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[VGMP] Dead or Alive Character Confusion
Rory Joscelyne • Feb 08, 2022
VGMP: Dead or Alive can't keep it's characters straight
Let me be the first to say it - DOA: Dead or Alive is not a very good film. At all.
Yes it's a lot of fun, and if your wife is out of the house it can make for a bit of guilt-free voyeurism, but there's little Dead Or Alive gets right about it's chosen franchise even when it seemingly tries - and the less said of finding a deeper meaning in the script the better. On Dead or Alive fansites you'll see the usual cries of how Kasumi isn't large breasted enough, or that she has too dour a personality for the more upbeat game character. You'll see fans bemoan that Christie is not a silver-haired psychopathic assassin, but a carefree blonde diamond thief. And all these issues are completely valid (well, maybe not the breasts one). However...
Here at Video Game Movie Podcast (and Cyberpunk Studios), we tend to focus on the lesser known elements of films and almost ridiculously fixate on the minutiae. As such, the characters we're going to look into are the sad (and completely off base) portrayals of the lesser characters the filmmakers chose to use as mere fodder in Dead or Alive.
And my curiosity was piqued because of this
guy. The Man in Yellow. Who is he?
From the moment the fighters appear in Donovan's Complex, this man is stood to the left of the screen as if he portrays one of the series' mains. He later opens the first round of fights by battling Helena (and loses to her acrobatic attacks), though he holds his own for some time. He is also later seen in the beach sequences after the Kasumi/Ayane battle in the bamboo forest.
So who is he? Well, it seems he's representing Hitomi
from the games. For those who don't recall Hitomi, here's her
character image from the games;
Not quite the same character is it? I'll explain how I can verify the Man in Yellow is officially portraying "Hitomi" in a moment, but first I want to include another puzzling element to the Hitomi confusion - there is literally a girl at the tournament, dressed like the in-game character of Hitomi, who is also seen practicing her martial arts in the background of a few shots.
The first clear shot that she appears in (Though the back of her head and jacket is visible on the plane and in a reverse mid-shot prior) is the same as the Man in Yellow. Once the main characters arrive at Donovan's compound, Helena leads them all to the main atrium and Donovan walks out to greet them, talking to them from several stories up. We get a brief camera shot from Donovan's POV which apparently shows all of the fighters who made it to the compound before sundown (Anyone not there by that time is disqualified). For simplicity's sake, I've named all the known characters (under their given names in the film) and credited actors in the image to try and make sense of the mess.
This is the only body shot she appears in with the denim jacket (Though it is visible on the plane behind Zack's arm as he 'flirts' with Tina, photo below), her later appearances have her in just the vest-top, jeans and boots (which are also alternative costumes for Hitomi in the games). You can also see the pink hairband, jeans and boots here. You'll see the Man in Yellow to the far left, all the main characters (minus the named Jann Lee and Eliot) and next to the female Hitomi are two unknown women, one dressed in a pink dress and cut-offs and another in jeans and a white sports top. We have a close up on these two anonymous women below, but I still can't figure out which characters they're supposed to represent - especially the woman dressed in pink as she's seen repeatedly throughout the film.
From left to right: Bayman (mostly cut off), Lei Fang,
Girl in Pink, Gen Fu, Brad Wong,
Girl in White, Leon.
The entire fighter roster in this film is identical to Dead or Alive 3, except with Ayane
not officially part of the tournament and Eliot
from DOA4 taking her place. Max (a unique character for the film) takes Hayate's slot (Though Hayate does appear in the movie). At the time of the film's release, Dead or Alive 4 had just been released (about six months prior). Other than the characters named in the movie, these are the only fighters not used:
Ein [DOA2] (Though he's just Hayate with amnesia)
Tengu [DOA2]
La Mariposa/Lisa [DOA4]
Kokoro [DOA4] (Lei Fang fights in a Kimono like Kokoro's in her fight with Gen Fu, likely as a reference)
SPARTAN-458
[DOA4]
(A female Master Chief from the Halo universe. No way she would have been in the movie due to rights issues)
My initial theory was that the unknown women were used to try and balance these camera shots. As mentioned in the previous picture there are two actual combatants from the film missing in this scene, Jann Lee and Eliot. If these two women were replaced by the two male characters, that would make 5 women (6 if you include Helena on the stairs) and 11 men. Considering the type of softcore porn vibe Dead or Alive goes for, I'm guessing one possibility was to reduce this image from being too much of a sausage party.
