Street Fighter (2026)

Street Fighter (2026)

Starring: Noah Centineo, Andrew Koji, Callina Liang, David Dastmalchian, Andrew Shulz, Roman Reigns, Cody Rhodes, Curtis “50 Cent” Jackson, Jason Mamoa, Mel Jarnson, Orville Peck
Director: Kitao Sakurai
Action Director: Anthony Rinna

Street Fighter was announced in 2023, almost three whole decades since Hollywood’s original attempt to adapt the insanely-popular video game had disappointed audiences everywhere—I do concede that the film has developed a certain cult following over the years and that it was reasonably successful at the box office, at least by lead actor Jean-Claude Van Damme’s standards. The original idea was to have horror filmmakers The Philippou Brothers direct. About a year later, it was announced they had left the project due to scheduling concerns. By September of 2024, Kitao Sakurai, whose career highlights included episodes of Twisted Metal, was announced as director.

In any case, people in my community were hopeful that this would be a reasonably serious martial arts film, much like in the vein of the live-action Mortal Kombat films, albeit hopefully without the original character serving as the Audience Proxy. Then the casting announcements started coming in early 2025. Former teen actor Noah Centineo as Ken. Andrew Koji as Ryu. Okay, hit and miss. Jason Mamoa as Blanca. Relative unknown Callina Liang as Chun Li. Oh, okay.

Then the casting started going off the rails. In June 2025, we learned the South African country singer Orville Peck was cast as Vega…on the basis that he was known for wearing a mask at his concerts. WTF? That was followed by rapper Curtis “50 Cent” Jackson being cast as Balrog. Then comedian Andrew Shulz was cast as Dan Habiki…and all of us started wondering if this was going to be parody. Then two professional wrestlers—Roman Reigns and Cody Rhodes—were cast as Akuma and Guile, respectively. By this point, this was looking like it might become Legendary’s “Taste the Golden Spray.”

Around April or May of this year, the first trailer was released. And it was clear what the filmmakers were going for: high camp. All of the color, the costumes, and crazy hair styles of the video games were there. The special moves were there. But the trailer gave us a glimpse of Ken Masters singing “What’s Up” by 4 Non Blondes (which turns out to be an integral part of the story). And it appeared that this movie, like many blockbusters, was going to suffer from “Joss Whedon Syndrome” in that every character interaction would be a build-up to a punchline or a sight gag. Nonetheless, the visual elements were enough to intrigue me.

So, how was the final film?

It was…a thing.

To be serious, it was “pretty good.” It accomplishes what it sets out to do, but the question is whether it should have been doing that in the first place.

The film opens with an anime sequence of the 1987 World Warrior Championship, in which newcomer Ryu is pitted against reigning champion Sagat. Although Sagat initially has Ryu against ropes, Ryu turns the tables by tapping into the power of the Hadou, much to his master’s chagrin. You see, in this Universe, the Hadou works like The Force in Star Wars: if you have it, you’d better learn to control it, otherwise you’ll become a demon like Master Bokken’s first student, Akuma. And Ryu has enough envy in his heart and negative stuff in his past to make him a liability if he taps too much into it.

We then switch to live action, moving forward to 1993 (the soundtrack is all 90s R&B and hip hop, though some of the songs used came out after ’93). Ryu has since disappeared after his Master was mysteriously murdered. And his martial brother, Ken Masters, has become something of an MTV celebrity and is quickly losing his MA cred. Meanwhile, in the Southeast Asian country of Shadaloo (the capital city is called Metrolau), dictator M. Bison is performing experiments on “psycho power” by draining the life energy from the strongest men alive. Unfortunately, it’s not helping him very much. He decides that he needs the likes of Ryu to really make his experiment work, so he sets up another World Warrior tournament in hopes of coaxing Ryu out of hiding.

In his employee is Chun Li, who is actually an Interpol agent working undercover to find out what crimes against humanity the dictator is up to. She is sent out to recruit the world’s strongest fighters to participate in the tournament. Those would include Russian strongman Zangief (Olivier Richters, of Black Widow), American Air Force pilot Guile, Japanese sumo wrestler Honda; American boxer Balrog; Spanish(?) claw fighter Vega; Joe (UFC fighter Alex Volkanovski); Indian yoga master Dhalsim (Bollywood action actor Vidyut Jammwal); and Ken Masters. Although most people in that industry would object to Ken being included, it is actually a shrewd move on Chun Li’s part.

