Future Cops

Future Cops
Official poster
Traditional	超級學校霸王
Simplified	超级学校霸王
Mandarin	Chāojí Xuéxiào Bàwàng
Cantonese	Ciu1 Kap1 Hok6 Haau4 Baa3 Wong4
Directed by	Wong Jing
Produced by	John Higgins
Written by	Wong Jing
Starring	Andy Lau Jacky Cheung Aaron Kwok Chingmy Yau Dicky Cheung Simon Yam Ekin Cheng Winnie Lau Charlie Yeung Andy Hui Ken Lo Billy Chow
Music by	Marco Wan Lee Hon-kam
Cinematography	Andrew Lau
Edited by	Poon Hung
Distributed by	Golden Harvest
Release dates	15 July 1993 (1993-07-15)
Running time	95 minutes
Country	Hong Kong
Language	Cantonese
Box office	HK$18,294,196

Future Cops (Chinese: 超級學校霸王; literal title: Super-School Tyrant) is a 1993 Hong Kong action-comedy film loosely based on the Street Fighter video game franchise, starring an ensemble cast of Andy Lau, Jacky Cheung, Aaron Kwok, Chingmy Yau, Dicky Cheung and Simon Yam.

It was the second live-action film to feature characters from the Street Fighter series, the first being City Hunter starring Jackie Chan, which was also directed by Wong Jing, but released 6 months earlier. The following year the official Street Fighter motion picture was released, starring Jean-Claude Van Damme.

Plot

In the year 2043, an evil crime lord (The General/M. Bison) is trying to take over the world. He was arrested and was sentenced to jail by the Judge. The General's minions, Kent (Ken), Thai King (Sagat), and Toyota (E. Honda) travel to the year 1993 to kill the Judge before he has a chance to get into office. During a battle with The General's minions, the Future Cops Lung (Ryu), Broomhead (Guile), Ti Man/Iron Face (Vega), and Sing (Dhalsim) hear of their plot. The Police Director decided to send them back to the past also to protect the Judge. Lung ultimately stays behind because he is the Police Director's brother in law.

Once the Future Cops get to 1993, they land in the backyard of 20-something year old high school student Tai-Hung, who helps them stay under cover by letting them live with him and his family. Ti Man pretends to be a fellow student while striking up a romance with Tai-Hung's sister Chun-May (Chun Li); Broomhead pretends to be a music teacher at the school while also striking up a romance with one of the students, Crab Angel; while Sing follows Tai-Hung pretending to be his servant, all the while protecting him from the evil school bullies, while Tai-Hung pursues a romance of his own with his long-time friend, Choi-Nei. Eventually the villains show up, wreak havoc, and many battles ensue.

Kent also goes undercover as a teacher in an effort to find out the identity of Tai-Hung. He subtly ambushes Ti Man with poison that regresses his intelligence to those of a 5-year old, before tricking Choi-Nei into bringing him to a lover's spot. Broomhead tails them, and after a series of fights, decides not to kill Kent. Kent, not wanting to owe him a favour, injects the antidote into Ti Man before leaving.

The General eventually takes over the school as the principal and has the school in a lockdown to force the cops to hand over Tai-Hung.

At Tai-Hung's birthday party, he realizes that the villains are after him and wishes to coward his way out of the situation. This continues even after the cops inject microchips into Tai-Hung, Chun-May, Tai-Hung's father (Blanka) and Tai-Hung's mother (also invoking the power of Chun-Li) to give them super powers.

The cops confront the villains in the school. After crashing his hoverboard into the school building, Tai-Hung manages to awaken his powers as Son Goku (Goku). Meanwhile, the other heroes fight with The General, but are unable to defeat him. Kent, disagreeing with the way The General approaches the matter, becomes a turncoat and joins in the fight. Only when all the heroes join forces are they able to win. In the end, Lung arrives that night to inform the crew of an invasion in Japan by Super Saiyans.

Cast

While the majority of parodied characters are from the Street Fighter franchise, some characters are also based on popular anime in Hong Kong at the time, such as Doraemon and Dragonball.

Reception

The film moves through strange romance, wacky comedic situations, and a couple of bizarre musical numbers (many of the Chinese actors in the film are also accomplished pop singers), until the introduction of the villains halfway through the movie. There are some fight scenes featuring the special attacks and fighting styles of the Street Fighter characters. Though the characters bear an obvious similarity to those of Street Fighter, Fantasy Productions could not get the rights to use their names at the time the film was being made. All in all, the plot of the film has little to do with the actual storyline and characters of the original Street Fighter series.

Game references and differences

• All the characters in the film have the likeness, fighting style, and special attacks of the Street Fighter video game characters they are based on.
• In the final battle of the film, Chun-may and her mother simultaneously (both dressed as Chun-Li) perform Chun-Li's "yatta!" win animation from Street Fighter II.
• Vega, who is normally a villain in the video game series, is the main hero, whereas Ken and E. Honda are villains as opposed to heroes (although Ken switches sides at the very end)
• In the scene where Ti Man and Chun-may are on a date at an arcade, they jump into a game of Super Mario World.
• Through most of the film Ti Man (Vega), and Chun-may (Chun-Li) wear normal school clothes, and Chun-may wears glasses.
• Ken and Guile who normally have blond hair have black hair with blond streaks in the film.
• Dhalsim, who is normally bald, has black hair with red streaks in the film.
• Vega's mask only covers half his face, as opposed to his whole face.
• Sagat in the film is not very tall, has a flattop haircut, and a goatee, but still wears an eyepatch.
• When Tai-hung wakes up to his abilities as Yu Tit-hung, he is dressed up as the character Son Goku from the Dragon Ball franchise.
• Kei-on is seen playing an actual Street Fighter II game in the arcades.
• Tai-hung and Kei-on are likely resembled Nobita & Tsuneo from Doraemon series respectively.
• The animation when the Future Cops arrived from the future resembles the Terminator
• Characters from the game that are missing in the movie (or has no counterparts) are Zangief and Balrog as well as the newcomers from Super Street Fighter II (Cammy, Fei-Long, T. Hawk and Dee Jay). The movie was released in the same year as Super Street Fighter II, meaning Akuma (debuted in Super Turbo) also did not appear in the movie.

External links

• Future Cops at the Internet Movie Database
• Future Cops movie trailer on YouTube