Yes, this is from a real film. Starring Jackie Chan, "City Hunter" is a prime example of the effect Street Fighter 2 had on society. It's popularity exploded after its release and the characters became embroiled in gaming culture, although maybe not as recognizable as other gaming characters at the time (e.g. Mario and Sonic The Hedgehog).
This inevitably brings us to this...
The simply named film Street Fighter was released a mere 3 years after Street Fighter 2 was released, a strong sign of the impact the game had in such a short space of time. The video game-to-movie adaption is famous for all the wrong reasons however as being universally panned by critics and the public alike. It is voted one of the 10 worst video game movies by Time, and this trend is followed on many other such lists [1]. This did not stop it from being a commercial success though. The film is loosely based on the storyline of Street Fighter 2 and focuses much more on the battle against M. Bison through the eyes of Guile (Jean-Claude Van Damme) and Cammy (Kylie Minogue). "It's rumoured that Capcom funded the movie to the tune of millions of dollars and were badly burned when it was a big flop. Oops." [2].
Both an arcade and home version game of the film were created which, interestingly, resembled Mortal Kombat in many more ways than it did the original games of the franchise. In a similar way to Mortal Kombat, the games used photo-capture, digitized graphics of the actors from the film and included similar gameplay to that of Super Street Fighter 2 Turbo.
In addition to this a Japanese animated film was produced in the same year as the American live-action movie, while a year later both an American animated and anime TV series were produced. Street Fighter 2: The Animated Movie was well received in comparison to the live-action film, and again shows how popular the game had become at the time. This video gives a review and overview of the film while the next video shows the fight scene between Vega and Chun-Li where many of the moves from the game are referenced.
The success of Street Fighter 2: The Animated Movie is said to have started the creation of the Street Fighter Alpha series which followed on from Street Fighter 2. The new series included many elements from the film which are still noticeable today.
Above are the title cards for Street Fighter II V, an TV anime series first aired in Japan, and Street Fighter, the US TV cartoon series.
[1] Top 10 Worst Video Game Movies, retrieved 07/12/09
[2] Simon Carless, Punch - Kick - Punch: A History of One-on-One Beat-Em-Ups, 24/04/98, retrieved 07/12/09
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