You see, we learn through flashbacks (all flashbacks in the movie are done via anime) that the World Warrior Tournament has the unfortunate effect of calling the attention of Akuma, who is always waiting for a fitting opponent for him to fight. Back in ’87, Ryu’s victor brought Akuma to his school, where the same murdered Master Boken. This created a rift between him and Ken, which the latter hasn’t gotten over yet. But when Chun Li finally finds Ryu and informs him that Ken will be participating, that alarms Ryu. Because if Ken somehow (given his current physical state) manages to win, that will bring Akuma a-calling. And since Ken never learned how to throw a Hadouken, winning the tournament would be the same thing as Ken signing his own death warrant.

So, by the time the tournament is underway, we have several character motivations set up. Chun Li is biding her time until she can get close enough to Bison to try to stop him. Ryu wants to protect Ken. Ken wants to win for the honor of his deceased master, plus his own ego. And Bison is willing to separate Ryu from the tournament if it means he can drain him of his Hadou energy.

Plot-wise, Street Fighter feels a lot like the Street Fighter Alpha anime from 2000, but with M. Bison in the role of Dr. Sadler. Both of those films combine a man’s attempt to harness the energy of the world’s fighters for his own means, while the heroes are fighting for Ryu’s soul. The opening anime sequence is definitely a nod to the 1994 anime movie and there are a few callbacks to the ’94 live action film, too (mainly a few in-jokes regarding M. Bison). The main protagonists who get sidelined are Guile and Dhalsim, although the ending suggests that they’ll have a bigger role if a sequel gets made. Spoiler: the film leaves one major plot thread completely unresolved and ends on a cliffhanger.

The strange thing about the movie is its tone. The entire film is just as campy as the trailer suggested it was and the film is often more of a comedy than a martial arts fantasy. For much of the movie, Ken is the butt of jokes (there is a running gag between him and the tournament’s announcer, played by comedian Eric André (who has collaborated with the director in the past) and only really becomes a serious character in the last act. Jason Mamoa’s portrayal of Blanca establishes him as this fearsome beast whom everybody is afraid of, but then acts like a big Teddy bear to people whom he decides he likes. The biggest in-joke is the resolution of the tournament, which is laughably absurd to anyone familiar with the games.

Speaking of the tournament, I was disappointed with the way the tournament was portrayed. The focus is on Ken throughout this portion of the narrative, which ultimately results in three fights taking place offscreen. That means we don’t get to see Guile fight Vega or Dhalsim take on Zangief. Boo, people! Boo! I understand on one level that the story wanted emphasize Bison’s plans and Ryu’s fight against himself more than the tournament, but we fans still want to see our favorites fighting (and not just at a random bar fight).

Speaking of fighting, I was a little disappointed with the fights. They were staged by Anthony Rinna, whose credits as a fight choreographer include The Blue Beetle (one of the DCU films made after audiences largely stopped caring about the DCU) and A Minecraft Movie. He also worked as an assistant fight director on Thor: Love and Thunder and Mortal Kombat ’22. The fights are often more focused on showing us the characters performing their special moves, and even basic attacks as they appear in the games, then inserting them into actual choreography. This is especially apparent in the Ryu vs. Blanca fight.

The highlight is a sequence at the beginning of the third act where Ryu and Ken fight their way out of prison through dozens of guards—often shot in a way that makes it look like side-scroller beat’em up—which is intercut with Chun Li taking on both Vega and Julie (world champion martial artist Rayna Valladingham). This sequence finds the best balance between actual fight choreography and techniques we see in the games. A later fight between Ken and Ryu is also pretty good.

I do hope this movie does well enough at the box office to warrant a sequel. If only because I hate the idea of movies ending in a way that makes a sequel necessary for the narrative to be concluded, only to not be filmed because not enough people watched the original in the first place. That said, I only found it to be “good,” but not great. I think Mortal Kombat 2 definitely won the contest of best fighting game adaptation of 2026.

