Street Fighter (2026)

♣♣♣♣♣/♣♣♣♣♣

1993. Interpol agent Chun Li (Callina Liang) goes around the world to recruit fighters who will participate in the second World Warrior Tournament on behalf of Shadaloo dictator M. Bison (David Dastmalchian), whose real motive is to lure out the champion of the first tournament. Ryu (Andrew Koji) won his final fight by tapping into the Hadou force, a powerful yet morally corrupting form of wave energy that M. Bison aims to harvest. He abandons the life of a warrior afterward and completely disappears. Also in the tournament is Ken Masters (Noah Centineo), Ryu’s erstwhile training partner who has always lived in his shadow. Knowing the eventual fate awaiting the tournament champion, Ryu tries to intervene, leading to brawls with the other fighters. Meanwhile Akuma (Roman Reigns), their dead master’s brother who got corrupted by the Hadou force, anticipates Ryu suffering the same fate, waiting in another realm and ready to pounce anytime.

We Millennials have reached a period in our lives in which Hollywood can now pander to our childhood and capitalize on nostalgia. This explains the steady resurgence of IP’s from the 1990s, most of which have been soulless cashgrabs. Occasionally there comes a reboot whose filmmakers end up understanding the assignment and respecting the source material. In this case, what you get is a homage. I guess this is the part where we thank director and screenwriter Kitao Sakurai for revitalizing a fading franchise and restoring it to its former glory. FIVE STARS, and I’m glad to say it’s not because of nostalgia. Suffice it to say, Street Fighter 2026 has been the best fighting game-to-film crossover reboot so far.

The film starts with animation, the backstory of the camaraderie between Ryu and Ken as they train under the same master as well as the first World Warrior Tournament which features Sagat as Ryu’s final opponent. The animation is a parallel storyline on its own, constantly alternating with the 1993 live action timeline when a flashback is necessary. At first I thought it wouldn’t work, but it does. The idea is actually kind of cool, and it makes you feel as though you were watching two different films.

You know the director is not playing around when he makes a genuine effort to render the characters’ signature moves in live action in a way that they look neither tacky nor forced. That sauna fight between Ryu and E. Honda is a perfect example where the latter’s flying sumo headbutt and hundred hand slap are displayed with credible cinematic panache. Each and every character gets to show us a signature move or two. This is where the dedication of the actors comes in because the fight choreography is just so epic, well-coordinated, and has a natural flow that is so impressive to watch. The movements speak for themselves; with lighting and CGI just adding a little bit extra to what’s already there.

But perhaps what makes this reboot work is, as mentioned, its respect for the source material. The costumes!! There are plenty of easter eggs, too. There are even times when you feel like you know the sound effects and musical themes being used before realizing that you actually do because they were lifted straight from the videogames. Some creative liberties are taken in terms of some characters’ backstories but they do not end up being detrimental to the finished product. And then you also have the occasional nod to the 1994 movie, like that one M. Bison line about Tuesday.

The movie ends with a cliffhanger, and a fun one at that, which hints at the possibility of a sequel. Of course, everything depends on box office performance. I just hope that they won't drop the ball should a sequel be greenlit. If they retain the same quality and visual style, as well as the perfect balance between intensity and comedy when needed be, then count me in! The ending shows us where the protagonists are. The mid-credits scene tells us what the antagonists are planning, via animation again. If the Mortal Kombat reboot can get a sequel, there’s no reason for Street Fighter not to, given how it’s the better film between the two. Cross fingers!