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RTTP - Street FIghter II: The Animated Movie - "Hey Brushead! This is not a request!"

I always loved this movie. Was so hype when I was a teenager. Had it on VHS, then DVD... I'll have to pick it up on Bluray. I think I was looking at listings recently, then annoyed that I wanted a different region release with no region free player.

tCuVS90.gif
 

Garlador

Member
You can also watch it completely uncut in Japanese with subtitles, or with the isolated music track (japanese version.)

Even then, you're selling it short.

You can watch it with TWO different subtitle tracks. That was a pleasant surprise for me. One with the original Japanese names for Dictator, Claw, and Boxer, or one with the westernized names instead.

I've almost never seen an anime that catered to both groups with the subtitles like that before. Really well done.
 

Ashura

Neo Member
Obviously I love talking about this scene in particular, but you're absolutely right. When I watched this with my best friend, she also made the keen observation that the only character from the games that's most likely killed in the entire film is Vega, as all the others are shown to survive, even Bison (we don't see if Zangief survived Blanka's electrocution, I guess). Vega could have survived, but it seems very unlikely, what with falling headfirst from the top of the apartment (and mirroring Chun-li's father's "accidental" death as well. Great call-back!), and that would give Chun-li the highest body count in the movie of all the fighters.

While it's not 'canon', if you watch the Animated Movie Game cutscenes, in the ending where the Cyborg chooses to side with Bison/Dictator, it's kind of telling that the Cyborg replaces Vega/Claw in the ending where Ryu comes back and shouts CHASER!!! at 'em.

Even then, you're selling it short.

You can watch it with TWO different subtitle tracks. That was a pleasant surprise for me. One with the original Japanese names for Dictator, Claw, and Boxer, or one with the westernized names instead.

I've almost never seen an anime that catered to both groups with the subtitles like that before. Really well done.

I'm glad you liked that! We did it for Darkstalkers as well, for obvious reasons. As a fan, there's a ton of things I wanted to do for this release, and this was one of the first I thought of. Glad we got to do 99% of them.
 

Garlador

Member
I need to get this, pronto.

Might be my favorite anime movie of all time. It's got everything, and it's cool.

Alpha movie, in comparison, felt like trash. A bait and switch after this amazing movie.

After seeing this film years ago, I was starving for more, especially with that cliffhanger with Bison in the bus. I told my younger brother that, oh yeah, there'd totally be a a Street Fighter III movie as soon as they made it.

When they went with Alpha instead, and seeing the trailer from Manga video, I was really hyped. But, yes, it was a pale imitation of the original.
bscap0030.jpg

(this was pretty much my face after I watched it too)

Despite watching it repeatedly, I can't remember any standout fights. The story was bizarre, the choreography and animation were choppy and simple, and it was stuffed full of a bunch of random, original characters that weren't from the games. It was... disappointing, to say the least.

Sadly, we never did get that Street Fighter III: The Animated Movie that I spent a decade wishing for, but we did get a moderately solid Street Fighter II V series from most of the same creators of the movie. It's extremely weird and really disconnected from the actual games in pretty much every regard, but it's still definitely entertaining and has some above-average animation and fight sequences for a proper TV series.

It's a bizarre alternate universe take on the Street Fighter lore and characters. I wish it was more faithful, but it's a good time and at least the animated movie team had one last hurrah with the franchise that was put to good use.
 

Lyte Edge

All I got for the Vernal Equinox was this stupid tag
Sadly, we never did get that Street Fighter III: The Animated Movie that I spent a decade wishing for, but we did get a moderately solid Street Fighter II V series from most of the same creators of the movie. It's extremely weird and really disconnected from the actual games in pretty much every regard, but it's still definitely entertaining and has some above-average animation and fight sequences for a proper TV series.


It's a bizarre alternate universe take on the Street Fighter lore and characters. I wish it was more faithful, but it's a good time and at least the animated movie team had one last hurrah with the franchise that was put to good use.