However that theory was thrown off when I noticed that both Hitomi and the Girl In Pink both clearly appear on the plane en route to the compound too! Because of this I'm convinced the woman sat beside female Hitomi (we only ever see the back of her head and not her costume, sadly) is the Girl In White we also meet at the compound. Below you can see Hitomi clearly visible on the plane.
Of interest to my current theory - that some characters were cut from the film as much as possible for unknown reasons - is the fact that the plane scene includes a lot of characters teleporting from place to place. The Girl in Pink actually teleports from in front of Christie (in the seat next to Zack she has occupied almost the entire scene - bar his close up) to behind her within a quick few shots. Bayman, Christie, Hayabusa, the Girl in Pink, Tina and Bass all have moments where they teleport from one position to another - the most egregious being Hayabusa who just moves from his seat, to Bayman's, back to his multiple times - with nary a second between transport.
On reviewing the footage it also makes no sense for Max to check something into the overhead luggage during the flight (when Christie accosts him) - and this is the one time she teleports. She walks from the front of the plane to talk to him, then appears from the rear of the plane at the start of their altercation. This is also a moment where Hayabusa (who has already started his conversation with Kasumi in the final edit) teleports back from Bayman's seat and is seen in his own, which leads me to believe that this sequence would have opened the scene rather than end it.
It's possible that Hitomi had a scene here, and this frantic cutting and rearranging of events led to characters being in the wrong positions due to the final edit. It would be interesting to see if the Girl in Pink had more to her role as well, and if she was supposed to have a name (potentially Kokoro, though she isn't dressed anything like her).
I did state that female Hitomi does some martial arts work, too. In the montage of the characters training before Round One begins, we can see her in the background of one of Zack's training shots - however it cuts to a close up on Zack's face before switching back to an empty courtyard. Perhaps there were some additional shots cut for time?
We also get a different angle of her fight (with Zack in the distance behind her) later in the montage. She's noticeable largely due to the pink hairband Hitomi always wears. The woman doing cartwheels in both shots is most likely Lei Fang as she shares the same hairstyle as Lei Fang has in the plane.
So Hitomi fans rejoice! Your main gal
is
in the movie, and even does a small amount of fighting, but she gets no
real
screen time. However watching the film in retrospect - her relegation to minor background role feels overly forced. It's true that Lei Fang gets very little screen time either, but she at least got a fight, as well as being introduced during the "Scanning" sequence of the movie (where all the main characters are in their underwear standing inside a machine). It would make sense for Hitomi to appear here too, at the very least. Especially as we have the oddity that Hitomi is actively named
in the tournament roster.
So let's go back to the Man in Yellow - the male I say is called "Hitomi" in the movie. What evidence is there?
First, let's take a look at the fighter list for the opening round;
Kasumi - Tina - Christie - Eliot
Helena - Bass - Hayabusa - Max
Zack - Bayman - Leon - Jann Lee
Lei Fang - Gen Fu - Hitomi - Brad Wong
As we can see, Eliot and Jann Lee are namedropped here despite not being on the plane, in the atrium or in the scanning machine. They join Hitomi's name on the tournament roster, despite not officially making it to the tournament on time.
"But wait", you say, "Doesn't Jann Lee wear similar clothing in the games to the Man in Yellow? That could explain his appearance in the atrium and his name on the tournament roster. Why couldn't this guy be Jann Lee instead?"
Let's compare him to the game character for Jann Lee;
It would make sense for this guy to be Jann Lee. The haircut is the same, the outfit is almost identical to his DOA 3 costume (Select Costume 2 and Press X to select it instead of A on the character select screen - the purple outfit will turn yellow once in a match), and his fighting style is very similar. He even performs Jann Lee's infamous jump-kick attack.
