Film / Tekken (2010)

aka: Tekken

Survival Is No Game

A 2010 live-action film ''loosely'' based on the popular fighting game series by Bandai Namco Entertainment.

The year is 2039. World wars have destroyed everything and territories are run by corporations, the mightiest — and cruelest — of which is Tekken. Jin Kazama witnesses the death of his mother Jun by Tekken's private army in the slums known as Anvil. Vowing vengeance, and armed only with his street smarts and raw fighting skills, he enters a dangerous and potentially deadly combat tournament, where he must defeat the world's most elite fighters to become the "King of the Iron Fist."

Stars Jon Foo as Jin, Kelly Overton as Christie Monteiro, Luke Goss as Steve Fox and Ian Anthony Dale as Kazuya Mishima.

Gained a direct-to-video sequel in 2014 called Tekken: Kazuya's Revenge.

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This film provides example of:

• Absurdly Youthful Mother: Rare male example. Kazuya gets revealed as Jin's father, and his actor is only five years older than his on-screen son! By contrast, Jun looks age appropriate.
• Accidental Pervert: In Christie's first scene, Jin is staring at her... because he's admiring the positioning of her toes. Later subverted when Jin actually does enjoy the view while standing behind her.
  Christie: Looking at my ass is a good way to get yours kicked.
• Action Girl: Christie, Nina and Anna, though only Christie really gets to show it off. In addition to winning her tournament fight she takes out a whole load of Kazuya's mooks.
• Adaptational Heroism:
  • Heihachi is turned from the arrogant villain he is in the games to an infinitely more honorable Old Master. Ultimately subverted in the after-credits scene, which implies the whole movie was Heihachi playing everything to his favor. Even in that scene, though, he still demonstrates a serenity Heihachi doesn't have.
  • In the sequel, Kazuya is portrayed as being much nicer than he is in either the games or the first film.
• Adaptational Jerkass: Marshall Law is an Arrogant Kung-Fu Guy instead of a humorous, good-natured Bruce Lee Clone.
• Adaptational Nationality:
  • Christie is Brazilian in the games, but seems to be American here. Granted her game self speaks with an American accent anyway.
  • Bryan Fury goes from being American to English, played by Londoner Gary Daniels.
• Adaptational Villainy:
  • Yoshimitsu is now a mere crony for Kazuya. See In Name Only for details.
  • The film's version of Kazuya is devoid of his sympathetic backstory and is strongly implied to have raped Jun (which used to be a fan theory for the games, but was ultimately unproven and is considered very unlikely nowadays). He also works for Heihachi, who is his Arch-Enemy in the games (not that he isn't at least The Starscream).
  • Miguel Rojo is changed from an honorable character with a legitimate desire of revenge to a thug with a Messiah complex.
• Adaptational Wimp:
  • Paul Phoenix is mentioned in the film as a guy who lost to Marshall Law in less of a minute. In the games, Paul is effectively one of the strongest characters of the saga, and if he were to lose to Law, it would be certainly not that quick.
  • Nina Williams needs to work with her sister as an assassin, completely fails to take out one young guy being ambushed, and loses to Christie in less than two minutes. While touted as a master assassin, she doesn't display too much of her game persona's badassery.
• Adaptation Name Change: The Mishima Zaibatsu is renamed Tekken and the fighting tournament they sponsor is called the Tekken tournament rather than King of Iron Fist^note Tekken means "iron fist" in Japanese so technically the name remains the same. Ironically, their private army from the games is called the Jackhammers instead of the Tekken Force.
• Adaptation Origin Connection: In the movie, Jin's signature gloves are a gift from Fox, who claims to have used them in his own fighting career. In the videogames, Jin's gloves have no particular origin (although they bear the same pattern as Kazuya's gloves, red with a triangle of steel studs on the top of the hand, which they retain in this movie), and Fox has certainly never used them (he used generic boxing gloves instead).
• Adaptation Relationship Overhaul:
  • The movie's version of Steve Fox knew Jun Kazama and apparently shared at least a tournament with her. However, those two characters have never shared a single installment of the videogame series (except by the non-canon Tag Tournament 2), and their deep difference of age make it unlikely that they ever knew each other.
  • Steve Fox is Nina Williams's son in the games, but they are unrelated in the film, where she is actually younger than him.
  • While the film doesn't openly state Christie and Eddy don't know each other, it doesn't state they are friends and apprentices of the same master as in the games either, and they never interact onscreen. However, as their fighting styles are (at least officially) given as different martial arts in the film, it's implied they have absolutely no relation there.
