Well here's a question:

Okay so, you're a director...and you just can't accept the idea of ninja clans existing in the present day and have to set Scorpion's backstory in ancient feudal Japan.

And yet Scorpion and Sub-Zero are supposed to attend the same tournament Johnny Cage and Raiden are headed for, right?

Okay well that works for Scorpion 'cause he's gonna get dead so it's not like the passage of time means much to a ghost. But how the hell is Bi-Han just gonna not age for like three hundred years?
I'm not necessarily complaining, I'm just curious. I rather liked the episode. Except that the Japanese dialogue seemed kinda stilted, like none of the actors speak it all that fluently or something, not that I can tell for sure because I don't speak Japanese either.

I see

My simple guess is Quan Chi is an asshole and will be snakelike enough to use his magic to keep Bi-Han young or maybe people with cryomancer blood age really slow.

Awesome episode.
Can't wait to see what happens next.

As I said in the original thread,I think the implication here is that "Sub-Zero" is not the only name passed down through generations,and that it's apparently a law or some shit that every bearer of the Scorpion name is legally bound to be named Hanzo Hasashi,and every first-born Sub-Zero in a generation must be named Bi-Han. I mean,I guess the Yagyu kinda had something like that,but it's still kinda dumb.

And yes,I'm actually a big enough weeaboo to be able to tell that none of these people are native Japanese speakers.

This episode and the one with Cage are the best by far. There are some flaws but what can you expect with a budget like that? This guy knows what he's doing and I am certain now that he would be the perfect man to direct the next MK movie.

No, I really rather doubt they're going for a "generational repetition" thing. I mean how's it's gonna turn out that the whole "The Lin Kuei killed a guy named Scorpion's wife and kid and entire clan" thing has happened more than once? How would there even be a second Shirai Ryu to kill? This is the tale of how they got wiped the fuck out.
This is just K-Tanch not believing ninjas can be modern. 'Cause it's not like that Wachowski Bros. movie a year or two ago was popular or anything, amirite?
On the other hand, the dude clearly has actual talent for period pieces about ancient Japan, because so far this is the only episode that has had actual style and good music and costumes and didn't look like it was shot on the same tiny soundstage with a budget of only ten bucks, so who am I to deprive him of the only thing he can make work on film?

Or it will be a different, descendant Bi Han (Liang), or the Sub-Zero family is functionally on par with the Edenians with the aging. Or magic. Does not matter in the long run, there wil be a Sub-Zero for Scorpion to hunt in the tournament. Hell, I would not be adverse to the idea that the second Sub (Kuai Liang) would be a descendant of Bi Han, as the original older brothers function is done, just four hundred years earlier. Same way Noob Saibot could also be alot more older. But to the episode itself...





Abso-fucking-lutely so far the best of any MK iteration I have ever seen personally. Full of Jidaigeki style, even a bit chambara, and still unique with all the subdued gloomy atmosphere. The visual designs are superb, very simple reminding me of the MK1 garbs, but also very authentic. Sub-Zero does not have some sort of quasi bio-mechanic hi-tech mask, simple mask suffices, no latex armor etc... even his upper hardened leather garb looks convincing enough as some sort of hauberk.

Overdosed with references: Júbei (as in Mitsuyoshi Yagyú Júbei? Clever. Kumamoto castle? Very approprioate choice (Kyomasa Kato's near impregnable shogunate center. Which places the events geographically on the southernmost island of Japan, Kyúshú, and not into mainland Japan). Being called Sasori? Ok, Japanese for Scorpion, apropriate. not to mention being a general, that is not as far-fetched: Hattori Hanzó for example. Being a sucker for history, this is like being bathed in butter.

Acting: Scoprion as a person.... well, anything aside VENGEANCE WILL BE MINE! HABALAHABALAHABALA! is an improvement. This Scorpion acts Japanese, has some sort of of an everydayman pathos, infact I am very glad that they used as little focus on Scorpion as possible so that we know Hanzo. The family is ok, they are baggage to be killed off but come across as sympathetic, the kid is not annoying and the wife is not eye-candy thankfully. The costumes are correct too, especially in color. I love gray-black-white Sub-Zero.

Sub-zero is fucking awesome. A gloating dickwad, which he originally was (I have an MK1 era bios collection in Hungarian translated as an extra by the now defunct 576 KByte magazine crew who propagated alot of games in Hungary: that bios states that Sub-Zero kills out of leasure and as a hobby, c. 1993). The original pre-MKM:SZ iteration comes across nicely from what we see of Sub. We have gore. Love it.