This guy is the perfect
Jann Lee. But, sadly, he's not officially called
Jann Lee. We know this because we see Jann Lee paired up with Christie in the first round, and their names are clearly on the health bars on Donovan's screens. I took some close ups of the guy they called Jann Lee, but he's definitely not as close physically as the Man in Yellow.
This is odd because usually you'd go for a less accurate portrayal due to some recognisable star power. However Hung Lin is credited as Hitomi (we'll come to this later) and the actor for Jann Lee is not credited at all - suggesting he was just a day player (and possibly explaining his lack of appearance anywhere
else in the movie bar one time he acts as a stand-in - we'll come to that in a bit).
As you can see, this guy was missing from the Atrium and should have been disqualified for not being there before sundown. However the movie clearly names him as Jann Lee. Also worth noting is that this version of Jann Lee does only 3 moves the entire fight, in a repeating pattern.
His first clip is him blocking two punches, then leaning back to dodge a kick. He does this same pattern 3 times.
His first clip is him blocking two punches, then leaning back to dodge a kick. He does this same pattern 3 times.
His second clip he blocks a punch, leans back to dodge a kick, tries to sweep Christie who cartwheels to avoid, before she slaps him in the face and ends the match with an axe kick to the face. The strikes are all in quick-cut close-ups so they can be tricked with minimal effort, and as such we never see any of them actually land.
That's his entire
fight. This screams to me of a fight that had to be made up at the last minute - and why I believe this is where a rehearsed Hitomi vs Christie fight was meant to occur. Whether the fight was filmed or not is another story. The Helena vs Man in Yellow is a far better and well rehearsed fight than this one, which suggests it wasn't
cobbled together during the shoot.
That leaves us with Eliot - however we fall into the same problem. He's named on Donovan's screens as the guy fighting Hayabusa in Round One. Despite being an English boy in the games, he is again cast in the movie as an Asian adult. But there's no room for doubt, he's clearly named Eliot.
Also, his fight includes much more varied and better rehearsed fight choreography, as well as breakable set elements (Eliot kicks through several wooden railings and is thrown through objects twice). However, unlike the Man in Yellow, this guy never does any of Jann Lee's signature moves - suggesting he was never supposed to be Jann Lee and was always meant to be an additional character (whether he was originally supposed to be Eliot or not).
The only other character shown and named, but not given much focus, is Brad Wong. He appears in a younger form here, with his drinking gourd. He doesn't use the drunken fist martial arts style but he is, again, named by Donovan's computers during his fight with Bayman in Round One. As you can see if you compare him to the video game, unlike Jann Lee and Eliot, the filmmakers put in effort to make this guy resemble the original character. Okay they didn't do a great job (His hair is clearly a wig, for example), but the effort was there.
He's also seen later in the film at the beach (after the Kasumi/Ayane bamboo fight), he chats to the Man in Yellow in several shots, and his final appearance is in the dining room when the girls decide to go find Hayabusa. Considering we never see him leave the island, and this takes place near the end of the movie, we can only assume he died when the island exploded at the end of the film.
So the only unknown name left on the roster that could
be the Man in Yellow is Hitomi.
Donovan's computer never actually names the Man in Yellow, despite the name Hitomi becoming ghosted (showing a loss) after Helena has defeated him. However this is where the editing of the movie is done in such a way as to keep this vague.
Bayman is the first to win (against Brad Wong). After his victory, we cut back to the roster to show Bayman moving to the Quarter Finals, Brad Wong's name is ghosted.
Christie gets the next win (against Jann Lee) and we cut to the roster to see her name slide over and Jann Lee's name ghosts out.
Helena then wins against the Man in Yellow, but we don't cut to the roster on this occasion, instead we jump to the next fight.
Hayabusa defeats Eliot, and we cut back to the roster to see Hayabusa's name slide across with Eliot's name ghosted out. However on this screen, we can also see Helena's name already in the Quarter Finals, and Hitomi's name ghosted out. She beat the Man in Yellow, we've had no other fights - which means the film tries to get away with naming him Hitomi.
