Inspirations for Virtua Fighter Characters

Hi, i am thinking about the roots of some Virtua Fighter characters.
Akira:
Some of you may know that inspiration for Akira comes from a manga titled "Kenji" , it is about a Japanese boy who learns Baji Quan (Hakkyoku Ken) from his grandfather just like Akira, later he is introduced to different kind of Chinese Martial arts like Bagua Zhang, Chen Tai Chi Chuan, Mantis Fist etc...




Lau:
If you watch the Jackie Chan movie "Snake under Eagles Shadow" you will see this antagonist guy who looks like Lau. Sheng Kuan (played by Hwang Jang Lee) who uses Eagle Fist and determined to kill every practitioner of Snake Fist, story has similarity the plot between Lei Fei and Lau with reversed roles.


Lei Fei:
Without doubt Jet Li in his early Shaolin Temple movies.


Shun Di:
From another Jackie Chan movie, beggar Soo from "Drunken Master"


So, any suggestions for other characters?

 

Dude good read. I've seen some of the early Jet Li movies where he plays monks and shiz and have seen drunken master. Now I want to see Snake under Eagles Shadow.

Is there anything to confirm this though? Has Sega ever mentioned that this is where the inspiration came from?

 

In the Sister Street Fighter series of movies, Etsuko "Sue" Shihomi has always reminded me of Pai in the way she looked, talked, fought, etc. I'm not sure if the folks at Sega used Shihomi as inspiration for creating Pai though. But I do see some parallels here. Anyway... just want to throw that out there.





And that Lau reference is golden. Can't be a better comparison than that one. That movie is still good.

Kruza

 

Rey Mysterio may have been an inspiration for El Blaze.

 

Small nitpick: the name is snake in the eagle's shadow, and yes, the Lau likeness is uncanny. I remember seeing that movie on VHS when I was a kid. I remember that time, when all things Asian (games,movies,manga,anime) were hot. Good old times.

 

I have a feeling that Gordon Liu was an inspiration for Lei Fei:





Also, in the movie Shaolin Challenges Ninja (a.k.a. Heroes Of The East) Gordon Liu's character (he is a Kung Fu student) is married to a japanese woman who looks very much like Aoi. I haven't see this movie for years but I remember a Lau character, a Shun Di character and a Kagemaru character.

 

Nice work there! I knew Lau was from one of those old Kung Fu movies, but I never knew exactly which one. Thanks for all the videos too.

Here's a bit on El Blaze. The character is based off Rey Mysterio, but the mask design itself seems to be partly inspired by the feather designs worn by Japanese wrestlers Garuda and Tsubasa.

http://fmwwrestling.us/Garuda.html



Jacky's hair is based of the hairstyle of Goku from Dragonball. The Japanese used to make jokes about it all the time.

 

Yes, Gordon Liu facially resembles Lei Fei more than Jet Li. I have also seen the Shaolin vs Ninja movie, pretty interesting movie that all the Japanese characters are played by Japanese actors and the Chinese are played by Chinese actors.

For other characters, about Lion, well he is a rich French aristocrat brat who fights in the front of a castle. He is another Japanese video game stereotype. I think Japanese have some thing with rich western aristocrat types and castles.

 

Haha, I can't believe that reference slipped my mind. Lei-Fei is Gordon Liu. Good call on that one, Shinobi.

I think Cynthia Rothrock was the inspiration for Sarah. It's been widely known that Rothrock was the inspiration for Sonja Blade in the Mortal Kombat series. However, her skills, movement and fighting styles were imitated best as Sarah in the Virtua Fighter series. Rothrock changed her hair color and hairstyle often throughout her career, but she was a natural blonde and resembled Sarah the closest in Blond Fury aka Above The Law 2:



But if you want to see Rothrock in one of her best fight scenes take a peek at this video clip of the classic fight scene with her and Michelle Yeoh teaming up in Yes, Madam aka Police Assassins:



Also check for any fight scenes involving Rothrock in the original Above The Law aka Righting Wrongs with Yuen Biao. There are several really good fight scenes in that movie too.

