The transcript below is from the video “STREET FIGHTER ⭐ Then and Now” by THENvsNOW.

THENvsNOW:

Jay Tavare – Vega

Age Then: 23 | Age Now: 47

In the 1994 live-action film version of Street Fighter, Vega was played by American actor Jay Tavare in his film debut. He is depicted as a member of the Shadaloo Tong working for Sagat. Along with his trademark mask and claw, he has very few lines during the whole film and utters them while his face is obscured or when he is off-camera. He forms a rivalry with Ryu, and in the film’s final battle, he is defeated by Ryu and abandoned by Sagat to presumably die when Bison’s base explodes. He also appears in the arcade game based on the film titled Street Fighter: The Movie, as well as in the home video game also based on the film. In the arcade version of the game, Vega has the ability to take his mask off and throw it to his opponent. In the home version, this ability was removed and Vega fights unmasked.

THENvsNOW:

Wes Studi – Victor Sagat

Age Then: 47 | Age Now: 71

In the live-action film version of Street Fighter, Sagat was portrayed by Native American actor Wes Studi as one of the film’s main antagonists. He was given the full name of Viktor Sagat and is depicted in the film as a black market arms dealer that runs the Shadaloo Tong and gets conned by Ryu and Ken. He is also depicted with his eye patch over his left eye, instead of his right. In this version, he was a former Muay Thai cagefighter who went by the name “Iron Fist” before retiring. In the film’s climax, he is defeated by Ken, but escapes from Bison’s base before it explodes and apparently evades capture. In the video game versions of Street Fighter: The Movie for the arcade and home consoles, the film version of Sagat is a selectable character, where he wears yellow boxing trunks and lacks his chest scar. Uniquely, this portrayal was also of a more average size instead of being well over 210 cm (7 ft) tall.

THENvsNOW:

Peter Tuiasosopo – E. Honda

Age Then: 31 | Age Now: 55

In the 1994 motion picture based on the Street Fighter franchise, the role of Honda is played by Peter “Navy” Tuiasosopo. In the movie, Honda is portrayed as a close associate of Chun Li, serving as her news crew technician and programmer, while aiding her on her quest to avenge her father’s death alongside Balrog. Like Balrog, he has a personal grudge against Shadaloo, who ruined his reputation as a sumo (though no details on how are given). In the film’s climax he battles Zangief, smashing through Bison’s base. While he remains Japanese ethnically just like in the games, the film version is of mixed race, having Japanese and Polynesian heritage, and is native to Hawaii, just as many Japanese Americans are. His personality is rather laid back compared to his video game counterpart and is shown to have a near immunity to pain when one of Bison’s goons attempts to torture him, something he attributes to his discipline in sumo when Balrog asks about it. He does seem to enjoy fighting when he gets a chance to with Zangief, despite the degree of damage that it causes. This version of Honda appeared in both the arcade and console games based on the film. In his arcade ending it states that he returned to the world of professional sumo and regained the title of yokuzuna. The console game took this and expanded upon it, stating that he and Zangief had formed a friendship and had practice matches with Honda only having one win over Zangief. The outcomes of said matches however seem to be just as calamitous as their original bout, resulting in the destruction of five sumo dojos.

THENvsNOW:

Miguel A. Núñez Jr. – Dee Jay

Age Then: 30 | Age Now: 54

In the 1994 live-action film version of Street Fighter, Dee Jay was portrayed by Miguel A. Núñez, Jr. as one of the primary antagonists. He is depicted as a greedy hacker and engineer working for General M. Bison. In the film’s climax, Dee Jay flees from Bison’s base with a trunk of Bison’s money instead of staying to fight, only to find it full of useless “Bison Dollars” that Bison had planned to issue as currency once he took over the world. He is also seen telling Zangief that Bison is the true enemy and had been using them both since his rise to crime power (though he had paid Dee Jay well while paying Zangief nothing). This version of Dee Jay appears in the console version of the Street Fighter: The Movie video game, and serves as the second of the four Grand Masters in the Street Battle mode (along with Zangief, Sagat and Bison).