Street Fighter II V was a hard series for me to finish. The pacing sucked and they re-used animation so much towards the end. Ryu doing that hadoken pose...ugh.

The SF2 animated movie trounces everything else. It was the only good animated SF effort...so many video game-to-anime works tend to be nonsensical garbage, but this movie was great stuff. I also enjoyed the Fatal Fury OVAs and the movie that followed them. Can't think of much else that was really worth watching, but maybe I'm forgetting something.
 

Rur0ni

Member
This has to do with a combination of a great script by Mary Claypool, direction by the late, great Kevin Seymour (Macross Plus, among others), and Les Claypool's Magnitude 8 Post doing the recording. This was shipped out to a music studio in New York where it was scored, and the scoring studio called Les' company and told him personally that they had never heard such clean dialogue before.

Which is true. We pulled the original master tapes and they were pristine... from 1992. The new mix we did was done from scratch, each and every piece of dialogue retracked by hand, and we used the original score. Les mixed it like he would've mixed something back in the 90s, only with today's technology allowing him to sync everything. So it's sort of a throwback to that era while also being new.

I really, really like a lot of the dialogue in the dub script. Bison/Dictator has some of the best lines; he's written in a way where he's constantly shit-talking without sounding like a guy who's shit-talking. The guy they got to voice him delivered those lines perfectly; in such a way that he's a huge an asshole, but it also still seems in character.

"You know, Guile, evil is a good career choice. It has a lot to offer."

"Hello, Captain. Are you still planning to give me the heart transplant you mentioned?"

This one is so cheesy, but the way it's delivered is so good. And such a great callback to Guile's 'I'll rip your heart out!!!' line.

There's also some really great lines in there, like 'Man, I gotta kill this guy before I kill myself!' delivered by Richard Epcar as E. Honda. Which is so "what???" but also in character for E. Honda. There's a reason we used the 'Bonehead!!' take for E.Honda in the new mix over 'Bastard!!' and it's because it was much more in character and the delivery was so great.

Of course, there's some badly delivered stuff which is always hilarious. 'What's... the Shadowlaw?' 'You don't know?' 'NOPE!!!!' by Ryu and Fei-Long ALWAYS makes me laugh.

Garlador, I also wanted to say, I loved your post about the Chun-Li / Vega fight. I actually spoke to some friends about this during production of the Blu-Ray and had come to the exact same conclusion. When I got the new mix with the Japanese music, I had to watch through it to check it and the eeriness of that scene struck me. If you watch this scene with the Japanese score, this is just reinforced, too; The song that's playing there isn't crazy, pumping KMFDM, but a soft, slow guitar ballad and it contrasts the harsh violence of the visuals completely. You can tell it was very specifically picked for this scene, and meant to help unsettle the viewer even further.

To even this out, I love that they set it up such that you think that Guile is going to save her, but she saves herself. She gives it her all. She might be put into a coma at the end, but she not only defeats Vega but probably also kills him, by herself. When you watch the fight, the whole thing is earned; they purposely pit her as vulnerable, and she turns the entire fight around, going toe-to-toe. She is not shown as weaker than Vega, but instead he starts with the upper hand. She is vulnerable because she's in a vulnerable position, and not because she's some delicate flower. She has to build her momentum back after being caught off-guard and eventually gets the upper hand.

This is in direct contrast to Guile who, Bison beats the living shit out of, and only survives because Bison thinks he's so pathetic. He's left to die a pile on the ground.

Hell, the fact that they put Chun-Li up against Vega and not just another token female character like Fatal Fury is unique on its own, and I bet that has a lot to do with the director and studio. Sugii directed a lot of niche masterpieces, like Night on the Galactic Railroad, and it was odd that Studio Tac decided to do this project at the time, and I feel like Sugii and Studio Tac are the whole reason this was so good. I bet you diamonds to donuts that if any other studio had directed it, they would've done the typical girl-fight cliche and had Chun-Li fight Cammy instead of Vega. Thank goodness they decided to work on some shitty video game anime.

