Tekken: Blood Vengeance

The sad thing about Tekken: Blood Vengeance is that when things get a bit too “Tekken” the whole story of friendship and trust that was built up until that point kind of gets lost in the fray. The Mishima family has always been the downside to the Tekken story arc for me, so color me biased with my take on this.

Here you have this beautiful, complex palette of different lives and different backgrounds come together under a tournament held by the most dysfunctional family ever… yet the family’s story is always the most confusing and easily forgotten of the lot.

Our lead for this journey of CGI mastery is one little girl by the name of Ling Xiaoyu is a Chinese Kung-Fu expert who has a panda that loves and protects her. In the games Ling is not given much background, we see that she goes to school, rides her panda and is connected to the Mishima’s in some way. This movie allowed me to finally get close enough to Ling’s character to where her history falls away as unimportant as I really got to know her heart.

So What’s The Story?

The story of Tekken: Blood Vengeance is of a student Shin Kamiya who is used in an experiment along with other teens to find a cell which would grant it’s host immortality. Players of Tekken know the all too familiar story of patriarch Heihachi Mishima and his son Kazuya Mishima coming back from certain death in every sequel. These men, now holders of separate companies, along with Heihachi’s grandson Jin Kazama, developed the cell and are in competition to retrieve it. The problem however is that the host – Shin, has his own plans which involves the young upstart Ling Xiaoyu.

Beneath the surface of this storyline, the real story is of friendship. Ling meets a beautiful and uber feminine android by the name of Alisa Bosconovitch and the 2 become inseparable. Compared to the warring spy sisters of Anna and Nina Wong (each representing a separate Mishima family member) the 2 girls are the epitome of true friends.

CGI Flare, Awesome Sound, and Silly Demons

I really dug the fighting in Tekken: Blood Vengeance, director Yoichi Mori took the time to have martial artists choreograph sequences that more than reflected the games, they improved upon them. When we see Ling drop down into her low bird stance, we instantly think Tekken and when we see Jin hit his dad with a punch combo we think Tekken again. Anna and Nina throw out their familiar leg locks and awesome arrays of kicks, we see the devil versions of the Mishimas and even Panda has some screen time. There was no missing a chance at fan service but surprisingly this didn’t take away from the story.

The CGI made me wish more movies would take this route (animated over live action) and the 3D improves upon the experience especially with the score sounding like a box office movie. Tekken: Blood Vengeance will make you proud being a fan of this series even though it only features 8-9 people of the 30+ roster of characters that make the series.

If I was to complain about anything  it would be the sequence dealing with the Mishima family having devil fights… it was too much and with our hearts pitter pattering over the screentime between Xiaoyu and Alisa it just put me to sleep when they descended into a Mishima devil dog fight that reminded me HEAVILY of a scene from Urotsukidoji… The Overfiend. No thank you!

Trust me, if you are a Tekken fan you will want to pick up Tekken: Hybrid which holds this wonderful movie along with Tekken Tag Tournament and Tekken Tag Tournament 2: Prologue. For you non-fighters you will want to check this out for the art and story which features the cutest of any protagonist, the chibi yet strong Ling Xiaoyu!