Street Fighter II: The Movie

[areaseven]

Street Fighter II: The Movie ( ストリートファイターII )

CAPCOM/Group TAC/Sony Music Entertainment, 1994

IDT Entertainment/Manga Entertainment, 2006

Directed by Gisaburo Sugii (Night on the Galactic Railroad, Lupin III: Secret of the Twilight Gemini)

Running Time: 99 minutes (English); 101 minutes (Japanese)

Rated PG-13 graphic martial arts violence, nudity, mature situations and strong language.

Nine years ago, Manga Entertainment, Sony Music Video and Renegade Video released the 1994 Street Fighter II anime movie on video. While it did sell pretty well, it pissed off a lot of anime fans due to a lot of changes made to the movie.

First off, two versions were released: a PG-13 version an an Unrated version (intended for mature viewers). Unfortunately, the Unrated version, while still retaining the original cut's violence level, was missing a huge chunk of Chun-Li's shower scene. Not only that, many frames had to be panned or zoomed in an attempt to remove some Japanese text. As a result, the picture quality was heavily compromised.

Second, the original soundtrack was replaced with a newer score featuring grunge and alternative music. While fans of Korn or KMFDM enjoyed the new soundtrack, everyone else put the movie on Mute.

And third, the DVD release was below subpar, lacking everything - including a menu.

After many years of protest from anime fans, Manga Entertainment has finally released Street Fighter II: The Movie the right way. Or have they?

Side A: N/A

It's still the same old English dubbed version, though it's being advertised as the UK edition with extra footage. As far as I know, I'm not touching the English version of this movie. Ever.

Side B: A-

The Japanese side has what everyone wants: a full, uncut feature film with the original soundtrack. Audio output can be played on 2.0 or 5.1 surround.

DVD Extras: C+

Side A contains the UK trailer, while Side B has a "Player Cards" feature, which includes profiles of most of the characters. In addition, you get a mini-comic (published by Udon Comics).

The Bottom Line

With the uncut Japanese version now available, you can finally play Street Fighter II on full blast and be proud of it.

Reference

Anime News Network

[Mislovrit]

Does this version have the uncut Guile vs Bison fight and "teaser" ending of the original Japanese edition?

[Apollo Leader]

I got done watching side B earlier and all I can say is GET THIS DVD! The movie is completely intact (credits, title screen, EVERYTHING), it's in widescreen, it looks great, all the characters keep their Japanese names (it's funny with the English dub version how they digitally altered some of the characters names to match the version of the game outside of Japan - Vega = Bison, Balrog = Vega, Bison = Balrog), but they didn't change every occurances of the names so things are inconsistant there ), the Japanese soundtrack is all there and sounds great, and of course Chun Li. The only thing that would have made this more complete is if the trailers from the Japanes LD were here (the trailers had some animation from the Ryu vs. Sagat scene that were cut from the final version), but I guess you can't have everything.

Until a few weeks ago, I had no idea this was coming, so this was a huge surprise when it was announced here. I didn't think this was ever going to happen. Now if SF II can get a proper US release, why can we not hope that one day the same thing could happen for DYRL?

This was my first real exposure to anime 11 years ago this month. The circle has been complete.

BTW, Jeremy, the box art you show is the outside cardboard slip, not what's actually on the case.

[Apollo Leader]

Does this version have the uncut Guile vs Bison fight and "teaser" ending of the original Japanese edition?

417366[/snapback]

Guile vs. Vega (er Bison) is there in its entirity though it was brief to begin with (mainly Vega dodging a few of Guile's punches, flip kick, and Sonic Boom). After Guile did his Sonic Boom, Vega used his psycho power to throw Guile into the forest and Guile was put out of commission.

As for the "teaser" ending, you mean when it starts going into the credits, Ryu is walking down the roiad, and then Vega tries to run down Ryu in a semi and Ryu jumps up in the air towards Vega and yells "Teaser!"?

[areaseven]

BTW, Jeremy, the box art you show is the outside cardboard slip, not what's actually on the case.

417369[/snapback]

I know. I'll have a scan of it ready tomorrow morning.

[Mislovrit]

Guile vs. Vega (er Bison) is there in its entirity though it was brief to begin with (mainly Vega dodging a few of Guile's punches, flip kick, and Sonic Boom).  After Guile did his Sonic Boom, Vega used his psycho power to throw Guile into the forest and Guile was put out of commission.

Still sounds like the cut version.

I could have swore the Guile vs. Vega fight was much longer with Guile being little more than a punching bag lasting for several minutes ending with the flip kick, and Sonic Boom.

As for the "teaser" ending, you mean when it starts going into the credits, Ryu is walking down the roiad, and then Vega tries to run down Ryu in a semi and Ryu jumps up in the air towards Vega and yells "Teaser!"?

417370[/snapback]

That's the one.

[areaseven]

Still sounds like the cut version. 

I could have swore the Guile vs. Vega fight was much longer with Guile being little more than a punching bag lasting for several minutes ending with the flip kick, and Sonic Boom.

417375[/snapback]

This weekend, I'll dust off my VHS copy of the Japanese LD and make a side-by-side comparison of the fight scene.

[Apollo Leader]

I could have swore the Guile vs. Vega fight was much longer with Guile being little more than a punching bag lasting for several minutes ending with the flip kick, and Sonic Boom.

