Review 5: Tekken: Blood Vengeance

As a diehard fan since the sequel Tekken 2 for the Sony PlayStation console (and eventually the series overall), Tekken has been my love as far as fighting games. Sure, other franchises precede it, like Mortal Kombat, Street Fighter, and Killer Instinct. and like Tekken, there were films made from most of them. Some I reviewed already before this blog. As a fan (and sort of loyalist), I got excited when I leaned there were films of this. To my chagrin, however, the Tekken motion picture was mediocre, despite animated, and the two live action ones were... well, let's just say a raging demon and devil beam to both would be doing them a favor. Then we have Tekken: Blood Vengeance, a fully CGI film directed by the ones behind the openings for Tekken 5, 6, and Tag Tournament 2. This one had a one-night-only showing here in the states, but has since reached release via Blu-Ray, digital, and even part of a game card... I'll explain later.

Taking after what we knew of Tekken 5 and Tekken 6, the movie opens up with the ever familiar rivalry between the assassin sisters: Nina and Anna Williams. But following the plot, each are employed to a respective side fighting the was going on around this time, those sides being the Mishima Zaibatsu (now ran by Jin Kazama following his victory in Tekken 5) and the militarized G Corporation (headed by Jin's father, Kazuya Mishima, after infiltrating it and dealing with whoever turned on him in the group). For Ling Xiaoyu, save for her worries for Jin, the skirmish would mean nothing... if not for the fact that Anna decided to use her in the purpose of finding plot anchor Shin Kamiya. A subject of a certain type research, Shin is a student with a bulls-eye on his back, targeted by both Kazuya and Jin, and because of this, her life as a Mishima Polytechnic High student is over, though half of which was also her (un)doing, as well. Now, thanks to Anna as her "counselor", she  becomes a student of a prestigious International School in Kyoto, crossing hairs with the android Alisa Bosconovitch. As for Shin, there is more about him than a mere cute face, as he has connections similar to Xiao and Jin. Whatever it is, Jin, Kazuya, and Heihachi Mishima wants him, and Shin... has an agenda of his own concerning them. With much at stake, who is walking away from the battle the victor? There may be no tournament going on, but when a fight calls, fighters answer. And a fight among the Mishima bloodline was long overdue!

The movies plot coincides with the events of Tekken 5 and Tekken 6. At this time, the latter's arcade cabinet update, Tekken 6: Bloodline Rebellion, was 3 years old, and the console game was years in play across Japan, Europe, and the North America. Under the direction of Youichi Mouri, the visuals were made the studio Digital Frontier, who had a hand in many CGI animations, including the TV anime Infini-T Force, and CG films Gantz-0 and Summer Wars. They also did a catalog of video game CG as well, with the likes of the recent 2 Super Smash Bros. titles (for Wii U /3DS and Ultimate), many of the Yakuza series games, and did the CG for Tekken 5 all the way to the latest installment: last year's Tekken 7. Aside from the aforementioned figures, the movie also involved Xiao's pet Panda, the doll Mokujin, and fellow Tekken veterans Ganryu and Lee Chaolan. So roster-wise, don't expect a lot of cameos. And they put the fights in as only they can, and with CG, it's not impossible to go ridiculous with the content, granted this was before Namco Bandai made use of the Unreal Engine 4. While it may not have as much characters, they do sport familiar moves adapted from the games, and the characters/outfits are easily recognizable. It also marked a first as far as English voices for characters you don't normally hear from, as was the case at the time for Ganryu, Kazuya, Heihachi, and Jin. With their respective Seiyuus, here are the cast, excluding Shin Kamiya:

Ling Xiaoyu: Carrie Keranen/ Maaya Sakamoto
Alisa Bosconovich: Christina Vee/ Yuki Matsuoka
Jin Kazama: Patrick Seitz (cred: Darren Daniels)/ Isshin Chiba
Kazuya Mishima: Kyle Hebert/ Masanori Shinohara
Heihachi Mishima: Jamieson Price/ Unsho Ishizuka
Ganryu: Paul St. Peter/ Hidenari Ugaki
Lee Chaolan: Kaiji Tand/ Ryotaro Okiayu
Anna Williams: Tara Platt/ Akeno Watanabe
Nina Williams: Mary Elizabeth McGlynn/ Atsuko Tanaka


Truly follows that "third time's the charm" scenario, as this was more worthy than both Tekken: The Motion Picture, and Tekken live action. I had my doubts, but I'm calling this an 8.1 of 10, seeing as how it bounced back from its other two movie mishaps. Great job, Namco Bandai!