Chun-Li

Chun-Li (春麗（チュン・リー）, Chun Rī^?, simplified Chinese: 春丽; traditional Chinese: 春麗; pinyin: Chūn Lì)^[1] is a video game character produced by Capcom. First introduced in Street Fighter II, she has since appeared as a player character in nearly all subsequent games.^[2]

An undercover Interpol agent, Chun-Li enters Street Fighter II 's fighting tournament as a way of getting to its founder, M. Bison. She seeks to avenge her father, who was murdered while investigating Bison's crime syndicate, Shadaloo. Chun-Li is notable for being the first female playable character in a fighting game,^[2][3] and has acquired the nickname "First Lady of Fighting Games" among the genre's enthusiasts.^[4]

In video games

Street Fighter series

Chun-Li was first introduced in 1991 in the original version of Street Fighter II as one of the game's eight playable characters as well as the sole female character in the game before the addition of Cammy. Chun-Li's backstory centers on her quest to avenge the death of her father, an undercover police agent who disappeared while investigating M. Bison's organization. In her ending, she fulfills her revenge and decides to return to her life as an ordinary girl. In Super Street Fighter II (1993), the player is given the option to make Chun-Li return to ordinary life or continue her work as a police officer.

Chun-Li is brought back in Street Fighter Alpha: Warriors' Dreams (1995), which is set prior to the events of the Street Fighter II. She is depicted as an undercover International Criminal Police Organization (Interpol) agent who is after M. Bison and his drug cartel. In the first Alpha game Chun-Li is dressed in a Chinese acrobatics outfit, although the two sequels: Alpha 2 (1996) and Alpha 3 (1998) feature Chun-Li's original outfit from SFII as an alternate version of the character with alternate special abilities and super combos.

She appears as a playable character in Street Fighter III: 3rd Strike (1997), the third iteration of Street Fighter III, as one of five new playable characters that were added, making her one of the few Street Fighter characters to appear in all major sub-series. Set years after the Street Fighter II, she has retired from street fighting to teach martial arts to young children,^[5] but is forced to return to law enforcement after one of her students is abducted by Urien.

Chun-Li appears in Street Fighter IV (2008) as one of the returning fighters. Her in-game narrative shows her at a current crossroads in her life, eventually returning to both street fighting and law enforcement.

In the 1996-1997 Street Fighter EX sub-series, Chun-Li's story is similar to that of Street Fighter II, in which she is a police officer investigating Shadaloo in search of her missing father, instead of avenging his death.

Other games

As one of the symbolic Street Fighter characters, Chun Li has made appearances in many other Capcom-produced fighting games, including in all titles of the long-running Marvel vs. Capcom (since X-Men vs. Street Fighter in 1996) and in the Capcom vs. SNK series (also in SNK's SNK vs. Capcom games), and in 2010's Tatsunoko vs. Capcom: Ultimate All-Stars. She and Ryu are the only Street Fighter characters to appear in every other crossover title by Capcom, including the 2005 tactical role-playing game Namco × Capcom (where they are partnered with Cammy) and the upcoming fighting game Street Fighter X Tekken.

Chun-Li appears in the 1996 puzzle game Super Puzzle Fighter II Turbo and its 1998 sequel Super Gem Fighter Mini Mix, and in the pachinko slot game Chun-Li Ni Makase China! (the first game that features her in the starring role). She also makes small cameo appearances in the 1993 beat'em-up Final Fight 2 and the 1993 role-playing game Breath of Fire (the cameo appearance featured on Expert Gamer's 1998 list of The 50 Greatest Video Game Secrets^[6]), and in the 2008 platform game Mega Man 9. Alternate costumes inspired by her character were featured in the 2006 action-adventure Onimusha: Dawn of Dreams (as an unlockable costume swap for Ohatsu) and in Sony's LittleBigPlanet (as a Sackgirl design released as downloadable content in 2008).^[7]

Character design

In the Street Fighter II sub-series and most of her later appearances, Chun-Li wears a qipao, an early 20th century Chinese dress.^[4] In the first version of Street Fighter II, Chun-Li was originally depicted wearing an orange qipao instead of blue.^[2] The dress is modified to allow a far wider range of movement than a generic qipao. Her ensemble also includes a pair of white combat boots and brown pantyhose. She wears her hair in "ox horns",^[2] with silk brocades and ribbons in her hair. Another familiar part of her ensemble are the large spiked bracelets she wears on her wrists.

In the Street Fighter Alpha games (set during the time period before Street Fighter II), Chun-Li wears an embroidered vest, a unitard,^[2] and athletic sneaker shoes. She wears her ox horns unadorned. She also wears her original Street Fighter II outfit in her X-ism mode in Alpha 3.

