Reviews

"To say that Assassin's Fist is the best live-action interpretation of Street Fighter means little. Even to call it one of the best live-action adaptations of any video game doesn't say much. Regardless, this project succeeds in a way so many of these projects don't. There's a clear passion for the source material that shines through in all aspects of the series. It tells a great generational story and limits itself to a handful of iconic Street Fighter characters. Despite the limited budget, it achieves a look and feel more authentically Street Fighter than either previous film."

"The fight scenes are wonderful and as I mentioned when I interviewed Ansah recently, are incredibly true-to-game. Ryu and Ken have a sparring match early on before they really know any of the cool special attacks, so what we get is a sweet fight made up of their normal moves, stances, throws, and so on. Goutetsu, who has never appeared as an actual video game character, has his own unique version of the Ansatsuken style with a couple of moves you'd want to see someone adopt in one of the games. It helps that many of the special effects are done practically with minimal CGI, but I'd like to see what these guys could do with a real cinematic budget."

"No matter how long you've been a Street Fighter fan, there is one thing we can all agree on: Hollywood has cursed this franchise with terrible live-action adaptations. From the campy 1994 Van Damme film to the 'cinematic war crime' that was The Legend of Chun-Li, mainstream studios have consistently failed to capture the heart of the games. But there is a masterpiece that Hollywood acts like never happened. Street Fighter: Assassin's Fist — the fan-driven, Capcom-approved project that finally got the tone, the lore, and the martial arts right."