So what happened to female Hitomi? Why not use her in the Helena fight?
My feeling on this was that the Man in Yellow was originally supposed to be Jann Lee, and Christie was supposed
to fight Hitomi in the Japanese garden. If I'm right, this would mean that Jann Lee is not only a recurring character in the movie, but that he did
make it to the atrium in time - along with Hitomi.
If I'm correct, then why label the Man in Yellow as Hitomi? Why not call him Jann Lee and call the guy fighting Christie "Hitomi" in the editing suite?
My guess is it's due to coverage in the editing room. With how close the camera work is, and how intense the fight is between Helena and the Man in Yellow, there were perhaps no clear shots available to add in the Health Bars at the top of Donovan's screens for their match. However as the choreography is so basic, one-note and repetitive in the Christie battle, it's likely that adding the Health Bars to the distance shots of that fight was more practical for the VFX team. As such they butchered Jann Lee by giving his name to a day player, and omitted to name the original Jann Lee hoping no-one would notice. Bear in mind all of the screen displays would be added in post-production by the VFX house, so this could have been toyed with and altered long after filming had ended.
So why not just use the existing actress for Hitomi?
Well, there may have been an issue with the actress portraying Hitomi. Perhaps she wasn't available for much of the shoot, there may have been problems on set, she could have been injured during filming - anything could have come up. However due to her omission from the later beach scenes (after the Ayane/Kasumi bamboo fight), my guess is for some reason she couldn't finish principal photography.
Here is an updated version of the atrium shot, this time with the names following what I believe was the original intent.
We know there were constant issues on-set, thanks to an
interview with Jaime Pressly
(who played Tina in the movie) for Rotten Tomatoes back in 2007;
"We were working with a director, Corey Yuen, who is one of the number one action and marital arts directors in the world. That’s why we did the film. In the process of filming, a lot of bad stuff came up and happened, being that we were over in China in little small villages, you didn’t have the means necessary to get things done like you do when you’re in Hollywood. So I think between things getting lost in translation because there were four dialects going on at all times, or languages I should say, and the lack of necessities, it just didn’t turn out the way that it should have. And I think for gamers, a lot of the stuff was inaccurate because they changed it along the way."
Interesting that she mentions specifically that stuff became inaccurate as they changed it during production.
Holly Valance (who played Christie) shared some further details on the issues the crew had filming in rural China. While her take on events has the feeling of a person looking back and laughing, it's possible some of the cast/crew left due to the issues with food poisoning. This interview was with TheSciFiWorld.Net
in 2007;
"I think even the Chinese crew found it hard in rural China. They were as sick as us and they were from a few hours plane ride away but the same country. I really wish I’d written a daily journal of all the funny things that happened cos no one would believe it, but the hardest part was being violently ill with food poisoning everyday for 4 months, as were the others."
So we know there were on-set problems of various kinds. However the only possible hint at issues with the actress is that the female Hitomi is the
only minor actor not to get a close up in the atrium - as if she'd been purposely cut out of the film as much as possible. Again, this is a carefully and accurately designed character and costume to match the game - it feels off that unknown and random characters get close ups and she doesn't, and it almost feels vitriolic.
She also never appears at the beach after the Kasumi/Ayane bamboo fight. The Man in Yellow (now Jann Lee in my head canon), Lei Fang and Brad Wong all walk around the beaches during this segment. Oddly, I'm pretty sure the Girl in Pink from the Atrium appears here too - the one who was also fighting Hitomi in the previous screenshots behind Zack, as well as sitting next to Zack on the plane.
She's dressed in tight black shorts, gold shoes with black socks and a gold-and-black cowboy shirt - and she even holds a conversation with Lei Fang behind Max and Christie for one shot. Her hairstyle is the same in all the outfits, and her face and build seem to match the Girl in Pink.
It's only a theory, but it does
make some sense out of the oddities on display in this film. After all, including a game-accurate Hitomi only to name some guy
as her in the tournament makes little sense. Some care and attention went in to having this game-accurate looking Hitomi appear and it looks like she could do some martial arts, it would be interesting to find out the reason for the switch.
