Street Fighter II - Vintage Testosterone and Walnut Cracking Thighs

Waffling Taylors Goes To The Movies

Don’t forget to check out the other episodes in the series. Make sure to click here to see which movies we’ve already covered - we’re sure that you’ll love what you have to say.

Featured Image

Players

Squidge

Jay

If you wish to support the Waffling Taylors, and the other shows in the network, you can over at Ko-fi.com/jayandjaymedia. However, supporting us is completely voluntary and not required at all.

Another way to support us is to shout out about us on social media or give us a rating on your podcatcher service of choice. The more people who listen to the show, the more shows we can do.

Content Warning

As this is an episode about a both PG13 rated movie, a fighting game that it’s based on, and the fact that there are scenes with… shall we say “fan service”, we’d advise a little caution for this episode. There’s nothing explicitly terrible in this episode, but the subject matter can be pretty rough.

There are a few swears toward the end of the episode, but none which should be too offensive.

Please listen responsibly.

Show Notes

Remember when they talked about the Hollywood made Street Fighter movie back in episode 95 with Z-Boi? Well, Squidge and Jay wanted to tackle the Japanese animated movie which came out before it.

But before that, Squidge broke in with a great intro of his own:

Squidge:

From active time battling to zombie slaying, waffling Taylors covers video games and beyond.

In this episode, me and Jay cover the 1994 animated movie Street Fighter II. We cover everything from realistic fear and tension, derpy face fighters and Sith lords. Yes, I said Sith Lords. You’ll have to listen out for it.

So without further ado, sit back, grab some snacks, and get ready for this episode entitled "Street Fighter II - Vintage Testosterone and Walnut Cracking Thighs". Oh my.

Enjoy.

Basic Info on the Movie

And before they could talk about the movie, Squidge dropped the bomb that it came out 30 years ago—or longer, if you’re listening in the future—which caused Jay to do some fist shaking at clouds:

Jay:

That’s just not fair. When did it become 30 years ago? That’s not fair.

But fret not, as it’s only 20 years since Final Fantasy X was released. So there’s that.

And Squidge continues with the knowledge drops by giving us some background on the movie:

Squidge:

So the film was released in August 1994 in Japan in all of its uncut, uncensored glory, because it’s different in Japan than it is in Europe and America—censors and all the rest of that.

Street Fighter II Turbo came out on the Genesis or Mega Drive, depending on where you are, in February 1994. So a certain character being in the movie is an Easter egg. But I digress.

To see an uncut, uncensored version of this film, you would have to wait till 2006, when The japanese version of the film was released so everyone could get a hold of it. And that was uncensored and uncut because there’s a particular scene or series of sequences that were cut for "British Sensibilities." It wasn’t too bad in the States, but certain things were still cut as well.

And that certain character is…

Initial Thoughts

There is no way that gamers of a certain vintage and demographic (one that both Squidge and Jay are both part of) will have not played Street Fighter II, and as Jay says:

Jay:

I would argue that this movie versus the Hollywood movie sticks way closer to the source material. Like it’s actually following what little story there is in the Street Fighter II the game.

Whereas Street Fighter the [Hollywood] movie…

And Z-Boi summed up the Hollywood movie pretty well when he said:

ZBoi:

And of course, at the end of the movie, they have the one photograph that people would take at a cosplay convention because it was cosplay.

However, where the animated movie sticks closely to the plot, it doesn’t have a woman running around amid chaos holding a shoe

Or a Shadaloo soldier cradling his favourite gun rather intimately

And Jay sums up his feelings about this movie (which he hadn’t seen before making this episode) vs the Hollywood movie in this way:

Jay:

The Hollywood movie that came out later, kept my attention. Like, I couldn’t take my eyes off of the screen. It was entertaining.

But this movie is just like, if you were lucky enough in 1994 to see this one and then go see the live action one. I am so sorry, because I saw them the other way around. Like, I never saw the animated movie until we did it for this [episode], right. And so I’d seen the live action movie in my childhood. We saw it together as kids. We watched it again for when we did the episode with Z Boy.

But I’d never seen the animated movie. And I am so glad that I saw them in this order because let me tell you, folks, the Hollywood movie is such a let down after you’ve seen this one.

Whereas Squidge was more succinct in his description:

Squidge:

I will put it in my own mannerisms, which was, I watched the Hollywood film, then I watched the anime and quite simply, bricks where shat in the comparison. I can’t put it any other way.

The Scenes We Want To Highlight

With this movie, tha lads wanted to focus their attention on fight scenes rather than plot scenes. Mainly because… well, that’s what people watched the Street Fighter II movie for, right?

