Tekken: Amulet of the Gods
Genre: Action/Fantasy
Director: Drew Pearce
Writer: Billy Cruder
Based on the Tekken video game series
Cast: Kelsey Asbille, Katheryn Winnick, Tanaya Beatty, Shiori Kutsuna, Tinsel Korey, Jason Scott Lee, Brian Tee, Kaylee Hottle, Jacob Fatu, Mike Moh
Plot: First Iron Fist Tournament. A global martial arts tournament is nearing its conclusion, with a large bag of cash prizes awarded to the fighter who can defeat Heihachi Mishima (Jason Scott Lee) in the final round of the competition. The competition is sponsored by the giant financial group, Mishima Zaibatsu. There are eight fighters who remain after winning matches around the world, with the tournament winner receiving the title of The King of the Iron Fist. Only one will have a chance to defeat Heihachi and take home the prize money and fame.
Michelle Chang (Kelsey Asbille) is on the ground and can't get up, blood is running from her nose and one eye is swollen. In front of her is her opponent, a beautiful blonde woman, Nina Williams (Katheryn Winnick). The blonde looks at her for a few moments and then smiles, raising a finger to the sky as a sign of victory. Meanwhile, Michelle is on the ground with her fists clenched as a tear falls from her eyes and she whispers "Sorry Dad ..". At this point a flashback occurs. Her father is a Hong Kong man sent to the United States by Heihachi Mishima with the task of finding a treasure in the land of the Native Americans. Instead of a sweetheart, he found romance and stayed in the United States to marry a Native American woman and joined his tribe. Michelle was born soon after and had both Asian and Native American traits. On her sixth birthday, however, her father died for obscure reasons. Shortly before her death, her father gave her a medallion that she has decided to wear since that day and never take it off. Michelle is a lively and curious girl always ready to learn new things. The girl grows up and one day, by chance, she discovers from her mother Roseanne (Tinsel Korey) that her father had not been killed by an indefinite disease, but had been poisoned and died in so much suffering. Michelle struggles to get her mother to reveal who was behind the murder, but in the end she succeeds. Her mother reveals that it was Heihachi Mishima who wanted her father dead. Michelle begins to be overwhelmed by so much anger and a desire for revenge and she begins to train non-stop and develop important skills as a fighter. She learns that Heihachi has organized a martial arts tournament in which various very strong fighters will participate.
Although Roseanne was totally against it, one night the girl managed to escape from her tribe and managed to register for the tournament. Meanwhile, her mother begins to pray along with the other senior members of the tribe that nothing bad happens to her daughter. In the first meeting Michelle was supposed to meet Kunimitsu (Shiori Kutsuna). Kunimitsu is an agile ninja who has red hair which he keeps tied in a ponytail and who always keeps his face hidden behind his white fox mask. Kunimitsu always carries his typical kunai blade in his hand. The meeting does not last long, the ninja in fact, after a start in which he seems to be stronger than Michelle, gets distracted and almost freezes giving a lot of attention to the medallion that Michelle wears around his neck, giving the Native American the opportunity to take control of the game. Eventually Michelle manages to give Kunimitsu seven hits in a row, finishing her with a double flying kick to her opponent, who can no longer get up. Kunimitsu is defeated but signals to Michelle that they will meet again. Her second challenger is Nina Williams, a world-famous assassin known for her cold and indifferent personality towards others. Nina shows up in front of Michelle in her purple dress. Michelle is determined to defeat her opponent, but in this match Nina is much stronger and more experienced and despite Michelle's initial resourcefulness and strong determination, she is defeated. Michelle is on the ground (the scene at the beginning of the film) and after a while she stands up with her eyes swollen with tears for having missed the opportunity to avenge her father and she slowly walks away. As the girl leaves, Kazuya (Brian Tee), Heihachi's son looks at her from afar with an interested expression. Michelle returns to Arizona to her mother, with her tribe. Roseanne is happy and relieved to see that her daughter is fine despite some bruises on her face. Two years after the first tournament, Kazuya organizes a second one. Kazuya in fact is determined to