Kruza

 

There's no doubt in my mind that Michael Woods was the inspiration for Jeffry. The only real difference between the characters is that Woods had his hair slicked back while Jeffry wears dreads. Check out the two memorable fight scenes Woods had with Donnie Yen in Tiger Cage 2 and In The Line Of Duty 4.





Kruza

 

I say Lau baby! He even got they sekret tekniques!

 

Heh, yeah Lau got homie's style down pat. Lau has even copied that guy's display of supreme arrogance in a few of his win poses.

Can't beat those sound effects coming from a Shaw Brothers flick. The action is still good to watch. Plus there are so many timeless quotes in these movies. Whether intentional or unintentional, they're funny as hell largely because of the horrific English dubbing.

Kruza

 

I used to watch that movie as a kid. I always figured that Lau was a pure copy of Seng Kuan even back then.

 

Yes è¢å°ç”° Simon Yuen Siu-Tin(father of Yuen Clan: è¢å’Œå¹³ Yuen Woo Ping è¢ç¥¥ä» Yuen Cheung Yan è¢ä¿¡ç¾© Yuen Shun Yi è¢æ—¥åˆ Yuen Yat Choh & è¢æŒ¯æ´‹ Brandy Yuen Chun Yeung as So Hak Yi(staple of 黃飛鴻 Wong Fei Hung films)is very much Shun Di.

Well in the 中è¯ä¸ˆå¤« HEROES OF THE EAST trailer you can see 倉田 ä¿æ˜­ Kurata Yasuaki @ 0:45 as the Ninja 劉家良 Liu Chia-Liang(Lau Kar-Leung) @2:32 as the drunken begger
[video]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jDnOrShHSWM[/video]
The Ninja scenes in HEROES OF THE EAST Inspired the whole film é¾ä¹‹å¿è€… NINJA IN THE DRAGON'S DEN
真田 広之 Sanada Hiroyuki as Jen Moo a blue ninja @3:01
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ker8Lb5qkcs
www.youtube.com/watch?v=ootPo91Xjko

That what I think in fact first time I played VF I watched å°‘æž—å…六房 36th CHAMBER OF SHAOLIN around the same time so I picked to play as Lei Fei. Speaking of Gorndon I hope he recovers from his stroke.

"that guy" 陳山 Chen Shan
少林鬥喇嘛 SHAOLIN VS LAMA is no Shaw's it's a å¤©å¹³å½±æ¥­å…¬å¸ Tin Ping Film Co.
I agree can't beat those sound effects coming from 'Basher' aka 'Punch & Block' & 'shapes.' Action is still good especially the camera work not like the shaky cam of today plus the fact you be hardly see any 'shapes' today even if you do. The dubs grow on you I found it funny that Ted Thomas sounds the same on a dub as he does in real life though good to watch original language.

Jacky makes me think of 'Bruceploitati(CLONES OF BRUCE LEE)ä½•å®—é“ Bruce Li(James Ho Chung-Tao) å‘‚å°é¾ Bruce Le(Wong Kum-Hung) & all the other Bruce Lee Clones.

 

Lau Chan is your typical Manchuria of Kung Fu films set in the Ching Dynasty.

 

Heh, I stand corrected. I mistakenly categorized this Tin Ping Film product as one of the many flicks produced by the Shaw Brothers.

Anyway, that Shaolin vs. Lama video clip made me go and pull out GZA's Liquid Swords CD from my archives. "Shadowboxing" still sounds excellent along a number of other tracks.

Kruza

 

The inspiration for Wolf comes from none other than former WWE superstar wrestler Tatanka. Tatanka reached the height of his wrestling career during the early 1990s, which coincides with the timeline of the creation of the Virtua Fighter series.



http://www.nativetatanka.com/index.html

Kruza

 

El Blaze was definitely inspired by the guy on the right...

 

Or Plague already knew that and is poking fun.

 

I think Plague definitely knew the guy was a cos player tbh.