Up first was Jay:

Jay:

But I think the one that sticks out for me has got to be the Zangief Blanka fight

…

And for the pure and simple reason of it’s a completely bonkers scene that leads to that fight. Right?

So you’ve got all of the syndicate, all just hanging out in Las Vegas, because obviously they do, right? They’re all hanging out, and there’s a bit of a party going. There’s a dude pouring an alcoholic drink on a lady’s leg, and she’s laughing her head off, right, which is totally fine, I suppose..

Jay:

There’s all sorts of other sort of shady 90’s, bad guy type characters and tropes in the background: they’re all wearing sunglasses and in suits. So, you know something bad’s happening because they’re in sunglasses indoors.

Anyway, [there’s a] "ladies and gentlemen, the entertainment is about to begin." And they leave this room where they’re having this swanky party, and they go and sit in what is essentially an amphitheatre. Right. Because everybody’s swanky party has an amphitheatre next door.

…

So we go into this amphitheatre and they bring in, they’re like, "he’s from Russia," or whatever, right, "here is Zangief." And the character is designed much like the character in the game… But then they bring out Blanka, and it’s like, I can’t remember what they say, but, like, "from the Amazon rainforest where he eats things to survive," or something stupid.

And what I didn’t realize was, until I saw it in this movie, is that [Blanka’s] kind of a pallet swap for Zangief. It feels like the writers were like,

"oh, bugger, we’ve missed these two out. Who are they going to fight?"

"Well, why don’t they fight each other?"

"And where are they going to fight?"

"The bad guys are getting together in Las Vegas, and there’s a carnival that’ll do. Right, sorted. Absolutely. Go animate that. Brilliant."

The less said about Balrog’s derp eyes in his final fight scene with E. Honda the better.

Interestingly, Squidge’s scene wasn’t in the original UK release of the movie, as it was cut because of the excessive “fan service” and potential dark themes. Yes, he wanted to talk about the Chun-Li Vega fight which takes place in her apartment.

Squidge:

I am going to mention something that if you watched this film [as released] by manga Entertainment, you would have never have seen this because it was cut and censored. But in Japan, it’s a bit more laid back when it comes to this kind of thing. It is the Chun-Li fight. And for me, this was the fight that got me the most invested, mainly because of a healthy injection of realism, was brought into a Street Fighter movie.

…

It’s New York City. [Chun-Li]’s in her apartment, she’s grabbing a shower. There is boobalage, bBecause, of course, there is.

So she’s in the shower, she’s all nice and chilled. She goes in her bedroom, she puts some music on. She’s getting in her jimjams. She’s putting her hair up into those buns. She’s feeling the most safe that she is because she’s home.

Next thing you know, there is a creek, there is a swipe. She dives from her bed. Vega’s attacking. She’s in full defensive mode completely. She’s just surviving on pure survival defensive mode. The realism comes from: she isn’t fighting him directly. She’s throwing stuff at him because it is a home invasion. And you sort of get behind it, and it’s like, yeah, I can imagine this happening. So she’s throwing stuff. She’s doing whatever.

The camera angles are meant to be. Like, there’s a cameraman there, and they’re fighting round him. That’s the style I got just from watching it.

How Would We Rate It?

We don’t usually rate games or movies, in fact we have never done that. And this was a conscious decision that we made early in the life of the site.

But we needed to figure out a way to tell you all whether we think you should watch this movie or not. Normally we would rely on three ratings across three categories, which are:

• Love it (best)
• Try it
• Fling it into a tree (worst)

Across these categories:

• As a video game movie
• As a martial arts action movie
• As a Street Fighter movie in the Street Fighter II canon

Squidge’s Ratings

Jay’s Ratings

External Links of Interest

• Join our Discord server and be part of future episodes
• Our Facebook page
• Us on Twitter
• Support us on Ko-Fi
• Street Fighter II on IMDB
• Akuma

Music

Links to the music used in the podcast can be found below. Definitely check them out, because they're amazing tracks by awesome musicians.

• Intro music is Massive Scratch - Eight Bit/Chiptune
• Spoiler Break music is Spectrum (Subdiffusion Mix) by Foniqz (BandCamp)
• Pallet Cleanser music is Breath Deep Breath Clear (Wu Chi) by Siobhan Dakay
• Street Fighter II SNES-Player Select
• SUPER DEAD RISING 3 ARCADE REMIX - Intro [HD] 1080p Xbox One (XB1)
• Super Street Fighter II OST Blanka Theme
• Super Street Fighter II OST Zangief Theme
• The More You Know
• Outro Music is Massive Scratch - Eight Bit/Chiptune