The world’s biggest Street Fighter movie fan explains why it’s an accidental masterpiece

polygon.com:

It’s high time for Street Fighter’s redemption arc.

The 1994 adaptation of Capcom’s fighting game series, led by Jean Claude Van Damme himself, has become a bit of a cult hit, but still holds the broader reputation of being an all-time stinker. In some ways, that reputation is deserved — the famously troubled production led to some catastrophic performances, fight sequences, and a generally overstuffed script trying to accomplish too much at once.

But also, Street Fighter rules. Some things about the movie genuinely work – the costume and set design, and Raul Julia’s inspired performance as the villainous M. Bison, in particular – but it’s the unique alchemy of how that mix with what doesn’t that makes Street Fighter a special experience.

The movie follows All-American soldier Colonel Guile (played by All-Belgian movie star Jean Claude Van Damme, a request made by Capcom) and his ragtag group of Allied Nations fighters as they try to take down General M. Bison, the dictator of Shadaloo City who has plans to take over the world (and “make “every Bison dollar [...] worth 5 British pounds. That is the exchange rate the Bank of England will set once I’ve kidnapped their queen.”). Aesthetically and narratively, director Steven E. de Souza steers the film more in line with Vietnam War-era action movies of the 1980s (the real-life disc jockey who inspired Good Morning, Vietnam has a cameo in the movie) than tournament-based movies like Mortal Kombat or Bloodsport.

I watched the movie for the first time this May, and fell for it immediately. Julia’s divine, Shakespearean villainous performance results in one of the most memorable and quotable Hollywood villains of its era, and rightly so. (It was his final role, and one he took for his children, who loved the game.) Even the elements that don’t work are crucial to the final product: Van Damme is plainly disinterested in having anything to do with the movie, and his well-documented cocaine habit on set was a distraction, to