417375[/snapback]

I have a VHS copy from the Japanese LD and trust me I've watched it quite a few times. I don't think this fight was ever edited down in any version. What is on the new DVD is exactly what was on the Japanese LD.

[Hoptimus]

No its not edited at all. Trust me I watched the Japanese LD till my player died.

[areaseven]

Wow...this is rather weird. After the ending credits on the Japanese version, there's a message announcing the live-action Street Fighter movie.

[Apollo Leader]

Wow...this is rather weird. After the ending credits on the Japanese version, there's a message announcing the live-action Street Fighter movie.

417490[/snapback]

I know that message wasn't on the original LD, but it's possible that message may have been at the end of the credits when it had its original theatrical run. I wonder what SFII fans in Japan thought of the Van Damme movie?

[areaseven]

I know that message wasn't on the original LD, but it's possible that message may have been at the end of the credits when it had its original theatrical run.  I wonder what SFII fans in Japan thought of the Van Damme movie?

417493[/snapback]

I wouldn't be surprised if they rioted and burned down the theatres.

[Gaijin]

I got done watching side B earlier and all I can say is GET THIS DVD!    The movie is completely intact (credits, title screen, EVERYTHING), it's in widescreen, it looks great, all the characters keep their Japanese names (it's funny with the English dub version how they digitally altered some of the characters names to match the version of the game outside of Japan - Vega = Bison, Balrog = Vega, Bison = Balrog), but they didn't change every occurances of the names so things are inconsistant there ), the Japanese soundtrack is all there and sounds great, and of course Chun Li.   The only thing that would have made this more complete is if the trailers

417369[/snapback]

I'll have to dis-agree with the "looks great" comment...A more complete or normal DVD would be an anamorphic one...not this 4:3 letterboxed crap. In-excusable for a DVD released in 2006. Fine if you have a 4:3 TV...downright horrid if you have a widescreen one since you either have to watch it in a 4:3 ratio yet letterboxed, basically reducing the picture to a small rectangle within a huge rectangle or stretching it so it becomes distorted. I curse Manga for this poor excuse of "widescreen".

Edited July 20, 2006 by Gaijin

[bandit29]

non-anamorphic? ugh. My DVD player can expand the picture without losing the subtitles but I'd rather not do that.

Fighting game anime is a mixed bag with me because I'd rather be playing the games than watching. Most fighting game anime isn't that good. The Street Fighter II movie is probably the best of the bunch. Fatal Fury isn't bad though. Tekken and especially Samurai Shodown are among the worst.

[Apollo Leader]

I'll have to  dis-agree with the "looks great" comment...A more complete or normal DVD would be an anamorphic one...not this 4:3 letterboxed crap.  In-excusable for a DVD released in 2006.  Fine if you have a 4:3 TV...downright horrid if you have a widescreen one since you either have to watch it in a 4:3 ratio yet letterboxed, basically reducing the picture to a small rectangle within a huge rectangle or stretching it so it becomes distorted.  I curse Manga for this poor excuse of "widescreen".

417638[/snapback]

I was talking from the stand point of the colors and quality of the image. All I've had for 11 years now was my LD-to-VHS copy and a fansub copy on tape I snagged in 1997, so this was a big improvement. I have a regular 25" TV right now and will eventually get a widesceen TV, so yeah it would have been nice if this had been anamorphic, but considering it was about just a week ago that I first heard about this DVD coming out, that I never thought this release would happen, and that it was well priced, I am quite happy to have this DVD.

[Gaijin]

Even the transfer itself isn't that great (invisible to a tube but a fixed panel will reveal the flaws). I will only watch this one on my older TV's.

If it were anamorphic, they'd satisfy both sides of the coin...as for the transfer, well, being an old title, I wasn't expecting them to do much to it. It's fine on a regular TV...a slap in the face otherwise.

[Skullsixx]

So when in the frak is this new version coming out?

[Apollo Leader]

So when in the frak is this new version coming out?

417938[/snapback]

Now.

[areaseven]

So when in the frak is this new version coming out?

417938[/snapback]

This past Tuesday at Best Buy.

Edited July 21, 2006 by areaseven

[Kamui 777]

I finally got it from Deepdiscountdvd. So besides the shower scene, what else was cut from the former US release?

[Skullsixx]

So when in the frak is this new version coming out?

417938[/snapback]

This past Tuesday at Best Buy.

417996[/snapback]

I'm on my way to Best Buy!!!

[JB0]

Even the transfer itself isn't that great (invisible to a tube but a fixed panel will reveal the flaws).  I will only watch this one on my older TV's.

Meh. A good tube will show the issues just as well as a good panel.

But yeah... does Manga do ANY of their releases right?

[Gaijin]

Even the transfer itself isn't that great (invisible to a tube but a fixed panel will reveal the flaws).  I will only watch this one on my older TV's.

Meh. A good tube will show the issues just as well as a good panel.

But yeah... does Manga do ANY of their releases right?

420774[/snapback]

Most people won't see it or are too used to seeing them anyways.

[bandit29]

Ugh the video on this DVD is pretty bad. I haven't watched it on an old tv yet, just on a HD set upconverted to 1080i.... you know its bad when the credits have rainbows... it's white text on a black screen

The music used on the Japanese side for the Chun Li/Balrog(Vega in the US version) fight is really awful. Not that the music in US/UK version is gold but it seemed more appropriate for that scene.