Tom Wyner knocks it out of the park as M.Bison. He just is so unabashedly evil and is relishing the role so much. While I love his work in other animes like Wolf's Rain, Gungrave, and Outlaw Star, here he really takes a center stage and runs with it. The script is definitely still a bit silly, but a great voice actor can make it work, and Wyner sells the hell out of lines like "Now, aren't you the big He-man?", "The stars are all gathered on stage. Take a bow!", or Guile threatening to rip out his heart and he's just so nonplussed, "I'm afraid I don't have one."


I think that's the real takeaway in that a lot of characters like Honda and Dee Jay and Dhalsim don't have a very big presence, yet their voice actors do a whole lot to make their brief appearances very memorable. Richard Epcar's Honda is probably the closest thing to a comic relief in the whole movie and all his lines are memorable. I always giggled how he tries to fight Bison, runs right through him, slams face-first into Balrog, and just goes "Hi, and you are?" And yet, despite that, it's still cool to see him throw down with both Dhalsim (that's a GREAT match-up of the game's thinnest and thickest fighters) and then to have a headbutting contest with Balrog (both of whom DO employ headbutts as special attacks in the game). You can tell they put a ton of thought into who fights who.


This, to me, is a huge strength of the anime (and of the Blu-Ray release). As good as the film is, you get two VASTLY different tones and moods set by the musical score. The Japanese choice of "Cry" by Big Life is REALLY good for setting that sad, almost hopeless feeling. It's a sad, slow song and it makes the scene feel entirely hopeless for Chun-li, like no matter how hard she's gonna fight, it's a losing battle that gets worse and worse as she takes more hits and starts to bleed out. In the west, it starts off pretty similar, as I think Chun-li's Theme is a really sad and quiet theme for her, while her new song choice of "Hallucinations" by In the Nursery is a moody, eerie song as well. Up until the very moment Vega appears, the film is keeping it similar. But when Chun-li becomes aware she's not alone, the difference is night and day.

And that's what I love about it. It's like getting a great scene in two different yet equally delicious flavors. "Ultra" playing in the background fits the pacing of the fight itself so well it almost feels like the song was written just for the fight scene (every time the music slows down as Chun-li picks up the couch to throw in Vega's face or when the guitar soars while Chun-li runs up the walls gives me chills). It turns the scene into one of the best action scenes ever, focusing on the adrenaline and energy of the fight, while Big Life's "Cry" shifts the focus to the desperation and tension of the fight and the uncertainty of whether Chun-li will come out on top. It makes revisiting the scene in both languages absolutely worth it, which is a very rare thing for any anime.


Obviously I love talking about this scene in particular, but you're absolutely right. When I watched this with my best friend, she also made the keen observation that the only character from the games that's most likely killed in the entire film is Vega, as all the others are shown to survive, even Bison (we don't see if Zangief survived Blanka's electrocution, I guess). Vega could have survived, but it seems very unlikely, what with falling headfirst from the top of the apartment (and mirroring Chun-li's father's "accidental" death as well. Great call-back!), and that would give Chun-li the highest body count in the movie of all the fighters.

I've talked a bit already how the fight scene subverts many tropes, but Chun-li herself is a subversion of many of them as a direct contrast to the typical "All-American Hero" Guile (whom Americans just made THE main character in their adaptations). He's obviously a very strong and powerful fighter, but... he never lands a single hit. In fact, his second encounter with Chun-li has her humiliating him by just dancing around his attacks... and then giving him a verbal undressing just to boot. Of the two, it becomes quite clear that Chun-li is both the more mature and also more talented fighter, and her juxtaposition with him is actually some of the movie's few genuine character moments. Guile's self-righteous quest to get revenge on Bison for Charlie's death makes him think he has the high-road on Chun-li... right until she drops the bomb that Bison murdered her father yet is strong enough emotionally and mentally to not let that compromise her job or her decision making. The animators did a great job with Guile there as it sinks in that "oh... crap. She's got me" and it's clear afterwards just how quickly he bonds with her over their mutual goals. But, yet again, Chun-li is the agent of change, the one with the agency, and Guile is the reactionary one following HER lead.