Black Magic, Part II (1976)

Black Magic, Part II (1976)
Aka: Black Magic 2; Revenge of the Zombies
Chinese Title: 勾魂降頭
Translation: Soul-Snatching Curse

Starring: Ti Lung, Tanny Tien Ni, Lo Lieh, Lily Li, Lin Wei-Tu, Wai Wang, Terry Liu, Yang Chi-Ching
Director: Ho Meng-Hua
Action Director: Yuen Cheung-Yan

Black Magic, Part II share a lot of similarities with its predecessor, in terms of cast, setting, and general overall atmosphere. A lot of spells are carried out in the same (or similar) manner as the first film, with a large emphasis placed on love spells. However, Black Magic, Part II represents a marked improvement over the first film, in terms of plotting and pacing, plus it has a more thrilling and altogether fulfilling climax.

The film is set in “some tropical city,” where we meet Dr. Chi Chung-Ping (Ti Lung, playing a different character than he did before) and his wife, Cui-Ling (Tanny Tien Ni, this time not playing the villainess), as they arrive in the city from Hong Kong. They were invited by an old friend, Dr. Shi Zhensheng (Lin Wei-Tu, of The Master of Kung Fu and The Flying Guillotine), to come see him. He has been seeing a lot of strange cases in his hospital of late, things like boils that look like human faces and the like. It’s the sort of thing that doesn’t show up in the medical journals. Zhensheng is sure that black magic has run amok in the city, though he wants his trusted friend to give him a second opinion.

It doesn’t take long for things to go south for the foursome—Dr. Shi is married to Margarete (a returning Lily Li)—in fact, to all outward appearances, things go awry the first night. The four are hanging out at a strip club—in the 1970s, it was still considered fashionable to do so, the same way it was fashionable to go to porno movies—and watching the main dancer (Terry Liu, of Super Infra Man and The Dragon Lives Again). Two more men are watching her, too. One of them is Chang Da-Nian (Wai Wang, of The Men from the Monastery) and the other is a dapper-looking gentleman named Kang Cong (Lo Lieh, also playing a different role this time around). Although Da-Nian would like for nothing more than to take the dancer home with him and bed her, she opts to go with Kang Cong instead.

Once at his house, Kang Cong exercises what is practically a hypnotic effect over the woman, to the point that she doesn’t even react when he removes the jewelry from her body and undresses her. But the telling part is when he makes her kneel in front of him. But instead of getting a B.J., Kang Cong parts her hair, revealing the exposed head of a nail. He extracts the nail, and we the viewer watch her age and die in real time as he does so. So, it appears that Kang Cong is our resident black magic user.

Kang quickly sets his sights on Margarete, obtaining a sample of her blood by posing as a flower deliveryman and “accidentally” poking her with the thorn. And then he hangs a dead monkey—or a biturong—near her house. And then he starts performing a spell on voodoo doll that looks pregnant. Before you know it, Margarete is in a trance and walking to Kang’s manor, which is not far from Dr. Shi’s house. Once there, Kang engages in erotic lactation because, according to this film’s logic, breast milk is the key to longevity. The hypnotized Margarete is so enthralled with the “sexiness” (such as it is) of getting suckled by Lo Lieh (ew!) that she sleeps with him outright.

When she wakes up the next morning, she is not only pale and weak, but she is miraculously several months pregnant, too. An emergency C-section reveals an already-formed fetus inside, which is both deformed and stillborn.

Meanwhile, Chang Da-Nian has been itching to get into bed with the exotic dancer, but he can’t find her anywhere. So, he goes to Kang Cong and asks him to perform a love spell on her, wherever she may be. In this case, she happens to be in Kang’s basement with an assortment of other dead bodies. He sticks the nail back into her, restores her youth, and sends her out to seduce Da-Nian. And it’s going well, too, at least at first. Then Da-Nian’s Buddha necklace droops over here during sex and she ages herself to death while he’s knocking boots…total rager killer right there.

Chang Da-Nian considers himself cheated out of a good five grand (U.S. dollars, that is) and goes to Kang to complain. Kang simply kills him with his magic, although Chang makes it into the city before he expires…right in front of Dr. Shi and Dr. Chi. They begin to suspect Kang, and thus try to get into his good graces to force his magic out into the open. How about a ruse in which Dr. Shi asks Kang to perform a love spell on his colleague’s wife, Cui-Ling? And what will happen when Kang Cong figures out what the two men are up to?