  • In the movie, Jin and Christie start a relationship. This never happens in the games and it's pretty improbable that it will happen anytime soon due to their respective personalities and allegiances. In this aspect, Christie seems to have been conflated with Xiaoyu, the one who has a crush on Jin in the games.^note Indeed, she was supposed to fill this role, but the actress dropped out.
  • The alignment of Nina and Anna Williams varies from game to game, but it's safe to say they are never on the same side. The movie opts to present them together as a team that works for the bad guys.
• Adapted Out: With the series having accrued a huge cast over the years (this movie came out after Tekken 6), many of them were bound to be left out, but characters like Paul and King, who had been in every game^note even though the latter is a Legacy Character are glaring omissions.
• Age Lift:
  • In this film, Steve Fox is well into his fourties, apparently around the same age as Jun. In the games, he is actually around her son Jin' age, and even his own mother (Nina Williams, by the way) might be younger than Jun as well.
  • This version of Nina Williams seems to be in her twenties. In the games, she is old enough to have a young adult son, which is Steve Fox of all people. Though she still looks like she's in her twenties in the games thanks to having spent several decades as a Human Popsicle. And while she is in her twenties in the first two games, not by the time Jin enters the picture in the third game.
• Artistic License – Martial Arts:
  • Christie's fighting style is officially changed from Capoeira to Mixed Martial Arts. She still strikes out a lot of kicks, some cartwheels and a meia lua de compasso in blink-or-miss moments, but it is clearly not considered capoeira onscreen, as she receives no relation to Eddy Gordo and the vague similarity of the two's styles onscreen is never commented.
  • Miguel Rojo's style is changed from street fighting to zipota, a supposedly Spanish martial art (it counts as a double artistic license, as in real life zipota's authenticity is heavily debated, and it is actually believed by Spanish experts to be a foreign fabrication).
• Beard of Evil: Kazuya has just about the most obviously evil beard and mustache combo imaginable.
• Black Market Produce: Jin buys an orange for his mother.
• But Not Too Foreign: Anna and Nina speak with American accents, despite apparently being Irish (though their nationality is not said in the movie). Admittedly this is the case in the games too.
• But Not Too White: Irish Nina and Anna are played by a South African and Spanish actress respectively who are appropriately tanned.
• Canon Foreigner: Jin's girlfriend Kara in the first film, as well as everyone except Kazuya, Heihachi and Bryan Fury in the second.
• The Casanova: Prior to his mother's death, Jin is shown to have a girlfriend, Kara... who he promptly forgets about once he gets into Iron Fist and meets Christie, who throws herself at him within days. Especially glaring because the film strangely keeps cutting back to Kara during Jin's fights in the tournament.
• Composite Character: Kazuya in this film is a composite of him and his adopted brother Lee from the games. Christie takes Ling Xiaoyu's role as Jin's love interest.
• Crapsack World: And it makes the one in Tekken 6 look like a vacation spot.
• Create Your Own Hero: As Bad Movie Beatdown 's Film Brain put it:
  "Maybe if [Kazuya] didn't blow Jin's mom right the fuck up, none of this would have happened and Jin would have died in the slums not knowing a single thing about his heritage. So yeah, it's kind of all his fault really."
• Dance Battler: Eddy Gordo, played by real life capoeira prodigy Lateef Crowder. Christie shows some moves as well, though not as much as in the games.
• Death by Adaptation: Dragunov, Steve Fox and Bryan Fury.
• Demoted to Extra: Anyone who isn't Christie, Steve, or part of the Mishima bloodline.
• Designated Girl Fight: The tournament has three female participants, so the only time they're selected for a fight, it's against each other. In this case, Christie vs Nina. Although, Nina and Anna do try to take Jin out on Kazuya's orders, and Christie does fight several mooks.
• Disappeared Dad: Jin was raised under the impression that his father was dead. Considering that Kazuya Mishima is his father, one can't really blame Jun for telling Jin this. Especially after it's revealed that Jun became pregnant after Kazuya raped her.
• The Dragon: Bryan seems to be this, though is reasons are Dragon with an Agenda, since Kazuya blackmailed him with knowledge of his cybernetics, and that they're illegal in tournaments.
• Dual Wielding: Kazuya starts his climactic fight with Jin two axes in hand.
• Faux Action Girl: Nina is declared a master assassin, but completely fails at taking Jin out, even though she's got Anna to help her, and they ambush him in a dark room. The next day, she's easily beaten in the tournament by Christie.
