to understand his motivation and reinforces the extreme lengths he has gone to develop himself. If you go from him coughing up blood and dying on the floor, to him suddenly doing a raging demon on his master, people are gonna wonder where the fuck did that come from? You may not need the same level of investment to stomach those sequences of event, but not everyone will be the same, especially those completely new to the street fighter franchise (which they are targeting btw).
When all else fails, post an Internet meme. Well, what else can you expect of a 14 year-old dipshit like yourself? In 2014, Way of the Dragon is no longer a “decent martial arts film”. It’s a classic, pioneering work, but choreography has advanced a hell of a lot in the last 50 years. Shocking, I know. The choreography in Street Fighter: Assassin’s Fist itself is better. You might as well argue that a certain low-budget sci-fi flick using cardboard robots in 2014 is fine because they were present in The Day The Earth Stood Still
More importantly, why are your panties in such a twist because someone on the Internet wrote the series was “decent”, followed by a rational, calm critique? Are you that much of an insecure little bitch? Mommy and Daddy shouldn’t allow you on the family computer if you’re going to throw temper tantrums like this.
Mike Moh (Ryu) is very clearly inexperienced, having played in bit parts of small movies for the last few years. The rest are little-known, the other half of my sentence you quoted, as you would be hard-pressed to find anyone, even among cinemaphiles (of which I consider myself one), who has heard of him.
This isn’t an “opinion”. When the role you are second most-known for on IMDB is some picture called Greenside (2009), which doesn’t even have a thumbnail graphic and has 39 total ratings with 0 reviews, it’s pretty fucking fair to call him both inexperienced and little-known;
This rabid fanboyism is really irritating. You’re arguing about the smallest, most obvious things. The stars of Street Fighter: Assassin’s Fist themselves would openly admit they’re up-and-coming actors with relatively little experience and name recognition.
Yeah, this is what happens when people get their education and culture from CGI blockbuster superhero films meant for 8 year olds.
They start believing Street Fighter, with good guys, bad guys, and chi blasts is high art with a deep narrative. And should be treated damn seriously. And that we need 11 minutes of verbal context for 2 minutes of fighting.
Again, the dialogue isn’t bad, and most of it is at least palatable. (Repetitive, monotonous droning about Akuma’s Dark Hadou aside) But it’s not deep art.
Let’s just clarify your argument here;
Without the audience seeing a guy doing a few pull-ups and squats with less weight than many girls manage at the gym, they wouldn’t believe he could turn into a demon from hell that can make enormous explosions out of thin air.
Yeah, makes total sense. Pro tip- people new to the Street Fighter franchise are not necessarily mentally disabled.
Lol am just killing off your dumb bullshit, I dont care about your opinion of AF I didnt say I did lol, just proving you wrong
The actors are little known, not inexperienced. They may not be blockbuster movie stars but they are still professionals who do this type of thing for a living and with a number of credentials under their belts, much more than what you’d expect from a humble web-series like this (seriously what other web series do you know possesses talent from films on the level of The Last Samurai, Memoirs of a Geisha and The Bourne Ultimatum?). An inexperienced person would be someone like Owen Wilson playing Ken since he has jack all martial arts experience despite his giant acting portfolio. Mike Moh may indeed be the weakest out of the bunch, but if he is good enough for Jackie Chan and Kamen Rider then he is plenty good enough for Assassin’s Fist imo. There is a clear distinction between little-known and inexperienced, they are not mutually inclusive even if they do often appear so.
My argument is that the purpose of the scene or any scene for that matter is to help build a connection between the character and the audience so as to help drive the story forward. The content of the scene could be about fuck all for all I care. It could be Akuma feeding a dog or chasing after butterflies, it doesn’t matter. One still gets what they need to know about the character and how they fit into the narrative from it. You may not need that information to build a connection to the character since you’ve already been exposed to Akuma and his role in the narrative from the plethora of other material out there or you just plain don’t care for such things. However, not everyone will share your same viewpoint and expectations so you can’t speak for them such as when you imply that “non fans just won’t give a shit” in your original post.
If you wanted straight up fighting, why not go watch UFC or any other martial arts sports instead? By seeking it here, it seems like you’re trying to squeeze water out of a rock.
LOL Akuma feeding a dog or chasing after butterflies was the exact character development plot used for the Riddick movie 
I like how you admit I’m correct, but then dismiss the concern, anyways. Also, this is why I hate arguing on the Internet with fanboys; if one makes a statement A, the fanboy will instead respond to a tangibly different statement B.
In this case, I wrote that Mike Moh had an excellent look for playing the role or Ryu and did the choreography well, but that his acting abilities were poor.
