Twenty Years Ago- A postscript: OR How a cheesy 90’s videogame movie can be more eloquent than I

Hello.

This is a response to a point I hadn’t even thought of.

After I posted the final part of this series, a question was asked of me:

Why not reconnect with Brook?

We live in a day and age where finding people is pretty easy. Punch in a name in a search engine and you will most likely find them on a myriad of social sites. And lo and behold, she is on Facebook. While it is tempting to say hello, in the end I just don’t think I will.

The reason why come down to this: while her intersecting in my life created major consequences for me, I am sure I wasn’t as impactful in her life.

This brings me to Street Fighter.

Street Fighter was a film made in 1994 based on the videogame of the same name. It was made at was the height of Jean-Claude Van Damme’s fame, and is as craptastically bad as you think. It falls into the ‘so bad it’s good’ category, remembered more for being Raul Julia’s final film then for anything else. But even this drek has a truly golden moment- a pearl in the turd, so to speak.

This scene is between Raul Julia (as Bison) and Ming-Na (as Chun Li). They are in Bison’s private quarters, Chun Li handcuffed and Bison witching to more comfortable attire. Chun Li tells Bison how she knows him. Take it away:

Chun Li: [to Bison] It was twenty years ago. You hadn't promoted yourself to general yet. You were just a petty drug lord. Huh! You and your gang of murderers gathered your small ounce of courage to raid across the border for food... weapons...

[indicates her binds]

Chun Li: ... hmph. Slave labor. My father was the village magistrate. A simple man with a simple code: justice. He gathered the few people that he could to stand against you.

[laughs]

Chun Li: You and your bullies were driven back by farmers with pitchforks! My father saved his village at the cost of his own life. You had him shot as you ran away! A hero... at a thousand paces.


And here is the response: