It seemed that in the 90’s tons of video games that were popular in the 80’s were being turned into movies. It was a logical extension as there was tons of action taking place in each game and players were putting themselves into the middle of it. That is as long as the movies were based on first person action games and not things like Tetris. Most of those movies were popular enough with MORTAL KOMBAT going so far as to have a sequel, but the fad died off for a time. It’s come back with a vengeance in the past few years and now yields TEKKEN based on the fighting game.
The year is 2039 and the world is ruled by corporations rather than governments. The old world fell some years back and the corporations filled the voice, taking over and controlling the masses. What was once the United States is now ruled by the largest corporation of them all, Tekken.
But things haven’t changed with the exception of walls that divide one social class from another. Outside is a life of poverty and trying to survive, inside a world of luxury and technology. Protecting this way of life are the armed soldiers who rain down on the lower class should they try and move upward.
Jin Kazama (Jon Foo) is a young man who works the streets doing everything from stealing for the resistance movement to finding whatever it takes to survive. His mother Jun (Tamilyn Tomita) has done her best with him, training him in martial arts to learn the beauty of it more so than the power. But Jin still has much to learn.
When the Tekken soldiers raid the resistance and connect Jin to the latest tech theft, they set out to catch him. Their leader Kazuya (Ian Anthony Dale) makes the decision not to capture anyone in Jin’s home but to blow it up instead with Jun and a few soldiers still inside. Jin watches as his mother dies and blames the leader of Tekken, Heihachi Mishima (Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa) for her death.
A chance to get back at Heihachi arrives in a competition known as the King of the Iron Fist. Combatants have been involved for years but there is always a people’s choice involved, someone who bests the competitor Marshall Law if they can. Jin enters this street tournament and wins, giving him a chance to go into the city and to become involved in the competition locating him one step closer to Heihachi.
The man in charge of the street competition is Steve Fox (Luke Goss) and he joins Jin as his manager. Fox knows the ins and outs of the game, knows the weaknesses of the other fighters and helps Jin to learn his own limitations and how to do better. Their first fight results in a win for Jin and earns him the inquisitive eye of Kazuya.
Backstage fighting goes on not just among the fighters but in the house of Tekken as well. Heihachi doesn’t believe that Kazuya is ready to take over as the ruler of the house, but Kazuya has no patience to wait for his time. Instead he plots a take over and sets out to follow through with the Iron Fist competition in the background.
But wait there’s more! Jin has a connection to the Tekken clan that no one is aware of with the exception of Kazuya. And it’s one that he doesn’t plan on letting anyone else learn about so he sends someone to kill Jin before he can compete again. When that fails, he ousts Heihachi as ruler, takes over and changes the rules of the game. It is now a competition where each fighter can win only with the death of the other.
All will be revealed before the final reel and a one on one match between Jin and Kazuya takes place. Who wins? Oh come on, I won’t spoil it but you have to know already.
The film has a well shot look to it but falls back on the stereotypical “end of the world” look, a set design that involves combining bits and pieces of scrap metal into homes covered with dirt and grime. It’s a set design that’s been used since the first Mad Max film and ever since. And inside the city? More gleaming glass and high rises like most films of this kind.
The best thing in the film is the fight choreography, set up by Cyril Raffaelli. If you’ve seen DISTRICT B13 or the sequel then you’ve seen Raffaelli in action. He does a great job here and will be someone to keep an eye on in the future.
The movie itself reminded me of those old game to movie films made in the 90’s and if you were a fan of those movies you’ll get a kick (no pun intended) out of this one. It’s pure escapist action and if that’s what you’re looking for you’ll find it here.
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