Chun-Li

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Chun-Li

Chun-Li as seen in Capcom vs. SNK SNK Groove, wearing her original Street Fighter II and III outfit. Illustration by Shinkiro.
Game series Street Fighter series
First game Street Fighter II
In-Universe Information
Birthplace China
Blood type A
Fighting style Chinese Martial Arts
Likes Fruit, European treats
Dislikes Crime, Indecisive People
Special skill Shooting (ranked 6th in an international contest)
Affiliation former ICPO Special Detective

Chun-Li (チュンリー or 春麗, chūn-lì) is a video game character created by Capcom. She is part of the Street Fighter game series, and is the first female playable character to appear in a mainstream fighting game. Introduced in Street Fighter II in the 16-bit era, Chun-Li was the only female character in the game, and while not as physically powerful as the other characters, she was by far the quickest. Her most famous attack is the Hyakuretsukyaku (known in English as Lightning Leg/Lightning Kick), where she repeatedly kicks her opponent from a standing position with incredible speed.

Chun-Li is one of the earliest female video game protagonists to achieve widespread popularity. Prior to Street Fighter II being released in 1991, most female characters in games existed as objectives to be rescued or cast in the roles of other supporting characters, such as townspeople, girlfriends, the occasional opponent, or simply background decoration; as such, there were very few heroines in action-based video games. After the success of Street Fighter II and Chun-Li's popularity, female protagonists became increasingly common. Since then, in games with selectable characters, at least one of them will almost always be female; and a number of games released since that have placed a female character in the lead role.[citation needed]

Contents

[edit] Name

Older official sources from the early 90s indicate Chung was Chun-Li's surname, although it is worth noting this could be very well not the case anymore. In the live-action Street Fighter movie, Chun-Li was given the surname Zang/Xiang, but Capcom has not officially recognized it.

[edit] Story

Chun-Li's acrobat outfit during the Street Fighter Alpha era.
Enlarge
Chun-Li's acrobat outfit during the Street Fighter Alpha era.

Chun-Li was an Interpol investigator who had been searching for clues to the recent death of her father. Getting into a friendly spar with an old teacher of hers and friend of her father, Gen, he gives her a lead into who may have killed her father—the mysterious crime syndicate Shadoloo. Finding its leader, M. Bison, she demands he tell her what happened to her father. To her surprise, Bison attacks and basically makes quick work of her, then flies away, laughing at her and telling her if she attacks him again he will kill her just like he did to her father. With tears in her eyes, Chun-Li swore revenge.

Chun-Li teamed up with an United States Air Force member, Charlie, to try to track and take down Shadoloo. She then ran into someone she would not have expected at all. It was Charlie's good friend and fellow lieutenant, Guile. Telling him he should not get in over his head and to leave the two be, she learns he has orders to bring Charlie back. Attempting to use force to stop him, she instead finds herself defeated; nonetheless, she insists that she and her partner be left alone, to which Guile replies that he will never abandon friends in need. Eventually, learning that Bison tricked the Air Force into cancelling the planned bombing of the main Shadoloo base, she rushed over to the two soldiers to tell them they were tricked and would have to destroy the base on their own. Chun-Li proceeded to plant bombs about the base as Charlie and Guile headed inside to destroy the Psycho Drive, but Guile then came rushing out, grabbing Chun-Li and telling her Charlie had urged both of them to get away. Along the way, Chun-Li saw a young girl escaping with several others (who turned out to be Cammy White leading the Dolls away from the base). Despite being distraught over the initial lack of evidence to prove Shadoloo's crimes, Interpol and Chun-Li managed to shut down much of the evil crime empire.

Chun-Li received an invitation to the second World Warrior tournament, and discovered that Bison had apparently survived the Thailand base's destruction. With this, she had the clear motive of destroying Shadoloo and avenging her father once again. The outcome of this tournament is not clear, but there are strong hints that Chun-Li earned the right to face Bison and possibly won the tournament, although Bison, himself, was killed by Akuma in the long run.

Having made her peace, she continued her work as a police officer, and retired from mainstream street fighting to teach young children martial arts after taking down Shadoloo for good. Urien kidnapped a young girl for his scientific projects and Chun-Li manages to catch up to him. Challenging him, she does her best to fight him and Urien, impressed by his opponent's fighting spirit, agrees to let the child go. Since then, Chun-Li has continued to raise her adopted kids.

[edit] Media Appearances

[edit] Movie

Variety reported that Capcom Ltd. and Hyde Park Entertainment are developing a movie based upon Street Fighter, featuring Chun-Li. Neither cast nor crew has been finalized, however Justin Marks was hired to write a script. The release is scheduled for 2008, Street Fighter's twentieth birthday.[1]

[edit] Street Fighter II: The Animated Movie

Chun-Li was featured as a main character of the Street Fighter II: The Animated Movie. As an interpol agent, she teams up with Guile to investigate Bison's organization. In a famous instance of fanservice, Chun-Li was given a shower scene before her fight with Vega, which has been censored to varying degrees in all American releases. In the uncensored version, Chun Li's bare breasts can be seen in full view.

The recent re-release of the film by Manga Entertainment now offers both the "uncut" UK and original JP versions of the film on one double-sided DVD with her shower scene fully intact and uncensored in the Japanese version and clips of her frontal nudity inserted in the UK version.

