Tekken (2009 film)

Tekken[a] is a 2009 American science fiction martial arts film directed by Dwight Little from a screenplay by Alan B. McElroy, loosely based on the video game series of the same name published by Namco Bandai Games. The film stars Jon Foo, Kelly Overton, Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa, Ian Anthony Dale, Cung Le, Darrin Dewitt Henson, Candice Hillebrand, and Luke Goss. The plot follows Jin Kazama in his attempts to enter the Iron Fist Tournament in order to avenge the loss of his mother, Jun Kazama, by confronting the forces of the city that are also holding the competition. The film was originally announced by publisher Namco Bandai in 2002, but did not start development until 2007. Experienced in sports movies, Little decided to make Tekken focused on realism, resulting in the removal of supernatural elements from the video game series as well as comic relief characters. This also led to the inclusion of martial artists as the main cast to produce well-choreographed battles. Tekken premiered at the American Film Market on November 5, 2009, and was released direct-to-video in the United States on July 19, 2011, by Anchor Bay Entertainment. The film bombed at the box office with a gross of $1.6 million worldwide.[3] Critical reception was unfavorable, with the film generally praised for its fighting scenes, but criticized for its unfaithful narrative and poor acting within the main cast. The criticism also came from the video game series' executive director Katsuhiro Harada. Nevertheless, Tekken spawned the 2014 prequel Tekken 2: Kazuya's Revenge.