Tekken: The Motion Picture
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| Tekken | |
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| Directed by | Kunihisa Sugishima |
| Written by | Ryota Yamaguchi |
| Starring | Yumi Toma Daisuke Gōri Minami Takayama Kazuhiro Yamaji |
| Release date(s) | 1998 |
| Country | Japan |
| Language | English, Japanese |
| IMDb profile | |
Tekken is a 1998 two-part OVA series, based on Namco's video game franchise Tekken. The story is an amalgamation of the first two games in the series, focusing on the first King of Iron Fist Tournament while giving a prominent role to Jun Kazama, who was introduced in Tekken 2. The two OVA episodes were edited into one and released on VHS and DVD in North America by ADV Films and has occasionally been aired on cable television in the U.S.
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[edit] Plot outline
The film starts with a flashback featuring Kazuya Mishima, a child studying martial arts under his father. He meets a young girl named Jun Kazama, who is crying after seeing a bobcat kill a defenseless rabbit. When Kazuya offers to go fight the bobcat, Kazuya's father, Heihachi Mishima, appears and drags Kazuya away. To make his son prove his strength, Heihachi throws Kazuya into a deep ravine, but not before ripping a locket containing a picture of Kazuya's mother from his son's neck and tossing it aside. Jun, who tried and failed to locate Kazuya, finds the locket and keeps it with her into adulthood.
On the day of the tournament, Kazuya and Jun fight their way through the other competitors on the island. Kazuya intends to fight his way to the center and kill his father, while Jun races to stop him. After catching up to him, Jun begins to make another appeal when they're attacked by monsters released by Lee, but they fight them off. Kazuya then continues on his way and quickly beats Lee in direct combat before squaring off against Heihachi.
The fighting is brutal, but Kazuya, who formed a pact with a devil to survive his fall into the ravine as a child, uses his demonic power to defeat his father. Before he can finish him off, however, Jun steps in one last time, and convinces Kazuya that he's going about things the wrong way. Kazuya is able to calm his spirit, and he takes mercy on his father. In the meantime, Lee, convinced that the Mishima Zaibatsu should be destroyed if he isn't allowed to inherit it, activates a self-destruct mechanism on the island. Kazuya, Jun and most of the other competitors are able to escape by ship, while Heihachi himself flees the island by air.
In a brief epilogue, Jun is by herself sewing something among some trees with some animals when her young son, Jin Kazama, who bears a strong resemblance to Kazuya, runs up to her,telling that he wants to read the story she read to him yesterday. Then Jun sensed that the winds just changed, then Jin asked what's wrong then Jun replied that it's just nothing and every thing's gonna be just fine and they walk off together.
The other major subplot, which runs concurrently with the rest of the film, features Lei Wulong working as Jun's partner, who investigates the weapons lab located below the surface of the island with the help of the combat android Jack-2, who wants to cure a little girl of her illness. A few other fighters from the games, most notably Bruce Irvin, Baek Doo San, Michelle Chang, Anna Williams, Nina Williams, Prototype Jack, Roger, and Ganryu play small parts in the story. Most of the other game characters like King, Armor King, Yoshimitsu, Marshall Law, and Paul Phoenix appear in background cameos with no direct influence on the story.
[edit] Cast
| Character | Voice Actor (English) | Voice Actor (Japanese) |
|---|---|---|
| Jun Kazama | Edi Patterson | Yumi Toma |
| Kazuya Mishima | Adam Dudley | Kazuhiro Yamaji |
| Lei Wulong | Gray G. Haddock | Tomokazu Seki |
| Lee Chaolan | David Stokey | Shinichiro Miki |
| Heihachi Mishima | John Paul Shepard | Daisuke Gōri |
| Nina Williams | Ellie McBride | Minami Takayama |
| Anna Williams | Claire Hamilton | Kaori Yamagata |
| Young Jun | Lucy Farris | Sendai Eri |
| Young Kazuya | Jacob Frachek | Minami Takayama |
| Michelle Chang | Jessica Robertson | Narumi Hidaka |
| Jack-2 | Mark O'Brien | Akio Ohtsuka |
| Jane (credited as "Jack 2's Little Girl") | Jessica Schwatz | |
| Doctor Boskonovitch | Christian Burac | Tamio Ôki |
| Bruce Irvin | Peter Harrell Jr | |
| Jin Kazama | Jacob Frachek | |
| Baek Doo San (credited as "Competition Fighter" in Dub) | Lowell Bartholomee | Kyôsei Tsukui |
[edit] Notable differences from game to film
The Tekken motion picture takes several liberties with its source material. Along with combining events from the first two games in the series, it also rewrites important events and appearances of some of the characters.
- Jun and Kazuya met for the very first time as children. There is no evidence of this in the games.
- Numerous continuity discrepancies related to the meshing of the Tekken 1 & 2 storylines. Some examples include:
- After defeating Heihachi in the first Tekken, Kazuya becomes the head of the Mishima Zaibatsu in Tekken 2, but despite the presence of Tekken 2 elements, Kazuya never becomes head of the Zaibatsu.
- In the film, Michelle seeks revenge against Heihachi for destroying her village. However, in the first game, she seeks revenge for Heihachi's murder of her father, and Kazuya and Ganryu kidnap her mother in Tekken 2.
- Anna Williams is given a rather gruesome death (apparently eaten alive by an "Alex" dinosaur),But Her Death was not part of the Tekken story line
but she remains alive and well in the third game in the series. However, due to the fact that the anime has twisted storyline that is different from the game, in the anime storyline, it is most likely that she has died permanently.
- Jack-2 is stated as the prototype while Prototype Jack is shown as the final version.
- There are multiple Prototype Jacks and multiple dinosaurs based on Alex.
- Due to the art style of the anime, several characters (most notably Kazuya) bear little resemblance to their video game counterparts.
- Heihachi isn't thrown down the cliff like he was in the video games.
- Dr. Abel does not appear in the film, despite being an important character in Jack-2's storyline.
- Bruce is Lee's bodyguard instead of being Kazuya's bodyguard.
Aside from its quality as an adaptation, Tekken is generally seen as a cult film or guilty pleasure to its relatively small group of supporters. Some fans also use the film to help explain how Kazuya and Jun conceived their son Jin, who would go on to become the lead protagonist of the video games in Tekken 3, since the video games have remained rather ambiguous on those details.[weasel words] Because of the number of liberties that the film takes with the storyline, the film cannot be considered completely canon, but the possibility that Jun and Kazuya's storyline as depicted in the film may share parallels with the video games remains open.
[edit] Reaction
Tekken: The Motion Picture has been variously hailed and panned by fans and critics alike. The root of the movie's popularity stems from the action and the fighting, which fans consider to be outstandingly realistic. But the designs and English voices for some of the characters have led others to dislike the film, especially for Kazuya's incredibly deep voice and striking resemblance to Dragon Ball Z's Vegeta.
[edit] Tekken (2009 film)
Tekken is a 2009 live action film adaptation of the series. The film follows Jin Kazama played by John Foo [1] in his rid himself of the devil which plague his soul. Now a man, he must confront his father Kazuya Mishima played by Ian Anthony Dale and his grandfather Heihachi Mishima played by Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa. The film is being directed by Dwight Little and is set for a 2009 release date.[2]