And what has Capcom done since?...


I'm actually, genuinely surprised there wasn't a Cammy vs. Chun-li fight, and I'm curious if it was actually pitched since there's promo art for an encounter. But it may have just been that and nothing more.

Having her throw down exclusively with the big boys in the film is one of the best things about it.


Heh. Yeah. I just needed a quick and easy gif of fireball spamming and that was Google's first search result.
Great posts. Keep up the good work, seriously.
 

Aske

Member
Very specific PSA for anyone trying to order this movie from Amazon Canada: just buy it from Amazon.com.

The release date has come and gone, and there's no sign of the BD. Amazon.ca currently lists it as "Temporarily out of stock: we don't know when this will become available". Thankfully, the movie is available on Amazon.com at such a vast discount, it's actually cheaper to buy it there, ship it to Canada, and pay the import fee than it would be to buy the BD from Amazon.ca with free shipping, even if they had stock: $32.50 vs $35.

Glad my copy is finally on its way!
 

Dizzy-4U

Member
106841-samurai-shodown-ii-neo-geo-screenshot-green-blood-the-censorship.png

Did they localize the snk games too?
Ha! Fortunately, I never seen that on SamSho.

I remember that I didn't have the concept of censorship in my young mind so I kept thinking that the VHS tape was flawed. I even rented a different copy from another store and thought "what the hell is going on?".
 

Finaika

Member
Hell, the fact that they put Chun-Li up against Vega and not just another token female character like Fatal Fury is unique on its own, and I bet that has a lot to do with the director and studio. Sugii directed a lot of niche masterpieces, like Night on the Galactic Railroad, and it was odd that Studio Tac decided to do this project at the time, and I feel like Sugii and Studio Tac are the whole reason this was so good. I bet you diamonds to donuts that if any other studio had directed it, they would've done the typical girl-fight cliche and had Chun-Li fight Cammy instead of Vega. Thank goodness they decided to work on some shitty video game anime.

Mai actually fought Laurence Blood & Hauer in the Fatal Fury movies.
 
Best thing about this movie: Ken driving in a sports car with this girlfriend, giving a half hearted marriage proposal, and then having a daydream about Ryu, which almost causes him to crash into a Capcom truck, all while Them Bones by Alice in Chains is playing.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=83Z_QQy4XB8

Worst thing about this movie: No Psycho Crusher by M. Bison. Street Fighter II V had 3, why couldn't this movie?
 
Worst thing about this movie: No Psycho Crusher by M. Bison. Street Fighter II V had 3, why couldn't this movie?

SF2V is 26 TV episodes, the movie is ~100 minutes. Also, Psycho Crusher isn't as intense an attack in a "3-D" world because you can just sidestep the darn thing. I guess technically Hadoukens are the same way but they were used pretty sparingly here and mostly on Bison who just stood there and was like "lol nope" and deflected them (or died, w/e).

To clarify what Ashura said earlier about the PG-13 version on the Blu-ray, it isn't just the VHS tape's master slapped on the Blu-ray like in the anniversary compilation from a few years back, but a full 1080p recreation of the tape's edits using the new HD master. It took some work, mostly from your good pal Ashura here.
 

Garlador

Member
One mystery of this movie that, to my knowledge, has never been solved...

Balrog's googly eyes.

The production value of the anime is so good, I can't chalk it down to animation error. It was a very deliberate thing they did.

And it's consistent throughout the duration of his fight with Honda.

It's even stranger when his eyes aren't all weird like that anywhere else in the film, either with Bison or in Las Vegas. Only during this fight does his face consistently derp-out like that, and because it's so consistent, I know it has to have been deliberate. I think even some of the production art has him with the lazy eyes.

I don't mind it (in fact, I find it hilarious), but I've always been curious how this bit of weirdness came about. No way did they "miss it". It was put in there with as much care as anything else.
 

