16 years ago, the only females you ever saw in a video game, was the one's that you were sent to rescue. The poor helpless madiens that had been kidnapped by the evil Warlord, Monkey, Aliens, etc. And, it was up to the big brave male hero to save them. But then in 1991, a game came out called Street Fighter II : The World Warrior.

You had master fighters from all over the world come together to fight in a tournament to see who was the greatest in the world. You hade Ryu and E.Honda from Japan, Ken and Guile from the USA, Dhalsim from India, Blanka from brazil, and Zanghief from the former USSR. All men with Atlas-like bodies ready to show their worth. But then, there was an 8th entry into the tournament. From the land of China came a police officer who worked for Interpol, trying to track down M.Bison, a dangerous terrorist and killer of the officer's father. The only way to get close enough to M.Bison was to enter the tournament and win it for a chance to face him in the finals. Who was this cop on a mission of vengence? HER name was Chun-Li.



And for only being a character in a "fighting game", she had quite the detailed history behind her:

Vital Statistics

Affiliation: ICPO Special Detetctive

Fighting style: Wu-Shu

Birthplace: China

Birthdate: March 1, 1968

Height: 5' 8" (173cm)

Weight: ?kg (a lady never tells.)

3 sizes: B88, W58, H90

Blood type: A

Special Skill: Shooting (ranked 6th in an international contest)

Likes: Fruit, American Candy

Dislikes: Crime, Indecisive People, M. Bison



Chun-Li was an Interpol investigator who had been searching for clues to the recent death of her father. Getting into a friendly spar with an old teacher of hers and friend of her father, Gen, he gives her a lead into who may have killed her father-the mysterious crime syndicate Shadowloo. Finding its leader, M. Bison, she demands he tell her what happened to her father. To her surprise, Bison attacks and basically makes quick work of her, then flies away, laughing at her and telling her if she attacks him again he'll kill her-just like he did to her father. Chun-Li, tears in her eyes, swore revenge.



Chun-Li teamed up with an American Air Force member, Charlie, to try to track and take down Shadoloo. She then ran into someone she wouldn't have expected at all-Charlie's good friend and fellow lieutenant, Guile. Telling him he shouldn't get in over his head and to leave the two be, she learns he has orders to bring Charlie back. Attempting to use force to stop him, she instead finds herself defeated and begging him to leave them alone, to which he replies that he'll never abandon friends in need. Eventually, learning that Bison tricked the Air Force into cancelling the planned bombing of the main Shadoloo base, she rushed over to the two soldiers to tell them they were tricked and would have to destroy the base on their own. Chun-Li proceeded to plant bombs about the base as Charlie and Guile headed inside to destroy the Psycho Drive, but Guile then came rushing out, grabbing Chun-Li and telling her Charlie had urged both of them to get away. Along the way Chun-Li saw a young girl escaping with several others (who turned out to be Cammy leading the Dolls away from the base). Despite being distraught over the initial lack of evidence to prove Shadoloo's crimes, Interpol and Chun-Li managed to shut down much of the evil crime empire.



Chun-Li received an invitation to the second World Warrior tournament, and discovered that Bison had apparently survived the Thailand base's destruction. With this, she had the clear motive of destroying Shadoloo and avenging her father once again. The outcome of this tournament is not clear, but there are strong hints that Chun-Li earned the right to face Bison and possibly won the tournament.

Having made her peace, she continued her work as a police officer, and retired from mainstream street fighting to teach young girls martial arts after taking down Shadoloo for good. Urien has kidnapped a young child for his scientific projects and Chun-Li manages to catch up to him. Challenging him, she does her best to fight him and Urien, impressed by his opponent's fighting spirit, agrees to let the child go. Since then, Chun-Li has continued to raise her adopted kids.



Before there was Lara Croft, Jill Valentine, or even wannebe fighter Sonya Blade, there was Chun-Li.



So here's to your 16th annerversary, Chun-Li!



And, a little of Chun Li in action: (From "Street Fighter 2: The Animated Movie")

True, but not in the arcade.

And Playchoice 10 doesn't count as a arcade game.

Hey, I'm just trying to mix it up a bit. If I did nothing but Video Game System writes up, I would be out of material in about 40 articles. So, I decided on trying to branch out and do a write-up on a famous video game character, but I didn't want to do any that have already been over done. (And, who kno which ones, I am talking about.)

No worries, though, as my next VGM is going to be on a couple of Systems most people have never heard of, much less played. So, you should find them interesting.

And, for the record, Chun-Li is a distance second, on my list of Street Fighter characters I want to bone. Cammy wins that contest... God, I wan't to rip her in half....

Petite, athletic build, an accent, and can break a man's neck with her thighs. What's not to love?

ChildrenofSlayer wrote:

Chun Li's weight is listed around 135 pounds in the original SF2, making her too heavy to be a model, but perfect for an adult actress. (Which is her real job, if the ending in The World Warrior was any indication) It's also funny Knyte posted a clip from the SF2 animated film, since I saw that exactly three days ago on Youtube. I remember there was a huge meeting of the minds, a serious debate among the users over whether Chun Li's shower scene (which occured RIGHT before the posted video) was in any manner censored or not. Apparently, lots of people were upset that they only showed her breasts and ass. Chun Li's character also used to be vital to me beating a Street Fighter game, since Sagat once kicked my ass all day long.

The original DVD realase in the united states was censored, and did not include the nudity in the show scene, it also replace the original soundtrack with rock music from bands like KMFDM, Alice In Chains, and Silverchair. Until recently you could only get the full uncut version from Japan and the UK, but last year they released the "Uncut, Uncensored, Unleashed" version here is the US. It still has the Rock music instead of the original score, but it add in all the uncut footage.

Maybe because she's not.... what's the term?....oh yeah, fucking CHINESE!

My pick: Ziyi Zhang


=

I remeber getting caught in the middle of a forum arguement about a year ago over a "Romance Of The Three Kingdoms" historic movie. (This is acually in the works in Hong Kong.) People were saying that they need to cast Hollywood actors into key roles in order to draw a bigger box office. I mean, sure, Brad Pitt could play General Cao Cao, and The Rock would make a kick ass Lu Bu, but that would be shitting on the chinese culture.

It would be the equivilent of casting, say french actor, Gerard Depardu (SP?) in the title role of a movie about George Washington. Americans would fucking boycott it! Or how about Jet Li as Abraham Lincoln? (I personally would be the first person to buy a ticket to that one, but that's just me.) People would throw a fit.

So, it's kinda the same thing here. I mean the crappy original Street Fighter movie, at least made a few decent casting choices. (A chinese actress as Chun Li, An aussie as Cammy (Which is pretty close to a Brit.), and such,

Maybe when the trailer comes out for the new Street Fighter movie, they should start it with a clip from the old movie, but then have it stop, and the screen flashes:

A CHALLENGER APPEARS!