‘Street Fighter’ Filmmaker Kitao Sakurai Built His Video Game Movie on Both Jolt Cola and Robert Altman Films
The filmmaker tells IndieWire he wanted to bring both his love of the "tonally weird and strange" and the energy of a good Altman ensemble to his off-kilter video game adaptation.
In 1994, the live-action adaptation of "Street Fighter" premiered, which left its viewers, including the author, unimpressed. The film starred Raul Julia as the villainous Bison, delivering a memorable camp performance. The movie was nonsensical yet unapologetic, anchored by Julia's and Jean-Claude Van Damme's performances. Thirty-three years later, director Kitao Sakurai attempted another take on the classic fighting game.
Instead of making a serious film, Sakurai created a hyper-stylized, bordering-on-nonsensical fever dream that aims to be taken seriously. Despite its anachronistic timeline and ridiculous costumes, the film attempts to capture the essence of the original game, but the execution falls short for many viewers.
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