RangerX

Banned
Yep I first saw this when I was around 14 and it remains one of my favourite animated films to this day. Your spot on about the fights too. Some of the best ever.
 

Ashura

Neo Member
Mai actually fought Laurence Blood & Hauer in the Fatal Fury movies.

If I recall correctly that's all pretty short though? I forgot they were in the movie... And I've been working on it lately. The stuff which stands out to me is her being used as a damsel in distress for Andy by the one henchman who wears a mask, and her fighting the one lone female henchwoman.

And then of course, the afformentioned shower scene and alllllll the nip slips. Heck the old Viz trailer even has Mai nip slips in it.
 
I had a VHS of this in high school, the uncut version. When word got out that you saw Chun-Li in the shower everyone wanted to borrow it, I'm not exaggerating when I say I lent it out to about 30 guys in my school year. The tape was pretty worn out to say the least.
 

Garlador

Member
If I recall correctly that's all pretty short though? I forgot they were in the movie... And I've been working on it lately. The stuff which stands out to me is her being used as a damsel in distress for Andy by the one henchman who wears a mask, and her fighting the one lone female henchwoman.

And then of course, the afformentioned shower scene and alllllll the nip slips. Heck the old Viz trailer even has Mai nip slips in it.
It's been awhile, but I only remember Mai's fight against the female villain. Pretty sure none of those villains were from the game (could be wrong). Is the female villain's design as embarrassing as I remember?

I was going to post Mai's actual big special attack, but then revisiting it I see she rips her clothes off, spins around butt naked for a bit before "summoning" her outfit to materialize on her like a Sailor Moon character, before going in for the kill.

... I'll at least give them this; they know exactly who Mai was designed to appeal to.

I had a VHS of this in high school, the uncut version. When word got out that you saw Chun-Li in the shower everyone wanted to borrow it, I'm not exaggerating when I say I lent it out to about 30 guys in my school year. The tape was pretty worn out to say the least.
I hope you gave the tape a good scrubbing...
 

Aske

Member
Finally received my copy of the SF2 BD in my mailbox today. Just finished it. I've been pretty hyped for this in previous threads, but I was still overwhelmed by the experience of actually watching the Blu-ray.

I haven't seen the version of this movie I grew up with (UK cut) for almost 20 years. I picked up the NA DVD maybe 10 years ago, but of course that dub was different and the film felt totally wrong. Watched it once and felt completely dissatisfied. So watching this BD, I was blown away by two things: the chilling nostalgia factor, and how utterly incredible the remastered movie looks and sounds. I feel like just about every frame of the UK VHS is imprinted on my brain, and I don't think I got used to the clarity of the picture and quality of the sound of the BD until about 3/4 of the way through the movie.

The places Discotek augmented the American soundtrack to fit the extra material from the original Japanese cut are totally seamless. I doubt anyone else who picked up the distribution rights would have ever gone to the lengths they did when remastering this movie. We're incredibly fortunate they cared enough to create a brand new, completely unedited cut of SF2:TAM combining the Japanese film with the American dub(s) and soundtrack. This isn't something that ever happens at the level of an official release. At best, we might have expected remastered versions of the uncut Japanese film with the Japanese soundtrack, and the least edited version of the various western releases when some other company got around to doing it.

The extras are awesome too. Really enjoyed reading the production notes and watching the featurettes comparing the different cuts. The compilation of unique FMVs from the game is also a superb addition.

Sincere thanks to Ashura for all the work you put into the restoration. From one fan to another, you nailed this. I couldn't be more appreciative or relieved that Discotek secured the rights to this movie and gave it the love it deserved.


Edit: Do we know what Japanese fans think of the western soundtrack? I'd be interested to know if any portion of that fanbase prefers the American music, or if they universally prefer the less bombastic Japanese OST.