take possession of Michelle's medallion and kidnaps her mother to ensure her participation. His plan worked and Michelle entered the second King of Iron Fist tournament with even greater determination than she had two years earlier. The task of acquiring the medallion was given to Ganryu (Jacob Fatu), a Sumo fighter and Kazuya's bodyguard. Kazuya does not know, however, that Ganryu had been secretly in love since the first tournament, even though he had never even talked to Michelle. The first match draw revealed that Michelle was facing Ganryu. During the meeting the man tries to confess to the girl his love for her, a love that will never be returned, and Michelle will be able to keep her amulet. After revealing her love for her, he told her to hit him and that she would let himself be defeated on purpose. That just happened and the woman advanced to the next meeting. Michelle is preparing for her next fight against a man named Paul Phoenix. But suddenly there was an explosion. Heihachi and Kazuya had a tough fight that culminated in the destruction of the arenas. Michelle is joined by Ganryu, who reveals to the woman her directions as to where her mother is locked up. Michelle, thanks to the indications of Ganryu, managed to find and free her mother Roseanne. Soon after, however, the two women were attacked by Kunimitsu, who also wanted to steal the medallion. Michelle tells her mother to stay behind as she begins to fight the ninja. Kunimitsu proves to be stronger than two years before and manages to take down Michelle. As she prepares to take her medallion, someone blocks her from behind her and hits her. Michelle looks up and sees Ganryu who had stepped in to help her. Ganryu invites Michelle to escape while saying he would take care of Kunimitsu. She then she says she will probably go to Hawaii, where she will open a martial arts school. The woman thanks and runs away with her mother as Ganryu and Kunimitsu begin to fight in the background.
Sometime later Michelle found an abandoned girl in a ruined Native American settlement. Michelle decided to adopt the baby, whom she named Julia (Kaylee Hottle) and raised her as she was hers. Julia grew up with a strong love for her adoptive mother and her tribe and Michelle learned to fight to protect her homeland. Plus Michelle taught Julia everything she knew about martial arts. As Julia reached adulthood (Tanaya Beatty), the stories of martial artists who disappeared around the world began to reach the tribe, bringing concern that tribal legends concerning the "god of struggle" were indeed coming true. Legend has it that this God was called Ogre and that he was a weapon of war that the creatures of space left on earth in ancient times. The old sages of the tribe feared that Michelle's locket was the key to a sacred Native American treasure and she had something to do with the disappearances and told the old legends to Michelle. Against the background of these words you can see pictures in a forest. Kunimitsu is sitting with her legs crossed and it looks like she is meditating. Suddenly the ninja quickly stands up in fighting stance but a moment later a shadow behind her attacks her and makes her vanish. Fearing that the amulet she was holding around her neck may actually have been somehow responsible for the awakening of the gods, a concerned Michelle travels to Japan to see Heihachi for answers as to why she originally sought the locket. When Michelle didn't return after several months, Julia suspected Heihachi was responsible for her mother's disappearance and decided to participate in the recently announced third King of Iron Fist tournament to take on Heihachi and find her mother Michelle. In fact, Ogre had been awakened by mistake following an excavation in the Aztec temple carried out in Mexico by members of the G-Corp. Ogre, upon awakening him, had also killed all the people engaged in those excavations. Heihachi saw an opportunity to check it out, but found he needed Michelle's pendant.
Julia arrived there looking around her seeing various fighters of all kinds and ethnicities eager to find her mother. Julia enters the ring for the first fight facing a Forest Law (Mike Moh). The two begin to fight until the girl is kicked on her cheek.
"While the film didn't do much for me as someone who never played the games, I appreciate the ambitious plan in place for writer Billy Cruder's Tekken series. And that ambition helps the film, even though we know this is just a sliver of what to expect."
You Might Also Like:
Mortal Kombat
Road Rash
The Grind
Death and All His Friends
No comments:
Post a Comment