Street Fighter: The Legend of Chun Li
by Stephen Endelman
Street Fighter: The Legend of Chun Li
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Street Fighter: The Legend of Chun Li Composed by Stephen Endelman
Lakeshore Records (2009)
Rating:
6/10
Soundclips below provided by Amazon MP3
“Minor faults aside,
STREET FIGHTER: THE LEGEND OF CHUN-LI packs a decent punch and is
likely to be better than you might have been expecting. ”
Score-yukan! Review by Christopher Coleman
It has been a while since composer STEPHEN ENDELMAN has visited the
action-genre, but he seems to be in a bit of an action-run at the moment. With
last year's RED BELT and upcoming STREETS OF BLOOD, Endelman slides in his score
for STREET FIGHTER: THE LEGEND OF CHUN LI. After the 1994 effort, STREET
FIGHTER, starring the one and only Jean Claude Van Damme, I didn't think there'd
be another attempt at movie-izing this classic game franchise...at least not in
this generation. Yet Capcom decided to let Hollywood give it another whack. With
their release of STREET FIGHTER IV for the Xbox 360 in February 2009, if there
was going to be another release of a Street Fighter film, that time would be the
time. Unfortunately, the video game was given a much better reception by critics
and fans than this film. It was at least an interesting effort to focus on the
backstory of Chun-Li as opposed to Ken or Ryu and to try to give the film some
measure of real-worldliness as opposed to the cartoonish 1994 edition. It's not
called THE LEGEND OF CHUN-LI for nothing, but in the process of learning about
the popular female character, we also find out a bit about other famous STREET
FIGHTER characters such as, the film's nemesis, Bison, his henchman, Balrog, and
Vega. Perhaps 15 years later and a ton of lessons learned from unsuccessful game
to film crossovers would make this attempt a marginal success at least. That was
my hope, but alas, yet another game-to-film production falls into the pit of
discard. However, we, lucky few, who dare to listen past the dialogue, might
find some intriguing moments in the original score by STEPHEN ENDELMAN.
Like his work for RED BELT last year, STEPHEN ENDELMAN relies heavily on the
various percussion to provide this score's backbone - but mostly the taiko drum.
It pounds its way into just about every action-oriented track. We also find,
with equal consistency, an employment of wood block pecussion; however, given
the ultra-precision of the blocks, I do not believe this element was recorded
live as the taiko were. The featuring of these two elements here certainly seems
to indicate that the producers and/or Endelman were certainly influenced by Tan
Dun's work for CROUCHING TIGER, HIDDEN DRAGON and I personally can't help but
think of MEMOIRS OF A GEISHA's more upbeat moments. Beyond this, Endelman goes
on to layer in standard western instrumentation and also a number synthesized
elements. The final result is a score that, again like RED BELT, is a fusion of
eastern and western music. For this reason alone, STREET FIGHTER: THE LEGEND OF
CHUN-LI, is of great interest to me, as I have an affiinity for this specific
blend; however, this effort isn't quite as successful as other recent entries in
this sub-genre such as: THE FORBIDDEN KINGDOM (David Buckley) or, more recently,
DRAGONBALL EVOLUTION (Brian Tyler).
The first third of the soundtrack proves the most engaging. Launching with three
action-pieces "Chun-Li Vs. Bison," "Chun-Li Captured," and "Bison Takes Over,"
I'm immediately locked in to what STEPHEN ENDELMAN is going for: a high-energy,
contemporary score partially built on select Eastern musical instruments.
Putting these tracks before "Opening Credits" (4) accomplishes the goal of
grabbing the my attention, but there is at least one negative consequence to
this. The soundtrack becomes top-heavy, not allowing things to buld to a musical
peak at it's conclusion. Instead, there is a distinct lull in the final third.
The tracks that make up this lull, 18-23, aren't bad in themselves, but simply
don't offer up as much engaging music as the CD starts with. A quick re-ording
of the track list and problem solved, but as it is presented, we hear the
culmination of some of Endelman key thematic ideas right at the onset of the
score rather than at its end. Another small gripe that I have is with the erhu.
Now, I love the erhu and believe it is among the world's most beautiful of
instruments, but, I could be wrong, but the erhu performance here certainly
sounds synthesized...and proves to be a bit of a distraction for me. Given the
importance of the erhu, representing Chun-Li and her family, and how it's
employed at some of the more emotional portions of the film (see "Opening
Credits," "Mom Dies," and "Leaving Home"), a live, acoustic performance of this
instrument was in order.
Minor faults aside, STREET FIGHTER: THE LEGEND OF CHUN-LI packs a decent punch
and is likely to be better than you might have been expecting. Without a doubt,
it's nice to hear STEPHEN ENDELMAN adding his touch to the genre. With a bit of
creative playlist editing, this score easily offers a solid listening experience
from 30 to 40 minutes. It's tragic that the film wasn't a bit better, because
it's unlikely enough money was made to warrant any sequels. Of course, if by
some strange fate, there is a sequel to come ("The Blanka Story" perhaps), then
it wouldn't be a bad idea to have STEPHEN ENDELMAN drop in coin for another
round of Street Fighter.