Edit 2: Realised I forgot to emphasise something: everyone's favourite version of the movie is on this Blu-ray. The various options are all fully explained on the previous page, but I'm painfully aware that most people putting this release together would have probably left off the UK version of the dub since it's only available in stereo. I'm beyond grateful for its inclusion, because while the US Unrated dub is certainly the definitive English version (if only by virtue of its quality), the UK dub with all its f-bombs is my version of the dub. I'll gladly sacrifice the true 5.1 in order to hear the dialogue in stereo-to-Dolby-Pro-Logic-II exactly as I remember it. I imagine very few other people will do this, especially as this BD isn't even available outside region 1, but you guys restored the British 15-rated dub and put it on this disc anyway. Thank you.
 

Vespa

Member
Great impressions, Aske!

I'm glad the UK dub is on there, it's how I experienced it too.

Ashura/Discotek crew, do you guys know if this is being picked up for distribution by anyone in a region B area? I'm eager to get this and don't mind importing but would love to get a disc without the hassle of getting new hardware.
 

Garlador

Member
Edit: Do we know what Japanese fans think of the western soundtrack? I'd be interested to know if any portion of that fanbase prefers the American music, or if they universally prefer the less bombastic Japanese OST.

Edit 2: Realised I forgot to emphasise something: everyone's favourite version of the movie is on this Blu-ray. The various options are all fully explained on the previous page, but I'm painfully aware that most people putting this release together would have probably left off the UK version of the dub since it's only available in stereo. I'm beyond grateful for its inclusion, because while the US Unrated dub is certainly the definitive English version (if only by virtue of its quality), the UK dub with all its f-bombs is my version of the dub. I'll gladly sacrifice the true 5.1 in order to hear the dialogue in stereo-to-Dolby-Pro-Logic-II exactly as I remember it. I imagine very few other people will do this, especially as this BD isn't even available outside region 1, but you guys restored the British 15-rated dub and put it on this disc anyway. Thank you.

I only have limited exposure to Japan since moving away, but I think, by and large, the vast majority of Japanese viewers actually have never once seen the western version of the movie. I'm pretty sure even now the only version offered in Japan is exclusively the Japanese dub with the Japanese soundtrack.

You have to give it up to Discotek... we actually got the superior release of the movie on home video. We got EVERY incarnation of the film, including for the first time ever an English dub over the Japanese soundtrack. I'm beyond impressed by that.

To my knowledge, Japan hasn't even remastered or re-released the film on Blu-Ray in Japan yet. Currently, Discotek's version is far and away the definitive version with the best video and audio quality, and even the most content (sans a Japanese commentary track Japan got).

So Japan has almost no exposure to the western soundtrack, but I doubt they'd hate it. As for the Japanese soundtrack, it proved popular. There were a couple of CD soundtracks released for the film that proved popular. A lot of the music for the Japanese film was done by Yuji Toriyama, an amazing guitarist, and he released an album of truly amazing Street Fighter II themes.

In this regard, I think the west actually gets something special, getting flavors of the film Japan never really officially got.

Also, for all my knowledge of the film, I admit I never knew exactly why the UK version had more profanity. Knowing it was a marketing ploy to intentionally bump the rating up to appeal to a rising adult anime market makes a ton of sense. Hearing from UK viewers, they always told me how much they preferred it too. I imported the UK version on DVD long ago and that's the one I became most familiar with.
 

Glass

Member
My friend and I would watch this as kids every time we met up, and he'd always shotgun being Ryu and I'd be Ken. Even at a young age we realised how good this film was, it has the same effect as watching something like Rocky, you just want to go to the gym afterwards or start some sort of martial art, it gets you seriously amped up.

For years afterwards I expected another one to come along that lived up to it, but as far as I know one never came along.
 

Aske

Member
Also, for all my knowledge of the film, I admit I never knew exactly why the UK version had more profanity. Knowing it was a marketing ploy to intentionally bump the rating up to appeal to a rising adult anime market makes a ton of sense. Hearing from UK viewers, they always told me how much they preferred it too. I imported the UK version on DVD long ago and that's the one I became most familiar with.

