Street Fighter: Assassin's Fist

Street Fighter: Assassin's Fist is a British web series from 2014 based on Capcom's Street Fighter game series. It was created by Joey Ansah and Christian Howard: Ansah directed the series and led the fight choreography, while Howard contributed to the screenplay and assisted with the choreography. It was shot in Sofia, Bulgaria, in July and August 2013, and the series ran from May 2014 on YouTube on the Machinima channel in 12 episodes of roughly 12 minutes each. The story explores the origins of master Gouken and of the martial art Ansatsuken through his students Ryu and Ken. Ansatsuken is a fictional style taken from the game, not a real martial art. In an interview, Ansah described the difference between the two heroes this way: Ryu competes with no one but himself, whereas Ken is strongly driven by competitiveness. Gouken is played by Togo Igawa, Goutetsu by Hal Yamanouchi. The fight scenes rest on people with real training: Ryu is played by Mike Moh, Ken by Christian Howard, and both have many years of martial arts training behind them. We did not find in the sources which real style they demonstrate in the roles of Ansatsuken students. The website IGN gave the series 8.7 out of 10 and called it more authentic to the franchise than both of the pricier feature-length Street Fighter films. The sequel is the series Street Fighter: Resurrection from 2016.

Fight choreography

The fights were choreographed by Joey Ansah himself, a former stuntman who appeared, among other things, in the film The Bourne Ultimatum (2007) and was nominated for an MTV Movie Award in the Best Fight category for a fight in it. As a child he practised taekwondo in Ghana for four years. He was assisted with the choreography by Christian Howard, who has practised kung-fu, karate, taekwondo and capoeira in Essex since age 13. Ryu is played by Mike Moh, a 6th dan holder in American taekwondo; in the short film Street Fighter: Legacy from 2010, Ryu was still played by Jon Foo. The sources disagree on who plays Akuma (Gouki) in the series: one names Joey Ansah, the other Gaku Space.

Editions and translations

The series came out in several forms. The web version had 12 episodes and was released from 23 May 2014. A version of six episodes of 22 minutes each was made for television, along with two feature-length cuts: a 105-minute one for television and a 145-minute one for DVD and Blu-ray. It was released in American cinemas on 27 October 2014. A sequel titled Street Fighter: World Warrior was announced at Comic-Con in San Diego in 2014; the sequel that was actually made is Street Fighter: Resurrection from 2016.

People and martial arts

• Joey AnsahDirector
• Joey AnsahFight choreographer· Taekwondo (real practitioner)
• Mike MohActor — as Ryu· Taekwondo (real practitioner)
• Christian HowardActor — as Ken Masters· Kung Fu (real practitioner)

Series

Details

Status

Completed

Episodes

12

First published / aired

YouTube (Machinima)