THENvsNOW:

Robert Mammone – Carlos “Charlie” Blanka

Age Then: 23 | Age Now: 48

The live-action Street Fighter film combined Blanka and Charlie into one character. Charlie is taken captive by Bison, who forces Dhalsim to subject him to genetic testing to create the perfect soldier. Blanka was played by Robert Mammone.

THENvsNOW:

Grand L. Bush – Barlog

Age Then: 39 | Age Now: 63

In the 1994 live-action film version of Street Fighter, Balrog is portrayed by Grand L. Bush and is a supporting protagonist, more specifically the videographer in Chun-Li’s news crew. Like the other members (Chun-Li and Honda), Balrog holds a grudge against the Shadaloo Tong, headed by Sagat, for ruining his boxing career, after apparently refusing to throw a match for them. Near the end of the film, he dons a purple variation of his regular outfit from the games and aids Guile, Chun-Li, Ryu and Ken in rescuing the hostages, and personally breaks the lock to the hostage chamber to free them. In the AN forces’ files, he is listed as “Balrog, G”; what the “G” stands for is not revealed, though it is possibly a homage to Grand L. Bush’s first name.

THENvsNOW:

Andrew Bryniarski – Zangief

Age Then: 25 | Age Now: 50

In the live-action Street Fighter movie, Zangief is portrayed by Andrew Bryniarski. He is once again a lackey of Bison’s, only this time he has a good heart (though he is extremely simple-minded) and truly believes Bison’s propaganda that the A.N. are the enemies of world peace and freedom. Zangief gives Ryu and Ken their signature white and red gis, which are actually training uniforms for Bison’s men. During the climactic battle, Zangief battles E. Honda. After the battle ends, he is told by Dee Jay that Bison was in fact the enemy and had been fooling Zangief the whole time. To redeem himself, Zangief helps Ryu and Ken hold the emergency exit door open for the hostages to escape. He is last seen complementing Guile’s bravery and gives him the Bison salute, which Guile turns into a thumbs-up.

THENvsNOW:

Roshan Seth – Dhalsim

Age Then: 52 | Age Now: 77

Dhalsim is portrayed by British actor Roshan Seth in 1994’s live action film Street Fighter. The film depicts Dhalsim as an Indian scientist and doctor whose science was originally supposed to promote peace, only for Bison to capture him and force him to aid him in his evil ambitions, one of which is the “supersoldier” experiment meant to turn Carlos Blanka into a mutated beast. During the process, Dhalsim alters Blanka’s cerebral programming to keep him gentle and is found out by the lab guard. A fight ensues, in which Dhalsim is branded with the mutagen and almost killed, but Blanka is released and saves Dhalsim by killing the guard. When Guile arrives at the base, Dhalsim directs him to confront Bison. After Bison is defeated, Dhalsim decides to remain in Bison’s base along with Blanka to await its destruction, choosing to atone for his part in mutating Blanka, telling Guile that “if good men do nothing, that is evil enough.” In his final scenes, Dhalsim appears bald (having had a full head of hair earlier) with three rivulets of blood running down from the top of his head, as a nod to his appearance in the games.

THENvsNOW:

Byron Mann – Ryu

Age Then: 27 | Age Now: 51

Ryu is played by Byron Mann in the 1994 film version of Street Fighter, where he serves as a supporting protagonist, as Guile is the main character. In this depiction, Ryu is given the surname “Hoshi” and is presented as an American of Japanese ethnicity. While still master martial artists, he and Ken are a pair of traveling con artists who steal money from rich crime lords through schemes such as selling modified toy guns. He and Ken eventually work with Guile to infiltrate M. Bison’s headquarters with a homing device to lure Guile and his forces there. In the film’s climax, Ryu fights and defeats Vega in battle. Unlike the video games, Ryu does not fight Bison nor scar Sagat in the film, though Ryu does at one point attempt to fight Bison alongside Ken, Chun-Li, E. Honda and Balrog. Ryu ultimately plays a vital role in Bison’s downfall by luring Guile to Bison’s base with a tracking device. Although Guile gives them their freedom after Bison is defeated, they stay to help with the cleanup in Shadaloo, preferring to leave once this is finished.

