Fatal Fury: The Motion Picture

Original Title: THE MOTION PICTURE 餓狼伝説
Romanized: The Motion Picture Garou Densetsu
Literal: The Motion Picture Legend of the Hungry Wolf

Plot Synopsis

An ancient legend tells of a suit of armor that gave the wearer the power of Mars, the god of War himself. The previous wearer was defeated and pieces of the armor scattered to the ends of the earth, but it seems that now someone is gathering those pieces with the intent of conquering the world for himself. Terry, Andy, and Joe all get sucked into this plot when a beautiful girl named Sulia comes to them for help in stopping this menace to humanity. But their opponent already has several pieces of the armor, and if he completes the suit before they can stop him, what can even the best street fighters in the world do to stop a god?

Quick Review

Rating: 4 / 5
Reviewer: Marc
Review Date: 2006-08-31

Fatal Fury: The Motion Picture is a fundamentally well made and thoroughly entertaining movie. Although it's based on a game and the story follows two OAVs, don't let that turn you off--you don't need any backstory to enjoy the movie, and it's far more of a grand-scale adventure story than a street-fighting action movie. The story is solid, the characters more than your standard musclehead stereotypes, and it's an all-around attractive movie. The only real down side is the very end, which is something of a cop-out and far too traditional for a movie that stretches the boundaries of its genre in so many ways.

Still, Fatal Fury: The Motion Picture is a fine adventure movie with a little bit of everything--interesting, fun, and surprisingly realistic characters, good art, enough fighting to go around, and a solid, interesting story Not just for fans of fighting games, this is one comes highly recommended to anyone who enjoys a good adventurous yarn.

US DVD Review

The joint VIZ-Pioneer DVD is a quality disc. It features a nice video transfer (though sadly letterboxed instead of anamorphic), and above-average audio--four channels in Japanese, two in English. Extra features include a brief introduction to each of the characters, a selection of character sketches, and a short synopsis of the two OAVs. The menus also provide the casts (of both languages) and crew of the production.

Content Guide

Not for kids on account of some scattered nudity and general violence, but not usually gratuitous. VIZ calls it 13-up, but I'd say 16-up is more appropriate.

Violence: 3 - Lots of fighting, some of it bloody.

Nudity: 2 - A shower scene, skimpy costumes, a flash here and there, and... Mai.

Sex/Mature Themes: 2 - Never anything graphic, but generally mature themes.

Language: 2 - Not particularly strong.

Notes and Trivia

The story follows the plot of the previous two OAVs, completing the trilogy.

Although The Motion Picture is based on SNK's series of fighting games for the Neo Geo, the plot deviates considerably from those games, unlike the OAVs.

Availability

Available in the US from VIZ on a joint VIZ-Pioneer bilingual DVD. Was previously available on subtitled or dubbed VHS.

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