Same here - I had no clue adding profanity to score a 15 certificate was a thing back in the 90s. Fascinating and hilarious given the pressure studios face to remove content and qualify for lower ratings in recent years.

Nostalgia goggles keep me from being even moderately objective, but I don't think any of the added-for-the-sake-of-edge profanity is out of place at all. Not sure how I'd feel if I was used to the US Unrated dub, but watching the alternate takes on the BD, I feel like the choices used in the UK dub suit the characters better. Dee Jay and Guile are great examples. And it was interesting to see Ryu cussin' in the odd take, sounding totally out of character, and knowing that the UK dub sensibly didn't include it. I'm easily irritated by excessive profanity when it sounds unnatural and is clearly included just to be edgy, but that's not what I hear when I listen to the UK dub. Instead, I hear characters who sound more like themselves than they do in the US Unrated version.

The dubs could have gone so wrong in so many ways - the extras really shine a light on that. Fei Long and Ryu yelling the English names of their moves as they perform them made me wince.

Thinking of which, I also didn't know Bryan Cranston wasn't confirmed to be Fei Long's voice after all this time. I mean, that's clearly him; but I didn't realise it was officially just a "rumour".
 

Garlador

Member
Same here - I had no clue adding profanity to score a 15 certificate was a thing back in the 90s. Fascinating and hilarious given the pressure studios face to remove content and qualify for lower ratings in recent years.

Nostalgia goggles keep me from being even moderately objective, but I don't think any of the added-for-the-sake-of-edge profanity is out of place at all. Not sure how I'd feel if I was used to the US Unrated dub, but watching the alternate takes on the BD, I feel like the choices used in the UK dub suit the characters better. Dee Jay and Guile are great examples. And it was interesting to see Ryu cussin' in the odd take, sounding totally out of character, and knowing that the UK dub sensibly didn't include it. I'm easily irritated by excessive profanity when it sounds unnatural and is clearly included just to be edgy, but that's not what I hear when I listen to the UK dub. Instead, I hear characters who sound more like themselves than they do in the US Unrated version.

The dubs could have gone so wrong in so many ways - the extras really shine a light on that. Fei Long and Ryu yelling the English names of their moves as they perform them made me wince.

Thinking of which, I also didn't know Bryan Cranston wasn't confirmed to be Fei Long's voice after all this time. I mean, that's clearly him; but I didn't realise it was officially just a "rumour".
To my knowledge, technically ALL the voice actors for the original movie did their roles under pseudonyms as non-union work-for-hire. I couldn't find any info on whether there was a voice actor strike at the time nor do I clearly remember the dubbing scene during the early 90s, but I know it was pretty crazy and voice actors for the likes of Manga Video, Urban Vision, and early Pioneer Video (oh, memories...) often went by aliases.

As a result, a lot of early 90s anime was done by actors under pen-names and pseudonyms, and unless those actors come out and confirm it first-hand, it's hard to prove definitively who was the correct voice. So, like, 20 years of hearing Steve Blum's voice means I KNOW it's him when he's talking in the film, even if he goes by the name "Richard Cardona" in the movie. Bryan Cranston's voice acting is the same way. He's such a big name now, and it's all but accepted he did extensive voice work in these films, but in Street Fighter he's credited as "Phil Williams", in Macross Plus and other anime projects as "Lee Stone".

What I've gathered over some interviews is the anime dubbing scene at the time used pseudonyms for various reasons - from non-union work to certain social stigmas against anime itself at the time. Even popular anime that was brought west - like Tenchi Muyo and Akira - had their voice actors use aliases to cover their butts. Some interviews I read were that many of them had made a name for themselves in more family-friendly cartoons and TV shows, and much of the early-to-mid 90s anime scene was about bringing "adult" cartoons to our shores, looking for shows and movies from Japan with a high quotient of blood, nudity, or language. Thus you had voice actors like Cam Clarke, famous for Ninja Turtles, perhaps not wishing to be known extensively as voicing a character in a movie where a girl is sexually assaulted and squished to death in Akira, or Sherry Lynn coming off of shows like Rugrats and My Little Pony to do voices in a show where two naked women have a catfight in a hotspring in Tenchi Muyo.