THENvsNOW:

Simon Callow – A.N. Official

Age Then: 45 | Age Now: 69

THENvsNOW:

Damian Chapa – Ken

Age Then: 31 | Age Now: 55

Damian Chapa portrayed Ken in the 1994 Street Fighter movie, where he and Ryu (played by Byron Mann) are traveling con artists who steal money from wealthy crime bosses/lords and drug kingpins though various schemes such as selling modified toy guns. After the two unsuccessfully try to scam Shadaloo Tong leader Sagat, they are arrested by Allied Nations forces. Guile offers them their freedom in exchange for infiltrating Bison’s base (whom Sagat works for as an arms supplier) and revealing its location so that the AN can make a military strike and free the hostages captured earlier in the film. When Guile eventually infiltrates Bison’s base and chaos ensues, Ryu and Ken try to help free the hostages but split up when the AN forces arrive, Ken opting to flee for their lives while Ryu desires to stay behind and fight. Ken later comes to Ryu’s aid when he is ambushed by Vega and Sagat. While Ryu defeats Vega, Ken defeats Sagat. In the aftermath, though Guile intends to free Ryu and Ken, they decide to stay in Shadaloo to help the AN clear up what Bison has left in his wake.

THENvsNOW:

Kylie Minogue – Lieutenant Cammy

Age Then: 26 | Age Now: 50

Cammy appears as one of the main heroes in the 1994 film Street Fighter. The film’s Cammy is a British intelligence agent who serves as Colonel Guile’s intelligence officer and aide-de-camp in the Allied Nations Army. She was portrayed by Australian pop singer Kylie Minogue, who also played Cammy in both Street Fighter: The Movie video games. Prior to her casting, the film’s director, Steven E. de Souza, said they were “having trouble finding Cammy. We’re seeing a lot of English girls, but they’re not very thin or they’re wimpy – they couldn’t beat up Pee Wee Herman.”[33] After looking at hundreds of actresses in the UK, US and Australia, de Soza came upon Who magazine’s “World’s 30 Most Beautiful People” edition: “Kylie was on the cover. Right away I said, ‘There’s our Cammy.'”

THENvsNOW:

Ming-Na Wen – Chun Li

Age Then: 31 | Age Now: 55

Chun-Li was a central character in the 1994 Street Fighter film, played by Ming-Na Wen. Chun-Li was given a surname (“Zang Chun-Li”) and posed as a television reporter working in Shadaloo in her personal quest to track down and kill Bison, who had murdered her father during a peasant uprising. Her relationship with Guile is acrimonious from the start, as he bluntly rejects her interview request and chides Chun-Li for his own inability to trace a signal broadcast by Bison. Chun-Li allies herself with E. Honda and Balrog, who work as her news crew and whose reputations were ruined by Bison’s mafia connections, and later forms an initially uneasy alliance with Ryu and Ken working with Guile in attempting to locate Bison’s secret fortress. After Guile’s fake death during a staged prison break, Chun-Li uses a homing device to trace him to, and then infiltrate, the Allied Nations’ headquarters, where she is shocked to discover that he is still alive. However, Guile does not want her vendetta against Bison interfering with his own. He orders Cammy and T. Hawk to take Chun-Li into custody, but she manages to escape. With Balrog and Honda, all posing as traveling carnival performers, she works with Ken and Ryu on a failed assassination attempt against Bison and Sagat before they are all captured and taken to Bison’s fortress. Chun-Li is held prisoner in Bison’s private chambers (in an approximation to her traditional game costume), and after she relays the story of her father’s murder, Bison mocks her and her fighting skills in response, which provokes Chun-Li into attacking him, having planned all along for an opportunity to personally attack Bison. She actually gains the upper hand before becoming distracted by her comrades coming to her rescue, allowing Bison to escape before subduing them with knock-out gas and taking them hostage. When Guile and the Allied Nations launch an invasion on Bison’s fortress during the film’s climax, she and the rest of Bison’s hostages are freed, and after Bison’s forces are defeated, Guile promises her an exclusive interview, but only, he adds in jest, if she shows up in her costume.

