The Street Fighter movie has proved its street cred ahead of release with the reveal that the upcoming video game movie will reference its most iconic fighting game community (FGC) moment.
As revealed on his YouTube channel (H/T IGN), Street Fighter will feature a cameo from FGC legend Justin Wong, complete with a ’37’ tattoo – a nod to Evo Moment 37.
If you don’t know Evo Moment 37 by name, you’ll certainly know it by sight. The match-up, from the 2004 tournament, featured Wong’s Chun-Li coming up against Daigo Umehara’s Ken.
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What follows is a move that went triple platinum on early messageboards and websites: with just a flicker of health left, Daigo manages to parry all 15 hits from Chun-Li’s Super, before striking for the unlikeliest of wins. The clip, which has accrued hundreds of millions of views in the decades since, can be relived below.
Wong, who will play a prisoner commentating on a fight in the movie, revealed that Capcom contacted him for a bit-part in Street Fighter. He also added that, alongside his EVO Easter egg, there will be references from all six mainline Street Fighter games.
That dedication to the source material also extends to its main cast, with Chun-Li actor Callina Liang recently revealing the lengths she went to so she could more accurately portray the iconic character.
“I downloaded every single version of Street Fighter onto a PS5 and I recorded all of Chun-Li’s moves during fights on my phone in slow-mo, so I could play them back and study them,” Liang told Empire magazine.
Liang added, “Chun-Li is all kicks. So we did a bunch of Taekwondo training, Muay Thai, and wushu. I did two hours of that a day and strengthened my legs a lot and changed my diet drastically. When I was bulking, I ate 12 eggs a day. Every two hours I had to have a meal and I was on the verge of throwing up. But it worked. By the end of the shoot my thighs had grown six-and-a-half centimeters each.”
Street Fighter hits theaters on October 16.
For more, check out the other movie release dates just over the horizon – including Avengers: Doomsday.
