Kick'em In The Ghoulies

Starring -

Joey Ansah,Christian Howard,Mike Moh,Akira Koieyama,Shogun Itokazu,Gaku Space,Hyunri Lee

 Directed By : Joey Ansah

The story focuses on the teachings by Gouken ( Akira Koieyama) to his students Ryu and Ken as they train for years to harness the power of the arts . The film also tells the story of Gouken's early years and his brother Gouki ,played by Shogun Itokazu and Gaku Space.

It focuses on the birth of Akuma the demon and how in the years to come Gouken must prepare his students and himself for what may manifest.

The series follows Ryu and Ken's progress but is intertwined with flashback scenario's from Gouken's past and how he himself became master of the house he teaches.

What makes the series so special is the time it seems spent on making the action scenes as pleasing to watch as possible whilst retaining the core of the Street Fighter games.

Being true martial artists for many years Joey Ansah and Christian Howard thought how they could incorporate the style of Street Fighter within the arts they know. And being a martial artist my self its quite amazing to see these guys perform some brilliant action whilst adding in trademark moves and combinations from the video game.

Of course the main part of Ryu and Ken's training is to master the Hadou technique,concentrating

their good chi to harness a blue like flame of energy which can be unleashed as a projectile attack.

These where done in most part with real pyrotechnics and balls of fire attached to wires which the actors shot along the wires from their hands down the wires . Apart from being effective it gave the actors something physical to handle and see as oppose to using a a CGI method which in most cases looks like a CGI implement.

This was done by utilising a fire resistant protective gel the actors could handle whilst handing a real flaming ball. Though Joey Ansah did say he did have a incident when he set his hands on fire when shooting a scene as Akuma.

The other thing about the series is the way all the characters / actors work so well together because of their love for the Street Fighter series of games. The talent on hand is quite brilliant in both martial arts skills and acting talent. Joey Ansah (Akuma) a martial artist , action choreographer and producer got really noticed when was the choreographer for the film Bourne Ultimatum in which also starred and fought against Matt Damon. This has led to his work on films like Snow White and the Huntsmen and Attack the Block among others.

Mike Moh who plays Ryu has also done some expansive work on Kamen Rider by Steve Wang, Supah Ninjas ,a USA TV series and even worked on Rob-B-Hood ,the Jackie Chan movie as well as other programmes and films. He also holds a fourth degree black belt in Taekwondo.

The of course we have Akira Koieyama ,who recently worked on the film ''47 Ronin'' with Keanu Reeves and ''RUSH '' the Formula One racing film about James Hunt and Nicky Lauder. As well as being a stunt performer in 2003's The Last Samurai with Tom Cruise and Ken Watanabe.

So as you can see the pedigree for the series is high and it really shows in the production values , it really does look like your watching a film made for the big screen ,unlike a lot of web or even TV series productions.

From being at the MCM panel with the stars we learnt the process to get the official go ahead for the series was no easy task.

Joey and Christian had already set the ball rolling prior to getting permission by filming the short ''Street Fighter Legacy '' back in 2010 with the intent to prove to Capcom they could make a lasting tribute to the series . But it was not until 2012 ,after lots of back and forth that Capcom granted them the license to film the series .

To gain money the project was initially to be funded by Kickstarter , but this was removed when financial backers stepped in with money for the project some of which came from Capcom I understand.

But even then once given the go ahead they met other obstacles , the Street Fighter Legacy project had Martial arts Actor Jon Foo star as Ryu , this was a problem for Joey and Christian who had to find new blood for the role as John Foo had gone on to star as Jin Kazuma in the Tekken film , a video game adaptation from Capcom's rivals Bandai Namco.

But it did not stop there , Capcom also announced they where looking into granting the license to another party to make a full cinematic film , of course the Assassins Fists creators thought this unfair as they where going to make their production film like and have it released as such eventually and with hope that they may continue with a sequel to in the future.

In the end it all came out all-right for the team , hopefully the extended TV series and DVD/Bluray sales will make it worthwhile to continue with the series for the guys ..

The guys gave hints that if given the green light that the next instalments would concentrate on Guile's story and that they favour Ninja Star Scott Adkins to play the role of Guile, of note Scott Adkins was in the audience at MCM ,taking time out from his autograph signing sessions to support the guys.

Street Fighter Assassins Fist is a fitting tribute to the series of video games , the in-depth characterisation of the key roles in the series makes you believe your really watching the actual characters from the game. When you see that first Hadouken performed your jump for joy performing a Shorinkyu .