Black Magic, Part II does feel like an overall more focused narrative than the last film. Yes, it’s often gory and frequently exploitative, but it has direction. I didn’t bring up the “White” Magician (Yang Chi-Ching, the main villain in Vengeance!) in the plot summary, because his introductory scene in the film’s opening has nothing to do with the rest of the movie, and then he doesn’t show up until the third act. Yes, the film frequently shows us the mechanics of Kang Cong’s magic spells, but it’s done in a way that flows naturally from the film, instead of grinding the story to a halt so we can see all the gross things that a magician has to do for a given hex. It’s hard to explain in words, but the magic scenes feel more organic to the plot.

As with the last film—and most HK films dealing the black magic—there is a lot of female flesh on display. The movie opens with a bunch of Thai (or Malaysian) girls fishing, until one of them removes her top and jumps in for a swim…followed by her friends. Terry Liu is always dependable for showing her breasts in films like this. And not unexpectedly, both Tanny Tien Ni’s and Lily Li’s body doubles get a lot of screen time, especially Lily’s. And yes, you know they’re doubles because the women’s breasts appear to double in size from what is implied by the clothing we see them wearing.

The magic on display does feature love spells as in the first movie, but there is a greater emphasis placed on zombiefication. The nail through the skull is a way of asserting one’s control over the corpses, with the idea that people who are killed under “unhappy” circumstances end up having their spirits not stray too far from the body, which makes them susceptible to becoming zombies. The film climaxes with a Ti Lung having to fight off a small army of them as he tries to put an end to Kang Cong’s evil plans. And like many Hong Kong films, nobody is safe in a movie like this.

Now, speaking of fighting, this film does have a credited action director in the form of the late Yuen Cheung-Yan. There is one fight, which is a running brawl between Ti Lung and Lo Lieh, which starts at the house and goes all the way to an aerial tramway. The brawling itself is choreographed, but in a way that suggests that neither men are martial artists, but just two men desperate to beat the hell out of the other. The fight is actually quite long, but the tramway section is marred by some of the worst matte work since Yongary, Monster of the Deep.

Do I recommend Black Magic, Part II? Sort of, I guess. Although I have seen more than my fair share of HK/Taiwanese films involving black magic, they are far from my favorite sub-genre of horror and I tend to watch them as a completist more than a fan. But people who like weird sh*t should enjoy this film thoroughly, from its cheesecake nudity to its gross spells to a climax that features “real” zombies, not the Romero ones. Fans of B-movies and trash cinema should lap it up as much as Lo Lieh was doing with Lily Li’s breasts.

Raped by an Angel (1993)

Raped by an Angel (1993)
AKA: Naked Killer 2
Chinese Title: 香港奇案之強姦
Translation: Hong Kong Crime Stories: Rape

Starring: Chingmy Yau, Mark Cheng, Simon Yam, Ng Suet-Man, Nick Cheung, Kingdom Yuen King-Tan, Dennis Chan, Cindy Yip, Fan Oi-Kit, Linda Cheung
Director: Andrew Lau
Action Director: Nicky Li Chung-Chi

Raped by an Angel is one of the more infamous titles in the Hong Kong filmography, not the least of which because the film spawned several sequels whose subtitles were even more outlandish. In some international markets, it was released as Naked Killer 2, probably due to the casting similarities and Wong Jing’s involvement as producer. Unlike the its predecessor’s ultra-stylish, every-scene-is-a-painting tale of sexy hitwomen, this is more of an erotic thriller-cum-rape revenge flick. Director Andrew Lau makes it look stylish most of the time, albeit not quite the way Clarence Fok had done his film. But it is also very tasteless and sleazy in a way that many viewers will need to take a shower after it’s over.

The film opens with a bang. And by “bang,” I mean that it opens with a woman coming home, being stalked by a man wearing a Jason mask, and then getting brutally violated by the guy. Psyche! Turns out the man, Chuck (Mark Cheng, of War and Tai Chi 2), is actually just really into rape roleplay and his girlfriend, May (Linda Cheung, of Last Hero in China), is fortunately (for him) willing to let him indulge in that particular kink. Although she worries that rape roleplay will one day result in him wanting to do the real thing, he assures her that doing it with her is enough to keep things channeled.

That is, until he turns on the TV and sees Chingmy Yau (High Risk and Naked Killer) in sexy soldier fatigues firing automatic weapons in a swamp. Turns out that Yau, playing a woman named Yau Yuk-Nam, a law student who makes ends meet doing commercials. The faux-Girls ‘n Guns film was actually a commercial for milk. Go figure.

