DOA: Dead or Alive

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DOA: Dead or Alive

Directed by	Corey Yuen
Produced by	Paul W.S. Anderson Jeremy Bolt
Written by	J.F. Lawton Adam Gross Seth Gross
Starring	Jaime Pressly Holly Valance Sarah Carter Eric Roberts Devon Aoki Natassia Malthe
Music by	Junkie XL
Distributed by	Dimension Films/MGM (USA) Universal Studios (UK, Italy, Australia) Summit Entertainment
Release date(s)	December 8, 2006
Running time	87 min.
Language	English
IMDb profile

DOA: Dead or Alive is a 2006 martial arts film based on the Tecmo/Team Ninja fighting game series Dead or Alive. The film is directed by Corey Yuen and was released on September 7, 2006 in Australia and will be released on December 8, 2006 in North America. The film has various appearances from characters of the game series, which include: Tina Armstrong (Jaime Pressly), Christie Allen (Holly Valance), Kasumi (Devon Aoki), Ayane (Natassia Malthe) and Helena Douglas (Sarah Carter).

A number of fighters are invited to DOA, an invitational martial arts contest. They travel to the tournament island by plane, until they have to jump out mid-flight with parachutes, and then have until sundown to reach the main island to be entered into the tournament. Fighters are then pooled against one another in a knock-out style tournament, with the loser of a battle sent home, and the winner progressing to the subsequent round. The plot revolves around four female fighters who begin as rivals, but subsequently find themselves teaming up against another force.

1 Production
2 Plot
3 Cast
4 Release
5 Trivia
6 References
7 External links

[edit] Production

The film began production on May 4 and concluded on July 19, 2005. Filming locations include Bangkok, Guilin, Heng Dian and Hong Kong. The production budget is estimated to be $30,000,000.^[1] La Mariposa (Lisa), Kokoro, Tengu, Raidou, are only a few of the original DOA cast mates that didn't make it into the movie, while most of the others appear in the movie. Plus there are 2 new characters entering in the movie, Maximillian "Max" Marsh (who helps Christie on her mission to steal the money), and another person, which is matched up against Christie.

In an interview, producer Mark Altman stated that the movie is being marketed with a special focus on its female characters in relation to the game's popularity and notoriety [1].

[edit] Plot

Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow.

The film opens at Kasumi's Temple, where she is arguing with Hayabusa about her brother's death. She understands that if she leaves to seek out her brother, her army will kill her. Ayane confronts her before she flees, jumping the temple wall. A shuriken is thrown at her when she is falling - an invitation to DOA. Out at sea, Tina is arguing with her father about professional wrestling on her yacht. A gang of pirates underestimate her, and try to take her boat. Tina comprehensively defeats them, and a DOA shuriken pierces the side of her boat. In a hotel, Christie is being investigated by a number of policemen. Only in a towel, she manages to disarm and defeat all of them, and then leaves the building, driving off on a motorcycle, receiving her own shuriken.

The three girls are amongst a number of invited fighters on a plane going to DOA island. Maximillian Marsh, who left Christie at the hotel is also on the plane, as is Hayabusa, as well as Tina's father (Bass) and Zack, who is hitting on Tina. On an in-flight screen, Helena welcomes them all, telling them they now must parachute the rest of the way, and whoever fails to make it to the main area by sundown will be disqualified. Tina, Christie and Kasumi all land well off target, and after realising they may not make it in time, combine their efforts to climb up. The fighters go on to meet Donovan, who explains that their bracelets will alert them as to who they are fighting and when.

Helena fighting.

Each fighter is analyzed in a lab to show their strength, and are all injected with nanobots which record their abilities. Weatherby, who operates all the technical equipment, oversees all this. The fights soon begin, and Tina, Christie, Leon, Hayabusa, Helena, Bayman, Max, Zack and Tina's father all progress to round two. One of the next fights is between Kasumi and Leon, who apparently was the last fighter that her brother faced. A volleyball tournament goes down on the beach, Kasumi and Tina against Helena and Christie. However the game abruptly ends when the ball is struck down, and Kasumi runs off to find Ayane. They fight each other in the bamboo treetops, but Ayane flees when the other girls catch up to Kasumi.

Max is found out to be a fraud by Weatherby, and is set up against Bayman, and surprisingly (and accidentally) defeats him. Tina defeats her father out on the rafts in the lake. Christie then defeats Helena on the rain-soaked beach. Tina then defeats Zack. Christie and Max start to plot a robbery, once they decode Helena's tattoo. Kasumi is supposed to fight Hayabusa, but he has gone missing. Tina, Christie and Kasumi go looking for him, finding him in the DOA building, but then get themselves locked in. It turns out that Donovan is planning a terrible scheme, with which Weatherby does not agree. Weatherby tells Helena the truth about it all, including what happened to her father. Tina, Christie, Kasumi and Hayabusa are all trapped in pods, while Helena and Weatherby work to get them out before Donovan's plan comes to fruition.