THENvsNOW:

Raul Julia – General Bison

Age Then: 54 | Died: 24 Oct. 1994

Raúl Juliá played Bison in the 1994 live-action film adaption of the series. Julia perceived Bison in the same vein of villain as Richard III, and approached the role with a Shakespearean tone. In the film, Bison is a British psychopathic drug kingpin and notorious military dictator who controls not only Shadaloo (here depicted as his hostile dictatorship instead of his organization) but also the drug industry with an iron fist. One of his goals in the film is to produce supersoldiers to take over the world and establish a new order known as “Pax Bisonica” using his drug profits. His ambitions have led to a war in Shadaloo with the Allied Nations (AN), led by Colonel Guile, the movie’s main character who has been sent to place Bison under arrest for his war crimes. In the film, while Ryu plays a vital role in Bison’s downfall by helping to lure Guile to Bison’s base, Bison and Ryu do not fight, though at one point, Ryu attempts to fight Bison alongside Ken, Chun-Li, E. Honda and Balrog. In the climax, he fights Guile and very nearly defeats him with his uniform’s built-in electromagnetism (the film’s stand-in for Bison’s Psycho Power), but he is killed when Guile kicks him into his gigantic monitor screen and leaves him to die when the base explodes. A post-credits scene only available on the home-video release shows Bison resurrected through a solar-powered life support machine.

For the role, Raúl Juliá studied the lives and personalities of various dictators and drug lords, and as such mimicked many of their hand movements and body language to incorporate into the M. Bison character, most notably Benito Mussolini’s hand gestures, Joseph Stalin’s mannerisms and strict demeanor, Adolf Hitler’s love of art, and Pablo Escobar’s elusiveness. Other dictators and drug lords incorporated by Juliá include Fidel Castro, Muammar Gaddafi, Idi Amin, and Saddam Hussein.

The film was Julia’s final role before his death, and a dedication to him is included in the end credits. Julia claimed in an interview that he accepted the role for his children, who were huge fans of the games, helped him prepare for the role and were on set with him each day of filming. Although the film was largely panned by critics and fans, Juliá’s performance was widely praised and he was nominated for a posthumous Saturn Award for Best Supporting Actor (he lost to Gary Sinise for Forrest Gump).

THENvsNOW:

Jean-Claude Van Damme – Colonel Guile

Age Then: 34 | Age Now: 58

In the 1994 live-action Street Fighter film, Guile (given the full name of William F. Guile) is played by Jean-Claude Van Damme and is the main character. Van Damme’s line in the film, “Are you man enough to fight with me?”, is taken from Street Fighter II and its follow-ups. His character is given the rank of Colonel. In this live adaption, Guile is commanding the A.N. (this film’s version of the United Nations) forces as he searches for General M. Bison. His motivation for searching for Bison is not to avenge Charlie’s death, but to end Bison’s corrupt organization and to rescue Charlie, although he receives a great deal of help from Ryu and Ken to find Bison’s base, and is aided in his mission by Chun-Li, Cammy White, T. Hawk, Balrog, E. Honda and Zangief. Jean-Claude Van Damme’s hair, while blonde, lacked the hairstyle from the games, and even though the character was portrayed as American, Van Damme’s Belgian accent was very noticeable, which implies that he is French-American. Van Damme was approached to reprise the role in the reboot, Street Fighter: The Legend of Chun-Li, but ultimately did not appear.