In Street Fighter IV, Chun-Li's alternate outfit consists of black night gown with gold accents at the bottom. She wears a black and gold sash held by a red rope-like belt. She wears her ox horns unadorned, just like in her Alpha appearance, only this time it's held by red ropes with golden balls at the tip. The outfit is completed with red shoes, gold earrings and black and gold bracelets. The outfit resembles the clothes she wore in one of the episodes of the cartoon series.

Gameplay

Appearances in other media

Live-action

Chun-Li, who is given the full name of Chun-Li Zang (simplified Chinese: 臧 春丽; traditional Chinese: 臧 春麗; pinyin: Zāng Chūn Lì) in the film, was portrayed in the 1994 action film Street Fighter by actress Ming Na. She poses as a television reporter in order to infiltrate the nation of Shadaloo and kill M. Bison, a warlord who murdered her father during a peasant uprising during his days as a drug lord. She allies herself with E. Honda and Balrog, a former sumo wrestler and boxer, respectively, whose reputations were ruined by Bison's mafia connections, and later forms an initially uneasy alliance with Ryu and Ken, who are working with Guile to infiltrate Bison's fortress and lead Guile there. At the end of the film, she helps Ryu and Ken free Bison's hostages, and in return for her service, Guile promises her an exclusive interview.

In 2006, Hyde Park Entertainment and Capcom announced its intention to produce another film adaptation with the storyline to focus on Chun-Li, who was given the full name of Chun-Li Huang and became the main protagonist in Street Fighter: The Legend of Chun-Li,^[8] played by Kristin Kreuk.^[8] Street Fighter was released in 2009 for the 20th anniversary of the game series,^[9] While the games simply give Chun-Li a Chinese nationality with no further details, she was portrayed as a Chinese-American in the film, having a Chinese father and a white mother.

Animation

Chun-Li is a central character in the 1994 anime film Street Fighter II: The Animated Movie. An Interpol agent, she is investigating M. Bison's organization of Shadowlaw, which is suspected of murdering several diplomats. She requests to work with Guile to investigate Bison's organization. Guile is initially reluctant to work with her, more eager to pursue Bison himself. By the end of the movie, however, they have become inseparable. She is voiced by Miki Fujitani in the Japanese release. In the English dubbing adaptation by Manga Entertainment, she is voiced by Lia Sargent. In a famous instance of fan service, an explicit scene shows Chun-Li showering in her apartment as a Shadaloo assassin, Vega, arrives to kill her. The shower scene has been censored to varying degrees in versions of the English dub.^[10] Vega ends up having been kicked through a wall and hurtling several stories to the ground, but Chun-Li succumbs to her injuries and slips into a coma. She remains hospitalized for the rest of the movie, as distraught Guile promises her that he will make M. Bison pay. Following Bison's defeat at the hands of Ryu and Ken, Chun-Li pulls a prank on Guile by making it appear as if she has died while he was away.

Chun-Li was a regular character in the USA Network's animated television series Street Fighter. She was depicted as a reporter (as she was in the 1994 movie) and was voiced by Donna Yamamoto.

In the 1997-1998 anime series Street Fighter II V, Chun-Li appears as the spirited tour guide to Ken and Ryu. Her character in this adaptation 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 sizable role in the series' finale, when she is brainwashed by Bison's psycho power. Ken is shown having growing feelings for her, as he takes her on a shopping spree and even buys her an engagement ring in the first part of the series. In the Japanese version, she is voiced by Chisa Yokoyama. In the Animaze dub, she is voiced by Lia Seargent, while in the ADV Films version she is played by Junie Hoang and later on by Tamara Lo.

Chun-Li also appears in the 1999 anime OVA Street Fighter Alpha: The Animation, as an Interpol agent who investigates a mad scientist called Sadler that works for Shadaloo. She believes the trail can lead her to her father, who at the time, was missing and presumed alive. She assists Ryu and Ken in finding a boy named Shun, kidnapped by Sadler to force him to succumb to the Satsui no Hadō. Yumi Tōma voices her in the Japanese version, and once again Lia Seargent provides her voice for this OVA.

Manga

In a Street Fighter II manga published in the 1990s (by Masaomi Kanzaki), Chun-Li remains in her established role of an interpol agent investigating Bison, yet frequently expresses her desire to earn Ryu's praise as a genuine fighter. As the story progresses, Chun-Li participates in a tournament arranged by Shadaloo, eventually coming up against Vega, portrayed here as her father's killer. She defeats Vega, but she is exhausted from the fight and is pulled from the tournament. Her injuries prevent her from doing much when Ryu and Bison confront one another, except call off an air strike by Interpol.

Chun-Li also appears in Masahiko Nakahira's 1996-1997 manga Street Fighter: Sakura Ganbaru!, in which she participates in a police raid to an illegal underground fighting circle. Later on, she follows the trails that lead her to an assassin which turns out to be Gen, from whom she suffers an utter defeat.