Anyway, Chuck is immediately smitten and tracks her down to a nightclub where she’s celebrating the filming of her latest commercial with her crew. Chuck tries to put the moves on her, but her response of pouring her drink down his pants leaves him high and dry…or low and wet. So, Chuck sets his sights on Chu (Ng Suet-Man, of Martial Arts Master Wong Fei-Hung), Yuk-Nam’s best friend. He moves into the apartment next door to Chu—but not before ending his relationship with May by handcuffing her and, instead of having rough sex with her, having one of his friends do that instead.

But Chuck’s plans for Chu are arguably even worse. He gets into her good graces by informing her that as a high-powered lawyer, he knows the real estate agency good enough that he can find a place for her to buy that is just as big as her current pad, but much cheaper. He also puts the moves on Chu, but she shuts him down. Eventually, he just says “Screw it” and does the same to her, albeit with her consent. After a grueling session of sexual and psychological abuse, he leaves the damaged Chu in her apartment for Yau to find.

And where has Yau been all this time. For her law classes, she has been trailing a well-known Triad, Tso Tat-Wah (Simon Yam, of Killer’s Romance and Cyprus Tigers), whose legitimate filmmaking business has kept the authorities from discovering any possible illegal activity on his part. The two sort of form an unconventional relationship after surviving both a Triad hit and an attack from his ex-girlfriend, Pauline (Fan Oi-Kit, of Seven Sexual Maniacs and China Girls).

When Yuk-Nam discovers what happened to her friend, she convinces Chu to call the police and report what Chuck did. Chuck is immediately arrested and is taken before a judge to answer for his crimes. Unfortunately for Chu, Chuck managed to leave behind a series of planted evidence and public interactions to suggest that Chu was his girlfriend and that she was trying to extort money from him and then cover her tracks. Ultimately, the jury acquits Chuck of rape. But Chu’s trauma is about to get worse, as Chuck cannot believe that someone would ever commit him of a crime that he actually did commit…

On one hand, Raped by an Angel is very sleazy, with a number of uncomfortable scenes of sexual assault. Those scenes are the source for much of the film’s nudity. But on the same token, the sleaze is the purpose of the movie, although one would hope that the filmmakers would separate the titillation from the assault. But as far as I can tell, overlapping the two was the entire point of the exercise. And the film ends in a memorable, politically-incorrect manner that will probably explode the head of most progressives.

The climax involves Chingmy Yau being chased around her apartment by Chuck, who has found a way to get Simon Yam’s character out of the picture. Despite Yau’s fighting back with bear traps and baseball bats(!), Chuck eventually manages to overpower her and have his way with her. Psyche! In fact, the final victim, who willingly gave her body to the case, was in fact Cindy, one of Yuk-Nam’s friends, who had only recently discovered that she had contracted HIV from a philandering boyfriend. Yes, you read that right.

There are quite a few sex scenes, only a few of which are consensual. We also get far too much of Mark Cheng’s naked body, including some random scene of him walking back and forth in his apartment with his willie flopping around. Thanks, Andrew Lau…we really needed that. There is also a scene that brought to mind the infamous sequence from Last Tango in Paris, except that it’s consensual and, instead of butter, whipped cream is used as a lubricant. In the nudity department, we get three pairs of bare breasts and one almost pair. Plus Kingdom Yuen (Wing Chun), playing Yuk-Nam’s raunchy friend, talking about a kung fu B.J. technique involving ice cubes in one’s mouth.

Despite Nicky Li Chung-Chi—member of the Sing Ga Ban and go-to choreographer for many of the late Benny Chan’s films—being credited as the action director, there is only one fight sequence and that’s an attempted Triad hit at a barbershop involving machetes and baseball bats. It’s nothing special, however.

People who pick this film up based on any of its infamous VHS or DVD covers will probably be disappointed. For reference, one shows Chingmy Yau and Ng Suet-Man in army shorts and midriffs (that expose underboob) holding machine guns (a reference to the commercial they’re in); Another one shows gun-toting Chingmy in a slutty black leather dress that opens down the middle all the way to belly button; and the DVD cover showed Simon Yam in a lawyer’s wig with Chingmy wearing a bra, panties, and lace stockings and kneeling before him. Yau doesn’t do any nudity and her sex scene is implied, not shown. But she does do a sexy dance in her underwear near the end, for all you Chingmy fanboys out there. Just don’t expect her to expose as much skin as her colleagues, tough.