The statement that you’re responding to “Mike Moh isn’t good enough for Assassin’s Fist”!
Let me make it clearer for you, since you seem horribly confused on this point.
The entire cast is little-known. Some are experienced.
Mike Moh is little-known and inexperienced as an actor. The fact that Moh did fight scenes for a Jackie Chan-produced kid’s show adaptation of Kamen Rider that no one watched means he has experience in stunt work and choreography, not acting.
Yeah, I figured as much. Some people, however, want scenes that aren’t boring and redundant. And that advance the story. Personal preference, I know.
If you want straight up story and characters, why not go read a book, or watch a classic film by a great director instead? By seeking it from a low budget Machinima series based on a fighting game series based around characters that were originally “Karate Guy from Japan” and “Karate Guy from the USA”, it seems like you’re trying to squeeze water out of a rock.
I’m the guy expecting a series on Street Fighter to feature slightly more than 2 minutes of fight scenes in a 13 minute episode.
You’re the guy expecting a series on Street Fighter to be a Shakesperian masterpiece.
Tell me; which one of those sounds more ridiculous?
Wed dont expsct a shakespearian master peice at all but we clearly expected more then you did man. Its fine if it wasnt everything you wanted, thats cool, but you guys are arguing in circles now.
All you mothafuckas stop arguing. Killing the vibe in this thread.
^ I don’t see anything good coming further from this conversation anymore so this is my last piece on the matter and then I’ll head to bed.
See, if you had clearly said so from the start, you would’ve saved everyone a whole heap of trouble. I really don’t care if I admit you’re right or not. You could be on a number of different things and not on others. I saw comments citing how “neither of the actors has a background in martial arts movies” and called them out. The fact that it took you this long to finally clarify your stance shows how poorly conveyed your points are and why we were arguing in circles half the time because of it (and then the irony to call out my confusion trying to make sense of your mess). Shit, you even fail to read all the info I spoon-fed you. Because if you did, you would’ve realised Jackie Chan had no relation to the Kamen Rider stint at all. They were two separate things. This is why I pushed your shit over this point so much, because you left yourself open to getting pushed in.
You know I really tried not to get into the whole snarky argument bullshit since it’s childish as fuck. But the amount of the sarcastic shit I was getting in return for trying to exchange ideas in a civil and respectable way made me not give a fuck anymore. The constant assertions and disregard for any opposing viewpoints under the fanboy flag is down-right insulting and incredibly close-minded. And then you wonder why people come in at you so hard. Maybe if you communicated your shit better, you wouldn’t be running into the following problem so often where “if one makes a statement A, the fanboy will instead respond to a tangibly different statement B.” because they interpreted your shitty-worded statement A to mean statement B. All there was, were continual baseless blanket statements with no explanation or reasoning behind said stance or it was just a straight up jab at someone. Okay, shit’s boring and redundant to you. Why? (P.S Don’t answer that cause no one gives a fuck what you have to write anymore, it’s boring and people are getting tired of it)
If I really wanted to get nitpicky then I would’ve brought up your golden ratio of how 2mins of fighting for every 11mins of non-fighting is somehow bad and by what standard does this measurement actually originate from. Other than straight out of your ass.
I don’t expect a Shakespeare level masterpiece. I thought it was decent but I think they should’ve had moar tym 4 fiting bcuz fuk wurds I dun understan moonspeak newayz. N fuk fanbois.
@SlayerofBodom
You have to accept that you were not in their target group and move on. I wasn’t in their target group either. I’d have preferred subtler dialog, less fighting and training shots, less sfx and more character development, but i still believe that AF is good for what it is. It targets a younger audience that has different preferences and knows a lot less of the game cannon than me. Casual gamers and people that have become familiar with the franchise during the last decade, mainly through SF4. It’s a wider audience and they have to go for that if they want their effort to be economically viable. From that perspective i find it very reasonable to give a lot of weight to the backstory even if i already knew it myself. Judging by the reactions of the audience, these stuff where mostly unknown to the vast majority of viewers and they seemed to have found it pretty compelling as well.
As for the acting, well, considering the budget and the demand for an actor that will look the part while also being able to do martial arts, i think they did the best that was humanly possible. The only think that was within their resources to improve but didn’t was Mike’s use of Japanese.
The Gouki training montage might have dragged a little, but it had a purpose. When you change the actor of a character mid play, you’d better find a way to suspend disbelief, or else your movie becomes a parody of itself. Depicting the transformation slowly managed to make the switch from a skinny Japanese guy to a huge half Ghanaian giant a lot more plausible.
The best part of the training montage is that the music is the same track I play when I lift. I even walk out the door the same way Gouki walks out the cave shirtless. LIKE A BAWSE.