I also believe that Hung Lin (who is credited as Hitomi in the end credits and is presumably the Man in Yellow) is a fake name, as the only credit on IMDB is for DOA, and a Google search doesn't find him. In fact, Hung Lin doesn't appear as an actual name anywhere, it's always got other names attached to it. A good example is Po-Hung Lin on IMDB - though he wouldn't have been old enough to be in DOA (and looks completely different). It seems Hung Lin is, at best, part
of a name. Like calling someone Ja Smi instead of Jack Smith - a strange name choice to say the least.
To give more credence to this theory is the fact that both the official "Male Hitomi" and "Jann Lee" actors portray the Man In Yellow on the plane! For the most part, it is the "Male Hitomi" actor in the role, but one of the first establishing shots of the cast in their seats clearly shows the Jann Lee actor dressed in the yellow outfit instead. They don't look at all alike, their hair is a dead giveaway (The Jann Lee actor's hair isn't as bouffant and has to be gelled to try and hold itself up) and looking at them straight on gives them away.
Just to be thorough, here is the evidence that the other minor fighters appear after their defeats at the tournament - at the beach after the Ayane/Kasumi fight in the bamboo forest (none appear at the volleyball game).
In the image below, you can see Brad Wong talking to the Man in Yellow (Behind Max and Christie), with Lei Fang in the orange dress to the right (With the Girl in Pink - in her black and gold outfit - walking away from the conversation with Lei Fang, passing behind the tree). These characters are seen multiple times throughout this scene (and yes, some do teleport here too) but I've been unable to verify any appearance of the female Hitomi anywhere. The pink headband would be the main giveaway, but I can't spot it in any of these scenes, leading me to believe she isn't here. The other alternative is that she's not wearing it and without a decent face shot in the film, she becomes impossible to identify without it.
As for the other missing characters from DOA4 , it appears there's a reference to Kokoro during the Lei Fang vs Gen Fu fight. Lei Fang - previously dressed her green Cheongsam dress (DOA2 Ultimate, Costume 16) - fights Gen Fu wearing something closer to a traditional Japanese kimono (I'll be honest, it also looks like a different actress, but that may be it's just because she's got a concentration face on here). Lei Fang is
not
known for wearing this costume (Certainly no occurances in DOA1 to DOA4) - however Kokoro
is
known for wearing kimonos (Though none look like this in DOA4).
As for Eliot... well I don't have a theory for him. As a DOA4 character, his design may not have been available to filmmakers so they simply used his name on a day player for the Hayabusa fight.
Considering DOA4 would have crossed over development with the film, the filmmakers could have simply shoehorned these references in at the last minute for the fans.
As for potential deleted scenes, I've gone over the Deleted Scenes included on the US Dimension Films' Blu-Ray, and the only missing fight sequence is a 90 second fight between Kasumi and Gen Fu on the water rafts (Just before Bass enters to fight Tina). Kasumi wins, obviously. However this seems to have been removed to keep the rounds consistent in the film, as Tina vs Bass is a Round One fight, whereas Kasumi vs Gen Fu is a Round Two fight - it would make no sense for a Round Two fight to precede a Round One fight. As such this fight is never shown visually in the final film - nonetheless it doesn't give us any further hints on the mystery of Hitomi.
Before I wrap this up, I did a search for Production Stills of DOA Dead or Alive, and found one on Alamy, the full resolution version of which can be bought here. The accurate representation of Hitomi is very clear in this image. If I can afford the full resolution version one day I can try and cut her out to give us a clearer picture of what her actual face looks like.
So what do you guys think? Let us know if you think there might be another explanation for the switch.
Also let us know if you think you can work out who the
Girl in Pink
and
Girl in White
from the atrium and plane are supposed to represent. Until next time, here's the one of the only close ups of Hitomi - sadly it's only the back of her head.
Please check back regularly for updates, and do follow our podcast including our episode on DOA: Dead or Alive at www.vgmovie.co.uk.
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