WHILE the West turned to D & C or Marvel Comics for film inspiration, Hong Kong film-makers have - since the early 90s - preferred to look to the Land Of the Rising Sun for their comic book heroes, possibly because they made for more realistic casting.
Street Fighter was one of the bigger-budget comic book adaptations, based on the cult comic and video game that swept Japan in the late 80s. With a stellar line-up that included three Canto-pop kings (Andy Lau Tak-wah, Jacky Cheung Hok-yau and Aaron Kwok Fu-shing), the film did not come cheap.
Even kung fu superstar Jackie Chan was not able to resist the temptation of being the lusty, woman-crazy City Hunter, which also starred Joey Wang and Chingmy Yau Suk-ching, while Stephen Chiau Sing-chi was persuaded to play the King Of Destroy.
But film adaptations of such comic book heroes never quite took off, unlike their Western counterparts such as Batman and Superman. Unsatisfactory box-office returns had been a great discouraging factor.
In hindsight, director Andy Chin Wing-keung said their failure could be attributed to a lack of understanding of the local taste.
'While it was true that those comic books were very popular in Hong Kong, it did not imply that these stories and characters could attract the audience into the cinemas,' he said.