The main cast of Tekken
I will always hold Tekken as my favourite video game ever. Apart from the Batman: Arkham games, it’s the only game series that has genuinely made an impact. I’m nearly 21 now and I still love it. From the age of 7, Tekken became the game that got me interested in fighting and martial arts styles. In 2010, the Tekken film was green lit and released. To 70% poor reviews and a 4.8 rating on IMDB, it’s fair to say that this film flopped.
A fair amount of the issues involved in this adaptation are plot based and mostly, character based. Many people were disgruntled at the casting and rightly so. While I would keep the actors that play Jin Kazama and Eddy Gordo, there are a lot of characters that need a major cast mix up.
My favourite character from the Tekken series is Nina Williams. As a 7-year-old girl playing Tekken Tag Tournament, I always chose Nina as my main fighter and loved how strong she was, no matter how big the other characters were, she would always defeat them. Granted, this is a video game and the characters are completely virtual, but this character became an inspiration to my baby faced self.
Therefore, I actually can’t find a current actress that is perfect for her as she has a very specific face and body type. With blonde hair and thin cheekbones, the actress must be very ‘Nina’ and not just a typical blonde bombshell. Additionally, the actress must be able to exercise Nina’s various Hapkido moves so that we get the full effect of an opponent being kicked off the floor and into the air.
Nina originates from Ireland, so maybe an Irish accent on her would be more authentic? Saoirse Ronan could fill this role as she’s Irish and has already proved she has sufficient martial arts skills in 2011’s ‘Hanna’. Costume wise, her famous purple suit needs to be practical and not hyper sexualised like many other females in video games. Notice there hasn’t been a popularised Dead or Alive adaptation for that very reason? There’s a time and a place for women fighting in bikinis and it isn’t in mainstream cinema.
Nina’s horrifying plastic costume in Tekken (2010)
Also, her outfit in the 2010 film covered her legs and arms in a horrific purple, plastic outfit that wouldn’t go amiss in a 2am nightclub on Canal Street, but not the parts that really need to be covered. Nina has to show off her skills whilst also maintaining her sexuality for which she is famous. Instead of the increasingly sexualised outfit and figure in her own spin off in ‘Death by Degrees’, there should be more conservative and practical take like Tekken Revolution. It would be a lot more believable than high heels, tight jeans and a boob tube.
Her sister, Anna Williams is not as hard to imagine as a real life person but the actress would need an ‘annoying personality’, I’ll leave that term for you to make your mind up about. The Tekken movie dishonoured Nina by pushing her to the side and putting Christie Monteiro as the main female, despite Nina having cult game status. Christie, despite fighting in a Capoeira style, only uses one capoeira move in her arena fight with Nina. These fights should be constructed to a great score as well, the film should bring back the cool tunes of the PS2 Tekken Tag character select or Tekken Revolution’s ‘Fireworks over Barcelona’. Either way, Tekken wouldn’t be the same without its trademark piano ‘Namco’ opening.
One of Nina’s trademark outfits that is more ‘military’ than the films ‘beach get-up’
Tackling the main problem, a new cast could play other characters as well. Shin Koyamada from Wendu Wu: Homecoming Warrior could play Lei Wulong since fan favourite Jackie Chan could be ‘too old’ to play this role. Jolieba Jackson, an actual capoeira fighter could play Christie Monteiro, except personally I wouldn’t like to see her as central as she was in the 2010 film. Dave Bautista and Dwayne Johnson could be good choices for Armor King and King. Other actors that could play characters but ones that can’t be directly signed: Michelle Rodriguez, Gina Carano, Maggie Q (as either Julia or Michelle Chang), Karate fighter Laura Vandervoot, Byung Hun Lee and Ronda Rousey.
Other reboots we are due include another Lara Croft adaptation, only with another actress that has reasonably sized breasts and a normal waist. Please, this isn’t the 90’s. Another one is Power Rangers, technically this is being developed by Lionsgate ready for a 2017 release but that doesn’t mean I’m not going to be extremely sceptical. It’s one thing to flop on a film it’s another to ruin the populaces childhood. I’d love Anna Kendrick as Kimberly and for each ranger to have a colour coded Lamborghini but… just a suggestion.
Anyway, what are your thoughts, any actors that you wish could play these athletic array of Namco designed characters?
I was just playing Teken 2 on the ps1
We should do the realism dark take and re-image the Tekken 1 and Tekken 2 storyline together in the modern day and have the characters origin story, Devil Gene, also the experimental elements like the laboratory scene where Kazuya and Dr Boskonvich chatting, some things like that.