Hadouken With Reverence: Street Fighter's Fight Choreographer Talks Bruce Lee, Bird Kicks and No Camp

Live-action Street Fighter has a history, and to put it kindly, it's a camp one. So it's good to hear the new film's fight choreographer talk about the games with real affection. Filipino-American stunt choreographer Jon Valera, whose credits include the John Wick series and work across the MCU and DCEU, told the Inquirer he wanted "clean martial arts" in the vein of The Matrix. He also wanted fights that reflect the film's 1990s setting without tipping into camp.

Valera told the paper that "you never want to touch a Bruce Lee film because it's almost sacred to us. Street Fighter ranks up there." He says the team studied traditional Japanese martial arts and brought in stunt performers from the UK, France, New Zealand, Australia, Canada and Japan. A Cirque du Soleil performer helped them work out the Spinning Bird Kick using harnesses and rigs, which is a sentence I've waited about 30 years to read.

Valera reunites with Jason Momoa, who plays Blanka and also produces. Kitao Sakurai directs a cast that includes Andrew Koji as Ryu, and the official site sets the story in 1993. There was more news this week as well. The film's official account announced Don Lee as Gouken, and a featurette shows flashbacks in hand-drawn 2D animation, which outlets report is by Titmouse. Paramount has the film in US theatres from 16 October.