The upcoming adaptation of Street Fighter , directed by Kitao Sakurai, completely flips how the big screen has viewed the iconic video game so far. The film is a more over-the-top, goofy, game-faithful adaptation that captures the eccentricities of the video game and its era – the 90s. In a candid conversation with Hindustan Times, director Kitao opens up on taking this tone for the game and what he hopes to achieve with it.
Kitao says he wanted the viewer to feel as if they were playing Street Fighter 2 while watching the film. He tells us, “I really wanted to have a very accurate expression of the feeling of the game, especially Street Fighter 2 , and what it felt like growing up in the 90s playing Street Fighter . It features a large ensemble cast, including Noah Centineo, Andrew Koji, Callina Liang, Roman Reigns, David Dastmalchian, Cody Rhodes, Eric André, Andrew Schulz, Vidyut Jammwal, 50 Cent, and Jason Momoa. The film will release in theatres on October 16.
Because street Fighter is a product of the ’90s, “I really wanted to capture the feeling of the ’90s itself, be it ’90s movies or music,. It has this tone that’s both heartfelt and emotional, but it also is over the top and crazy, and embodies a spirit of fun. To this end, the filmmaker focused on including era-accurate score and elements. It was important that the film had a connection to that era,” he explains. He explains, “Something that hasn’t fully been explored in the way that we’ve explored it was just how intricately detailed the fighting. The fans are going to be surprised at how many moves from the game are in the movie. It’s not just that we’re taking this character and thinking of them as a person in the world. We’re taking all the moves too. There are hundreds of moves in the movie. And it’s not like something where the Hadouken (Ken’s special move) comes at the very end of the movie, and you never see it throughout the movie. We’re not doing that. We are giving it a narrative and emotional weight that I think audiences will also be kind of surprised by. Street Fighter is the third live-action feature-length film based on the Street Fighter video game series by Capcom .
Kitao says the film could only have been game-accurate with the myriad of moves used by the characters, which he has tried to a large extent.