I think, though, that as the cultural stigmas around anime started to subside and the shows become more pervasive and accepted, more of them started to drop the pseudonyms, either because it was normalized or also because, you know, we know what your voice sounds like, Steve Blum. You're not fooling anyone anymore.
 

Aske

Member
Question: why did the original US Unrated edit of the film remove the shot of Chun-Li's butt that was included in the PG-13 version? It restored her breasts, kept the blood, added stronger language; and the only other cuts were made for pacing. It doesn't seem censorship could be the reason, and while I'd buy that it was for pacing, there are many other, more samey shower shots to prune. Any theories, or will this remain a mystery like Boxer's spontaneous googly eyes?
 
Is the UK Bluray the same as the US version ie. The definitive?

UK BluRay is one to avoid. US is THE definitive afterall. Time to import.
 

Aske

Member
Gotta watch this again. Chun-Li's fight with Vega was so freaking epic. That song by KMFDM is pure fire!

I never get tired of that moment after she gets woozy; when she shakes it off, focuses for a second, and then destroys him. Things like the wall attacks just like in the game are such awesome inclusions. The transition that happens the instant Vega attacks and the soundtrack kicks in over the music Chun Li's playing in her apartment...Definitely the best fight in the film.
 
Question: why did the original US Unrated edit of the film remove the shot of Chun-Li's butt that was included in the PG-13 version? It restored her breasts, kept the blood, added stronger language; and the only other cuts were made for pacing. It doesn't seem censorship could be the reason, and while I'd buy that it was for pacing, there are many other, more samey shower shots to prune. Any theories, or will this remain a mystery like Boxer's spontaneous googly eyes?

I owned the VHS tape of the PG-13 cut as a teenager and watched it countless times (and proofed the Blu-ray's restoration of it) and I assure you there was no such shot in the original release of the PG-13 version (or I probably would've gotten a talking-to from at least someone in my household growing up). The US Unrated cut, from what I understand, retained the butt shot you reference, but omitted the boob shot. The UK cut did the opposite. I'm not as versed in the other versions of the movie as Brady is, though.

Ashura/Discotek crew, do you guys know if this is being picked up for distribution by anyone in a region B area? I'm eager to get this and don't mind importing but would love to get a disc without the hassle of getting new hardware.

I haven't heard anything. But personally, I doubt it, since there's already a fairly recent BD release in Europe. And you don't usually see a lot of double-dipping releases in the Blu-ray market in general from what I can tell, unlike how DVD has gone. And if we're being honest, to the average non-enthusiast customer, the UK release is probably "just fine." The only real nitpick UK-market people upgrading to the Euro Blu might hate is the exclusion of the UK Unrated audio.
 

Aske

Member
I owned the VHS tape of the PG-13 cut as a teenager and watched it countless times (and proofed the Blu-ray's restoration of it) and I assure you there was no such shot in the original release of the PG-13 version (or I probably would've gotten a talking-to from at least someone in my household growing up). The US Unrated cut, from what I understand, retained the butt shot you reference, but omitted the boob shot. The UK cut did the opposite. I'm not as versed in the other versions of the movie as Brady is, though.

Thanks for the correction! Still though, I wonder why the UK version cut the butt, since it seems like it went all out to include as much explicit content as possible.
 

Elbereth

Member
For some strange reason, this movie get's better with time. I remember borrowing it from a friend at school and watching it on a vhs black and white television.
 

Kazza

Member
I just watched this and it's amazing, especially the Chun-Li/Vega fight (and the shower scene preceding it of course :messenger_smirking: ). Sorry for bumping up an old thread, but the OP itself is really well done and worth a read, if you haven't already. I haven't seen much anime (in fact, I don't think I've seen any), but I enjoyed this one and would be grateful for any further suggestions (both game related or not).
 
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