Geese Howard is a wealthy martial artist and crime boss who operates in South Town. He plans a successful ambush to eliminate his martial arts rival Jeff Bogard. Jeffs two sons named Terry and Andy witness the murder along with their master Tung Fu Rue. On Tungs request, the two brothers leave South Town to learn and master their own style of martial arts, because they are no match for Geese due to their ages.
Ten years later, the brothers return to South Town, and they reunite with Tung as promised. He informs them that he will teach only one of them a secret technique that can defeat Geese. The two brothers plan to battle each other in the King of Fighters Tournament which is sponsored by Geese, with the purpose of learning the move to avenge their father.-summary
Fatal Fury: Legend of the Hungy Wolf is based on the popular SNK video game Fatal Fury, which made its debut in November of 1991. The game featured three fighters as the main characters; the unorthodox martial artist Terry Bogard, his brother Andy Bogard who uses Koppo-ken, and Muy Thai expert Joe Higashi. All three fighters with some of their opponents appear in the movie. The most notable opponents are the formidable martial artist Geese Howard, a staff fighter named Billy Kane, and the wrestler Raiden.
Fatal Fury caters too much to fans of the video game. Non fans will know what's going on story wise, but may find it difficult to care for this particular movie, and if non fans are searching for martial arts action similar to Street Fighter: The Animated Movie, or good martial arts action in general. They will definitely come away hating this movie. Fatal Fury is billed as a martial arts anime, but you really don't get much, if any of it.
The weakness in the animation shows in many areas, with the action being the most notable. The fights are very poorly choreographed with some bad exchanges, to include, they are incredibly short consisting of one to two hit victories, with only the use of their trademark special moves, and some of these techniques come off looking incredibly silly. Terry Bogards "Rising Tackle" immediately comes to mind. Also, the final battle ends up being a very big disappointment. Especially, when considering how tough Geese is in the game.
Although the action scenes are short, they can be kind of bloody. But if you seen enough bloody and brutal anime, then you won't really be impressed by this at all. The artwork is fairly done, with the characters resembling their video game counterparts. However, only Andy appears to be somewhat out of character with his hair being blue instead of blonde. The voice acting wasn't really an issue for me, and I feel it was well acted during numerous key moments. The soundtrack is something I really did enjoy, which is made up of J-Pop that adds some type of life to the fight scenes, while also making the thin as needles plot easier to get through. This is a good example of a well used soundtrack.
Fatal Fury is also very cheesy too. The romance angle is every bit as unrealistic as it was unnecessary. Terry's love interest Lily was mainly used as a plot device for Terry to have more of a reason to hate Geese, as if, brutally killing his father right in front of his eyes wasn't reason enough. But I will admit that the characters are mildly developed.
I also give some credit to the writing team. Unlike many video games that make it to film. Fatal Fury seems to be done by those who have a bit of knowledge of the game. At the very least, there was an attempt to give the fans something.
I have to also be even more honest here. Even though Fatal Fury is mainly meant for fans of the video game. As a big fan myself, I never really enjoyed the movies. But after recently taking another look at them. The first two aren't as terrible as I remembered with the second being the best, while the third is awful on almost every level.
The production team used what they had to work with. The effort was there, but the end result is what counts, and I've always been disappointed with this one. Then again, video game to movies have a notorious reputation for being disappointing anyway. I recommend Fatal Fury only to fans of the game, and the very easy to please. The movie has a 50 minute run time.
Pros:
-Pretty faithful to video game
-A couple of decent moments
-Good soundtrack
Cons:
-Bad animation
-Too short
-Fights are very unimpressive
-May not appeal to non fans
