Street Fighter: Assassin's Fist After Thoughts

Mark May 23rd 2014 down in the history books as the day a small team on a limited budget proved that with enough passion, Street Fighter CAN be adapted to live action and be done well. Of course I'm speaking of Street Fighter: Assassin's fist, the new 13 part (including episode 0) web series created by Joey Ansah, Christian Howard, and Jacqueline Quella.

Check out the trailer here:

Assassin's Fist tells the all too familiar tale of Ryu and Ken's origins as they train in the art of Ansatsuken under master Gouken's guidance. If you're a hardcore Street Fighter fan you may have just rolled your eyes thinking I've heard this story before in the plethora of anime and manga adaptations centered on Ryu and Ken.

Assassin's Fist excels beyond those stories by taking us further back in time, beyond the story of how Ryu and Ken had come to learn their art, to the younger days of Gouken himself as he trained along side his brother Gouki under the tutelage of Ansatsuken master, Goutetsu. It's a concept first explored in the Street Fighter Alpha Generations OAV but ultimately feels more fleshed out here.  I don't want to mention any specifics about the story in order to avoid spoilers. I'll just say that even if you're a hardcore Street Fighter fan, there are still plenty of new things to discover and some answers to a few long time burning questions. Such as how and why Ken's father arrived at the decision to leave him in the care of Gouken as a boy.

While I wouldn't consider the acting itself to be of any award winning caliber, each actor's portrayal of their characters are spot on and at least beyond the quality of the voice work of the animations. The fight choreography though is just stunning. These guys went all out to bring us fight scenes that surpass even big budget Hollywood action flicks. What's even more impressive is how they integrated the special moves seamlessly with their normal movements. I tend to find it distracting in other live action Street Fighter attempts when the action seems to pause while one of the fighters gears up for a special move. They manage to close the gap between actual martial arts and video game special effects making things like fireballs believable and not special effects eye sores.

Assassin's Fist is now the definitive live action Street Fighter experience in my opinion. Even if you're not a video game or Street Fighter fan, I think even martial arts movie buffs will enjoy this series. If you're in either of those camps you owe it to yourself to check this series out as soon as you can!

Here's hoping they tackle some other character origins with this much dedication. *Ahem* Chun li. But whatever they decide, I can't wait to see what these guys do next.

If you've already seen the series for yourself, what did you think of it?  Click here and join the forum to join in the discussion of Street Fighter Assassin's Fist.