I’ll admit that I was pretty freakin’ obessesed with TEKKEN for awhile. I’d never really gotten into fighting games that much, mostly from frustration and carpel tunnel fears, but something about TEKKEN just sucked me in. I had study guides, weekly tourneys with friends, and the occasional hallucination that video game fighting skill translated to real life.
So when I first heard about a TEKKEN movie my basic reaction was doubt that it would work, but enthusiam for the fight scenes since one of the games strengths was the unique and well-developed fighting styles. Now comes word that Jet Li is joining the cast as The Boxer.
Since he’s been trying to get away from mindless actions flicks, this gives me hope that either the concept or the battles are so outstanding that he just had to get involved. Of course it could be the paycheck that was outstanding, but I’m a dreamer. Certainly this will be better than STREET FIGHTER or MORTAL COMBAT.
Of course it won’t have any chance of out-jiggling the upcoming DOA: DEAD OR ALIVE (for the reasons illustrated below), but that’s OK because I think we can all agree to enjoy the two flicks on their relative, um, merits.