[edit] Street Fighter II V

In this 28 episode anime series, Chun-Li appears as the spirited tour guide to Ken and Ryu. Her character in this adaption is a far cry from The world's strongest woman, since she's mostly a Kung-Fu student under the guidance of her father, the highest-ranked police chief in Hong-Kong. Chun-Li plays a sizeable role in the finale when she is brainwashed by Bison's psycho power.

[edit] Other Notable Appearances

Chun-Li has made cameos in various settings from the manga Faeries' Landing to a background scene in the U.S. cartoon Jackie Chan Adventures. She is also a regularly-used cameo character in other Capcom games, such as the RPG Breath of Fire and in the first stage of Final Fight 2.

[edit] Media Influences

[edit] Music

Chun-Li has inspired some influence on the music industry. The British rock band Arctic Monkeys have an instrumental song titled "Chun-Li's Flying Bird Kick" and was nominated for a Grammy for Best Rock Instrumental Performance. Wyclef Jean sings in his version of the song Guantanamera: "If your name was Chun-Li, we'd be playin' Street Fighter."

[edit] Films

In the Jackie Chan live-action movie City Hunter, Chan's character magically transformed to Chun-Li and fought against his adversaries (he was first transformed into E. Honda). There is a fight scene in the Shrek 2 movie where princess Fiona performs Chun-Li's Spinning Kick against her opponents. She also performs a Sho Ryu Ken, a special move of the Ken and Ryu characters.

[edit] Appearance

Chun-Li's appearance has differed several times in the Street Fighter series, as well as in official art and cameos she has made in other works.

[edit] Clothing

Chun-Li wears the qipao, a traditional Chinese dress popular among girls during the early 20th Century. Her outfit is modified to allow a far wider range of movement than a normal qipao. She also wears combat boots and dark brown sheer pantyhose with her qipao. Her qipao is blue with golden yellow accents. She was originally supposed to wear a peach-colored qipao, as seen in her in-game profile and ending in the original Street Fighter II. This was corrected to the blue one in Street Fighter II: Champion Edition.

During the period covered in Street Fighter Alpha, she wore an embroidered vest, unitard and athletic shoes, as well as studded wristbands. It is unclear why she chose to stop using this outfit and switch to a qipao. With the switch to the qipao, she also swapped her wristbands for spiked training bracelets.

In various official art, she has also been shown in her police outfit, as well as (presumably) her favorite casual attire: a varsity-style jacket, T-shirt, jeans and tennis shoes. It has been shown in some official art that when wearing her casual attire she also wears her Alpha wristbands.

[edit] Hairstyle

Her hairstyle is called "ox horns", a typical style in which Chinese children dress their hair; depictions of girls in Chinese paintings frequently show girls in ox horns.

During the Alpha series, she chose to wear them unadorned, while in the remaining games, she uses silk brocades and ribbons to cover them, presumably to match her qipao.

[edit] Gameplay

Chun-Li is the original fast character in the Street Fighter series, utilizing multiple rapid attacks rather than the slow damaging strikes of larger characters like Zangief.

In Street Fighter II Turbo, Chun-Li was the original hybrid character, using both charge input moves like Guile, and command input moves like Ken. However, Chun-Li depends less on her special moves than other characters, and more on her normal kicks and punches and dexterity to overwhelm an opponent.

[edit] Actors

[edit] Trivia

  • In one of her quotes in Street Fighter III: Third Strike, she says that she is not a news reporter. This is a reference to the Street Fighter movie where her character was a news reporter.

[edit] Related characters

[edit] See also

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to:

[edit] Notes and references

  • The Street Fighter video game series and related video games
  • Arcade Flyers concerning the Street Fighter series; many can be found at ArcadeFlyers.com
  • Instruction booklets from the home versions of the Street Fighter video game series
  • Studio Ben (ed.) 2000. All About Capcom Fighting Games 1987-2000. Japan: Denpa Shinbunsha. ISBN 4-88554-676-1, This book contains official statements by Capcom about plot details not included in the games themselves.
  • Tiamat's Street Fighter guide: Contains translated information found in various official Japanese language Capcom sources, such as All About Street Fighter Zero 3, Eiga Street Fighter II Memorial Koushiki Fanbook ISBN 4-09-102491-2, Official Street Fighter Zero 3 Guidebook, Street Fighter 3: New Generation Bible, Street Fighter Eternal Challenge.

[edit] External links


Adon – Akuma – Alex – Balrog – Birdie – Blanka – Cammy – Charlie – Chun-Li – Dan – Dee Jay – Dhalsim – Dudley – Eagle – E. Honda – Elena – Fei Long – Gen – Geki – Gill – Gouken – Goutetsu – Guile – Hugo – Ibuki – Ingrid - Joe – Karin – Ken – Lee – M. Bison – Makoto – Mike – Necro – Oro – Q – Rainbow Mika – Remy – Retsu – Rose – Ryu – Sagat – Sakura – Sean – The Dolls - T. Hawk – Twelve – Urien – Vega – Yang – Yun – Zangief
Final Fight Related Characters
Carlos – Cody – Dean – Guy – Kyle – Lucia – Maki – Mike Haggar – Poison – Rolento – Sodom – Other Final Fight Characters
Characters not part of the official storyline
Blade – Kevin Striker – Sawada – Sheng Long
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