• Good Scars, Evil Scars: Kazuya has one of the later on his cheek, but is notably missing the enormous one on his chest. Jin gives one on his chest to him near the end of the movie.
• In Name Only:
  • This Kazuya was never thrown off a cliff by his father when he was a child, and looks nothing like the character in the games - it's so bad that if you watched the trailer without knowledge that he was Kazuya, you'd be questioning who the hell Ian Anthony Dale was meant to be.
  • Steve Fox, instead of being a similar age to Jin, is old enough to have fought in Iron Fist at the same time as Jun and to be a mentor to Jin. He also has a shaven head, which, amusingly enough, he cannot be customized to have in the games.
  • Christie Monteiro is no longer a Brazilian capoeira fighter, having undergone a Race Lift and now fighting as a MMA fighter instead. Justified slightly for Cast Speciation due to Eddy Gordo also being in the film and faithful to the original character, although the film removes Eddy and Christie's relationship from the games.
  • Marshall Law is no longer a Bruce Lee Clone in fighting style or appearance, and is also portrayed as an incredibly cruel and brutal fighter.
  • Miguel Rojo is stated to fall under Small Name, Big Ego, and like Marshall Law, looks and fights nothing like the character from the games. Possibly justified by the character being introduced in Tekken 6, which wasn't released on consoles until after the film was shot.
  • The Tekken Force soldiers have been renamed "Jackhammers" or "Jacks" for short.
  • Yoshimitsu, the cyborg samurai who steals from the rich to give to the poor... is just a regular guy in an elaborate suit of armor. For starters, he seemed eager to kill Jin during their fight, and before he did so while Jin's on the ground, Kazuya looked at him after he overthrew Heihachi, and Yoshimitsu nodded, implying that Kazuya bribed him to kill Jin, like he attempted to do so with Bryan.
  • In the games, Raven is an enigmatic spy with a detached, business-like attitude. The Raven in this movie is portrayed as a martial artist by trade only and is much more approachable than his game counterpart, best displayed when he gives Jin sage-like advice about not letting anger corrupt you.
  • The second film is even more in-name-only. The first one at least features a fighting tournament and characters from the games, while the sequel doesn't even have that much.
• Interface Spoiler: The second film's title, Kazuya's Revenge, spoils the twist. For most of the film, the protagonist is suffering from amnesia and is given the name K. He doesn't discover that his true identity is Kazuya Mishima until the climax.
• Karma Houdini: Jin suffers no repercussions for cheating on his girlfriend with Christie.
• Katanas Are Just Better: Invoked with the Jin/Yoshimitsu fight, as rather than take Yoshimitsu's sword so that he has to fight with his fists like everyone else, the tournament officials hand Jin a katana of his own.
• Magical Security Cam: During Jin's fight with Marshall Law, the TV shows shots from inside the cage - when there's no camera or camera man inside it.
• Male Gaze: There are plenty of shots of Christie's low-cut pants. Justified because Jin is checking her out.
• Mr. Fanservice: Every male fighter (except Yoshimitsu obviously) gets a Shirtless Scene. Raven doesn't fight shirtless but he does go without it in a workout scene.
• Mythology Gag: Armed and dangerous with it. Let's see:
  • Paul Phoenix is mentioned to have been knocked out by Marshall Law in less than 30 seconds. Which would've been pretty improbable in the games's story, by the way.
  • One of the statues seen in the arena is the same statue from the Hell's Gate/Heaven's Gate stage/s from Tekken 5/Dark Ressurection.
  • Although it was averted as seen in The Stinger, the Jackhammer ordered to kill Heihachi to self-detonation is a reference to how Heihachi presumably died at the beginning of 5, and Kazuya, who in the games fed Heihachi to the Jack-4s, ironically says Raven's "Heihachi Mishima is dead."
  • Final Boss: Kazuya Mishima.
    • Early-Bird Boss: Bryan Fury.
• Neutral No Longer: Raven wasn't necessarily a bad guy for most of the movie so much as he was just out for himself. On Kazuya making the tournament fights to the death, he helps the protagonists escape and later offers Jin a pep talk.
• Nice Job Fixing It, Villain: Kazuya seeks to kill Jin because the boy is the only real threat to his power. This is despite the fact that Jin would have never entered the tournament or gone after the Mishima family in the first place had Kazuya not killed his mother.
• No Name Given: Jin only uses his first name when he registers for Iron Fist. As it turns out, he had a damn good reason to keep his last name a secret, just not the one he thought he had.
• No Romantic Resolution: Jin walks away from Tekken at the end, implying that his dalliance with Christie will amount to nothing, and reconciling with his Anvil girlfriend Kara.
• No-Sell: Bryan Fury pulls this off thanks to his cybernetic enchantments.
