Entertainment · Film · 3 hrs ago
Director Says 1994 Street Fighter Was Meant to Be Funny
Steven E. de Souza says his 1994 Street Fighter film was intentionally funny, despite critics at the time calling it accidentally funny.
De Souza wrote and directed the film, the first big-screen adaptation of Capcom’s video game, starring Jean-Claude Van Damme, Raul Julia and Ming-Na Wen.
The film earned nearly $100 million worldwide and later gained a cult following, even though it received harsh reviews.
A new Street Fighter film, starring Noah Centineo, Andrew Koji and Callina Liang, opened at No.
1 at the box office earlier this month.
The new movie includes callbacks that fans recognise from the 1994 film, including M. Bison’s line, “For me, that was a Tuesday.”
De Souza says the older film’s fights were cut back after a school shooting in Ohio in November 1994, and that the production lacked resources to capture more of the game’s fantastical elements.
He is glad the new film embraces the game’s martial arts action, and has not ruled out his unused sequel script being used in some way.
Director Steven E. de Souza says his 1994 film Street Fighter was intentionally funny.
He says early reviews called the film accidentally funny, while later commentary recognized its comedy.
De Souza says the production cut back its fight scenes after a school shooting in Ohio in November 1994.
He also says the film lacked the resources to fully capture the video game’s more fantastic elements.
The film has developed a cult following and collected nearly $100 million globally.
- Who
- Steven E. de Souza, the film’s writer and director.
- What
- He says the 1994 Street Fighter was intentionally funny, responding to debate about its comedy.
- When
- The interview was published on October 30, 2026.
- Where
- Not stated.
- Why
- De Souza says the film included a lot of comedy, despite early reviews describing it as accidentally funny.
Steven E. de Souza
Early reviewers and recent social media commenters
Intent
Steven E. de Souza
De Souza says the 1994 film was intentionally funny.
Early reviewers and recent social media commenters
Early reviewers described it as accidentally funny.
Tone
Steven E. de Souza
De Souza says the film is funny and preposterous.
Early reviewers and recent social media commenters
Some recent commenters say the newer film does not take itself as seriously as the 1994 film.
Street Fighter was released, and de Souza says the production had to cut back its fight scenes after a school shooting in Wickliffe, Ohio.
Street Fighter: The Legend of Chun-Li returned the franchise to cinemas.
On the film’s 30th anniversary, revisionist pieces argued that it was meant to be funny.
The new Street Fighter opened No. 1 at the box office.
- Film
- Street Fighter
- Release year
- 1994
- Director and writer
- Steven E. de Souza
- Global box office
- Nearly $100 million
- School shooting cited
- Wickliffe, Ohio, November 1994
What people are saying
Now, obviously, if you watch the movie, it’s intentionally funny.
At that time, we got mostly brutal reviews, and the main gist of the reviews at that time used to be, ‘This movie is so stupid, it is accidentally funny,'
We had to cut the fights back to almost Saturday morning cartoon level.