In the manga adaptations of Street Fighter Alpha, Chun- Li is again an agent of the Interpol as she is in almost all iterations save for the live action film. She encounters Ryu, who has fallen from grace and had hired himself out as a bodyguard to drug smugglers. Chun-Li winds up befriending him and Birdie as well as Ken, and rescues Cammy from being captured by Sodom. Shadaloo is once again responsible for the death of her father, though the exact identity of the killer has yet to be revealed.

Comics

In the 1990s, Malibu Comics produced a short-lived series of Street Fighter comics, which featured Chun-Li as a starring character. She is depicted as having known Ryu and Ken since her late teens, as well as having a romantic interest in Ryu. The story primarily focuses not on Chun-Li or Ryu in particular, but rather on the events which follow the murder of Ken Masters. Due to the comic's abrupt end (it was cancelled after three issues), the storyline was never resolved.

When Udon comics picked up the comic book license for the Street Fighter franchise for American distribution, Chun-Li again became a central character, involved in the hunt for Bison and Shadaloo. However, in the new comic, it is not Bison who is the killer of Chun-Li's father, but rather Cammy, prior to her being freed from Bison's control. Chun-Li battles Cammy when they meet face to face for the first time and ultimately forgives Cammy and turns her sights on Bison himself. Chun-Li also meets Cammy for the second time (issue #11) and formally wins against her. Eventually, she receives an invitation from Shadaloo to enter a tournament being held by Bison. The comic appears to be mixing elements of the various games together and Chun-Li's mode of dress changes several times throughout the Udon comics, from the outfits worn in Street Fighter Alpha, to her more traditional qipao from the Street Fighter II games.

Merchandise and other appearances

Multiple Chun-Li figures were produced by various manufacturers. Artworks of her were also featured on an officially licenced animated Nubytech/UDON joypad for the PlayStation 2,^[11] and a Mad Catz wireless joypad for the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360.^[12]

Chun-Li was played by cross-dressing Jackie Chan in the 1993 live-action City Hunter movie during the Street Fighter II spoof scene.^[13] In the season 6 (2010) Halloween special of the animated series American Dad, Toshi's older sister Akiko goes trick-or-treating as Chun-Li.^[14]

Reception

Chun-Li's character has been found as one of the most popular in the series. IGN ranked Chun-Li third in their 2009 article Top 25 Street Fighter Characters, noting that while sexism is factored into her initial design, "[she's] come a long way over the years. She's by far the most popular female fighting game character out there, and if you try to start naming off better-known women in videogaming period, you're going to wind up with a pretty short list."^[15] GameDaily listed her at number one in their 2009 article Top 20 Street Fighter Characters of All Time, praising her character evolution and for balanced gameplay.^[16] The same site ranked her second in their 2008 list of Top 25 Capcom Characters of All Time with editor Robert Workman noting her to be his favorite character from the Street Fighter series because "her kicking attacks are amazing".^[17] Chun-Li was voted top in Capcom's own 2002 poll of 85 characters for the 15th anniversary of Street Fighter.^[18] In Game Informer's 2009 list of "Top Ten Best Fighting Game Characters" Chun-Li was seventh.^[19]

Spike featured her in their 2008 article Top 10 Video Game Vixens at number four, citing a preference for her muscular thighs.^[20] UGO Networks ranked her ninth on their list of Top 50 Videogame Hotties, stating "Chun-Li's female presence and early dominance of the fighting game genre propelled her into the minds of many early fanboys."^[21] In addition, UGO placed her at #1 on their list of Fighting Games' Finest Female Fighters, stating "For the record: There's nothing wrong with Chun-Li's thighs, and they are definitely not "too big."".^[22] UGO also ranked her at #3 on their list of Top 50 Street Fighter Characters, stating "Chun-Li owns the distinction of being the first female fighting game character and is known for her balance of strength and speed. She was one of few female characters in the early 90s not cast in a role of damsel in distress, but instead showed that female characters could fight just as same as their male counterparts."^[23] She was awarded Hottest Babe of 1992 by Electronic Gaming Monthly, tying with Blaze from Streets of Rage.^[24] Videogamer.com writer Wesley Yin-Poole put her in the 2010 article of Top 10 Video Game Crushes commenting that gamers have liked her since Street Fighter II.^[25] Mania Entertainment writer Briana Lawrence put her second in the 2010 article 13 Video Game Women That Kick Ass, commenting that despite being the only female fighter from Street Fighter II, her special moves were appealing to gamers.^[26] In 2011, Complex ranked the 1994 anime version of Chun-Li as seventh on the list of "The 25 Hottest Cartoon Women Of All Time."^[27]

Chun-Li's return in the Street Fighter III: Third Strike has been labelled as the main and best addition to the game due to her popularity.^[28][29] Nevertheless, she has been noted to be one of the most overpowered characters from the game alongside Ken and Yun.^[30][31]

References

External links

• Chun-Li - The Street Fighter Wiki
• Chun-Li at the Internet Movie Database