TEKKEN

TEKKEN

A fighting game that came out for various and almost all game platforms from the classic arcade to home gaming consoles to handheld consoles and the modern mobile devices that has gaming features.

Tekken is one of the longest running fighting game that was released using 3D graphic engines that gives almost human accurate movements when it comes to the martial arts aspects of the game. There is a mix of 2D animation for some of the cinematics for the storylines or cutscenes for specific characters when you use them under story mode or arcade mode.

Tekken was released back in December 9, 1994 and the latest release is Tekken 7 back in June 2, 2017. The game was published under Bandai Namco Entertainment, Namco and Sony Computer Entertainment.

I am not a Tekken gamer or a Tekken fan, I just had my chance to play the game in arcade, game console like PlayStation and the mobile version. Let’s just say I am just another random gamer who plays quite a lot of games that I can play in any platform that I have or have access to.

Tekken was not only a game, for some they made a community and a tournament where Tekken gamers can have discussions with one another and maybe have a chance to meet the creators of the game like Katsuhiro Harada and Seiichi Ishii and other people behind the game. The Tekken Community is one of the biggest fanbase community that I know other than the Gundam and anime community.

I know a handful of people that can play Tekken so well that I think they can play the game with their eyes closed.  Not to mention they also know backstories of most characters if not all of them.

Tekken did not only came out as a game but there were movie adaptations as well. An anime adaptation movie was released.

The first that I came across with was the Tekken: The Motion Picture back in 1998, and I barely remember the storyline since I just watched it once. The only thing I recall is that for me the anime adaption did not excite me as much as Anpan Breadman series. I was able to watch the anime when I got a copy I think back in 2000.

The second movie was the live action film that came out back 2009 starred by Jon Foo as Jin Kazama the protagonist of the film, Ian Anthony Dale as Kazuya Mishima and Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa as Heihachi Mishima. The movie was “meh” for me, they changed too much in the storyline except for the relationships of the three generation of the Mishima as main casts in the film. Heihachi, Kazuya and Jin. I have only seen the movie twice, and the second one was quite recent which was Oct 22, 2020 along with a friend who has not seen the movie. Too many questions for those fans of the game. But for those who has no clue of the game I think they will like the movie for the action.

There is a third movie and that is the Tekken: Revenge of Kazuya which came out in 2014. In this film three characters from Tekken are in the movie. Kazuya portrayed by Kane Kosugi, Heihachi Mishima by Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa and Bryan Fury by Gary Daniels. Among the three actors only Cary and Gary reprised their roles in the Tekken movies. Just like in the first film this is another film I am thankful I did not watch in the theaters.

With three film adaptations if I were to choose, I will choose the anime adaptation over the live action adaptation. Not because the characters look like the ones in the games but because the storyline is much closer compared to the live action adaptation that has a different story to tell the audience.

Not sure how Tekken fans accepted the various film adaptations of the game but for me I can only recommend the anime adaptation.

But between the first and second live action film, even though they changed the storyline and how it was delivered to the audience, there seemed to be much more fight scenes in the second film compared to the first one. Not sure on the move sets of the characters if they got it accurate or even close to the game version. There are just too many questions in the live action films if the viewer has some knowledge in the game storyline. The second movie was too slow paced for me while the first movie they could have done better. Well for both they could have done better on both live action films. If someone will ask me for movie recommendations to watch these two will not be on the list but if they will ask for worst movies, I have watched I will put this in the list.

If I will rate this:

Anime adaptation 6 out of 10

First live action film 3 out of 10

Second live action film 3 out of 10

Yeah that is my own personal rating for the film adaptations of the Tekken Game series.

I will be making another review for the game only, the reason why I made this kind of article for the Tekken game and the three adaptations is that, I don’t have that much to say for the three adaptations.

I forgot there was another film Tekken Blood Vengeance which was done in 3D and here in this movie we get to see the actual characters of the Tekken game in the film. I have only seen the movie once and not much to say as well in this movie except that they featured a storyline that took place in between the Tekken 5 and Tekken 6 games. The movie featured Xiaoyu and Alisa as the main characters of the game while the father and son Kazuya and Jin are butting heads in the film. Out of the four films I might say I will recommend this one but too bad. I remembered this last while doing this article which means I cannot fully recommend this as well unless I remember that it existed. Bad memory or I guess the film was 50/50.

The rating that I will give this will be 6 out of 10 as well the same as the first anime adaptation of the game as a movie. I guess the reason for this is because we now see the Tekken characters in another full-length film and not just a compilation of cutscenes in between match in the game.

Now I wonder why I forgot about this film. Oh well maybe once I watch the film again I will recall why I forgot about this.

So there you have it four film adaptations that I know for the Tekken Game. Check them out at your own leisure.