[edit] Cast

Christie, Tina and Kasumi.

Jaime Pressly as Tina Armstrong. Tina is a professional wrestler from the United States. Her father, Bass Armstrong, is also entered into the tournament.
Holly Valance as Christie Allen. Australian actress Valance plays Christie, who is a thief/fighter. It is Valance's first major role in a film.
Devon Aoki as Kasumi. Aoki plays Kasumi, who flees her temple in order to seek out the truth about her brothers' supposed death. She is convinced that until she sees a body, she will not be convinced of his death.
Sarah Carter as Helena Douglas. Carter plays Helena, who actually welcomes all of the other fighters to the DOA island. She is competing in her first tournament.
Kane Kosugi as Ryu Hayabusa. Hayabusa tries his best to convince Kasumi not to leave the temple, and after she leaves, he follows her by entering into DOA, which displeases Kasumi. Hayabusa is Hayate's (Kasumi's brother) best friend.
Eric Roberts as Donovan. Donovan is the man in charge of running the DOA tournament. He however, has a hidden agenda.
Steve Howey as Weatherby. Weatherby is in charge of the technical capabilities during the DOA tournament. He also has an affection for Helena, and reveals to her what Donovan is really up to.
Natassia Malthe as Ayane. Ayane is out to kill Kasumi, because she is a runaway shinobi. She first confronts Kasumi before she flees the temple, then several times on the island.
Matthew Marsden as Maximillian Marsh. Max has a relationship with Christie. He is at DOA under false pretenses, and begins planning a robbery with Christie.
Derek Boyer as Bayman. Bayman progresses to round two, but is surprisingly defeated by Max.
Collin Chou as Hayate. Hayate is apparently dead, although his sister Kasumi has reservations as to whether it is actually true or not.
Kevin Nash as Bass Armstrong. Bass is Tina's father, also a professional wrestler.
Silvio Simac as Leon. Leon is thought to be the fighter that finished off Kasumi's brother. However when Kasumi defeats him, she starts to doubt the story even more.
Brian J. White as Zack. Zack is another fighter, who is eventually eliminated by Tina, with whom he had been trying to flirt during the tournament.

[edit] Release

The North American release of the movie has been moved from December 8th to an unavailable date according to boxofficemojo.com, the film is being released first in a number of other markets during September including United Kingdom, Australia, and the Philippines. Many users debated that the rating of the movie would be R (Restricted). This is likely due to the video game series with a Mature rating for the near-sexual depiction of its female characters. The movie has been officially rated PG-13, similar to Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children, although the games were also rated T for Teen, the equivalent of the PG-13 movie rating. It is said to have partial nudity, though actress Holly Valance denies this. The ratings are - BBFC - 15, IFCO - 15A, OFLC - M (unrestricted, unlike the MA-15+ rating), and MPAA - PG-13. The only nudity in the film is that of Zack who is seen nude for a couple of seconds. None of the girls in DOA are featured naked in the film.

[edit] Trivia

Hitomi is seen in the lobby and her name appears on the scoreboard of the movie all though she is not seen fighting, but she might have fought Max due to the fact he said he faked an injury in a fight.
Lei Fang is in fact present in the movie. In the first round, she is matched against Gen Fu and loses.
Jann Lee also has a minor role in this movie.
Brad Wong Appears in the movie fighting Bayman and loses.
Elliot appears fighting Hayabusa in the first round, and loses.
Milo Ventimiglia was originally supposed to be Weatherby but dropped out because he didn't like the way the character was developed. He appeared in "Stay Alive" instead, another video game movie.^[2]
In the film, all female contestants appear to develop close friendships with one another. However, this is not so in the game, as Helena initially believes Ayane to be responsible for her mother's assassination, and later discovers it was in fact Christie. In the canon story of the video games, Tina also does not ever meet any of the other female characters that are featured in this film apart from the briefly-mentioned Lei Fang and Hitomi.
Ayane and Hayate are portrayed as lovers in the movie, whereas in the video game they are half-brother and sister. The fact that Ayane and Kasumi are half-sisters is also ignored.
Helena's occupation in the video game (an opera singer) is not included in the film, nor is her French nationality.
Christie's last name of Allen was never revealed in any of the video games.
Robin Shou stars in this movie as a bit part 'Pirate Leader.' He also stars in the movie adaptation of the video game 'Mortal Kombat' as Liu Kang.