• Offscreen Moment of Awesome: A news report mentions that Marshall Law qualified for the Iron Fist Open Call by beating Paul Phoenix. In 28 seconds.
• One Nation Under Copyright: The world is divided into eight massive conglomerates.
• Le Parkour: The first time Jin is seen, he's running across rooftops smuggling equipment to a resistance group. Fittingly, the film is choreographed by Cyril Raffaelli, a known traceur.
• Plot Hole: Weirdly enough, the tournament has ten participants, which would not work because ten is not a power of two - after the first round there would be five left, making semi-finals quite tricky. Additionally, Anna Williams is listed as a participant and yet never fights a match, and Yoshimitsu advances to the semi-finals automatically. It is possible that the Williams sisters only count as one participant (i.e. if Nina fights then Anna doesn't) since they're introduced together by Kazuya when he's running through them, and it's equally possible that Bryan Fury, as the champion, automatically is in the final match. However, it's not elaborated, making the tournament seem a bit all over the place.
• Promoted to Love Interest: Christie becomes Jin's Love Interest, even though they've barely interacted in the games.
• Punctuated! For! Emphasis!: "I am Mishima Heihachi. I. AM. TEKKEN."
• Race Lift:
  • Christie is played by white actress Kelly Overton. There are debates about the Christie from the games being black, Hispanic, Italian and even Asian, but she is clearly not white, at least fully.
  • Anna is also played by a Spanish actress, though she only has one line and she probably could pass for a Irish girl with a tan.
• Retired Badass: Jun Kazama. She's not completely retired since she teaches Jin martial arts.
• Revenge of the Sequel: Kazuya's Revenge. Bizarrely enough, it's actually a prequel.
• Self-Made Orphan: Kazuya pulls this on Heihachi. It just doesn't actually work since the Jackhammers are still loyal to Heihachi. Averted with Jin, who refuses to sink to Kazuya's level and kill him.
• Sexual Karma: Despite his... questionable fidelity, Jin and his partners generally have pretty good, mutually enjoyable sex, while Kazuya is revealed to be a rapist and spends his entire threesome sex scene with the Williams sisters scowling and complaining about his father.
• Small Name, Big Ego: Miguel Rojo, whose noted as being incredibly arrogant. It counts as a meta example too, as he had not yet been introduced in the games.
• The Starscream: Kazuya, naturally. Heihachi also informs Jin that this is the reason Kazuya tried to have him killed too, since before the tournament, Heihachi only had the one heir but Jin's emergence meant that there was a second.
• Stern Teacher: Jun to her son. As a young boy she'd put him in chokeholds he couldn't break free of, trying to impress upon Jin not to quit, ever.
• The Stinger: A wounded Kazuya walks past the holding cells at the arena, before the scene cuts back to Heihachi's final words, only for the scene to continue and reveal that Heihachi ordered his executioner to stand down, and that the Jack obeyed him.
• Threeway Sex: Kazuya has some with the Williams sisters, though he's so angry about his father that he's clearly not enjoying it, despite their best efforts.
• Toros y Flamenco: The producers thought Miguel Caballero Rojo's street fighting style wasn't Spanish enough, so they changed it for a supposedly Basque martial art named Zipota. Notably, in real life Zipota is basically unknown in Spain and is widely considered to be a fraud made up by its Texan promoter.
• Trashcan Bonfire: During one of Jin Kazama's fights there's a shot of a group of people outside watching the battle on TV, with a fire burning in a trashcan nearby.
• Use Their Own Weapon Against Them: In the film's climax, Kazuya fights Jin with two axes and comes very close to killing him. Thanks to a distraction provided by Christie shooting the guards, Jin is able to snatch one of the axes from Kazuya and slashes him across the abdomen.
• "Well Done, Son" Guy: Kazuya really wants Heihachi to pass control of Tekken onto him, to the point that when he finds out that Heihachi has another heir in Jin, he sets out to kill Jin & take control of the company by force.
• Workout Fanservice: There's a workout scene with many of the Iron Fist competitors are working out (mostly by lifting weights) in revealing and skin-tight clothes, while their bodies are covered in sweat. There are also plenty of Male Gaze and Female Gaze shots where the camera focuses on the bare chest of the guys and the breasts of the girls.
• Would Hit a Girl: Kazuya hits Christie a couple of times and is also revealed to have attacked Jun.
• You Killed My Father: Jin witnessed his mother's death at the hands of Tekken's Jackhammers, and justifiably blames Heihachi for her death, even saying this verbatim to him. Subverted, as Heihachi argues that he saved her life after Kazuya raped her, as Kazuya would've killed her later if he had found out she was pregnant with Jin.

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