There are errors that are not corrected. Shirai ryu is not an organization, ironically it is a school of shurikenjutsu, which Scoprion is a master of. But an organization is not called a ryu (ryu - school, sometimes dragon, in the case of the Street Fighter character it means prosperity). It is highly unlikely that a military unit would be called a ryu. At least to my knowledge.

If Hanzo is a general, than that hair is unacceptable. Head should have been shaved and at the back tied into a topknot. If I heard correctly, Scorpion is referred to as Taisho, which would indicate that he indeed would be in the caste that would require this. But that is a cosmetic differece, and who would take Scorpion seriously in the west if he would look like the classic samurai. They also refer to him as Hasahi-dono (fucking correct that to Hazashi sometime, Hasashi is nonexistent as a name) which supports this.

And the flash cuts. Too many of them, sometimes it does not give you enough time to really see what is happening.

It took me seven episodes, but now I am fed up with the two minutes of credits at the end of each episode. I wanted to see them fight.

This episode was ok for me. I don't know, I couldn't get into the subtitles. Which is odd because I appreciate a lot of foreign films with subtitles.

I felt like I watched nine minutes of nothing happening.

Dang just as it was about to get good it stops! Grr well i liked it. Can't wait to see the 2nd episode of it!

FANTASTIC EPISODE!



After seeing this one, all the previous ones seem like $hit. I really really enjoyed Scorpion, to my surprise. Sub-Zero's "entrance" was awesome.


The music is pure awesomeness!


The only small complaint I had while watching it was that the kid who played Scorpion's son sounded a bit too automatic. I mean, OK he's just a kid and not an expert actor (I assume), but it just felt a little bit too automatic, as if he was reading a written text from a paper without any "soul touch" in it.

But that's just a minor complaint. As for the "problem" Razor mentioned- very good observation. Interesting, we'll see what happens.

But yeah, WONDERFUL episode!

I've enjoyed the series so far. It's by fans for fans, so how can you go wrong?

But the eight minute episodes are really painful. You just finally start getting into it, and they cut you off. Cliffhangers are great, but eventually you need a payoff, and I just don't feel like I've seen that yet.

It's as if they're trying to keep it under Youtube's ten minute limit, which is funny. Everything in this episode just seemed to be "Somethingaboutnothing, somethingabout nothing, something about nothing."

I mean, take the dinner scene. "Let's eat!" a second later "Sing for us, boy!", mid-song "Blah blah talking over our kid's singing that we forced him to stop eating to do so that we can blatently talk about his future right in front of him and hope he can't hear us blah."

Everything just seemed really forced.

Best Episode yet... can't wait for next week

Agreed. We're at episode seven and we aren't really seeing much. Seriously, why does this need to be two parts? Why not just put them together into one episode? So many people are raving at the awesomeness, but I'm bored.

These things are so short, I don't want to wait a whole week just to get boring and oddly paced dialog for 95% of an episode. 2 part episodes are even worse because out of some 8mins or so, around 2mins of that is just recap.

While this series is ultimately good, it really needs better pacing. Did we really need 10seconds of slow mo sonya standing at the doorway she just burst out of? No.

Worst thing so far? Raiden, a GOD, taken out by a sleepy drug and unable to escape a psych ward. Come on.

There's a couple things that are noticeably different from what I remember/understand of this story. But, i like the episode alot.

Takeda is missing, for one. The part about how the two clans came to be because he disagrees with the pre-existing Lin Kuei, and so he disassociates himself from them, is hunted by them, and creates his own clan. The Shirai Ryu ninja clan. I was a little let down that they didn't use that in place of the opening dialogue. But, maybe that's just me misinterpreting this story as a non-Scorpion fan.

The other thing is Scorpion being the General. I knew he was the best one in his clan but, I never associated that with him having leadership in the clan like this. I just thought he was the best ninja within the greater hierarchy. I mean, that is the case based on the era this episode seems to be set in but, I thought Scorpion simply had a more passive role in the clan, even though he was the best ninja.

Only one dislike so far, and that is the sub-titles. Don't get me wrong, I like sub-titled movies sometimes but, I've always felt reading a movie takes away from my experience of immersion. Call it being a lazy American if you want but that's my only dislike so far. Everything else look very good.

I was looking forward to these episodes, and I definitely like this first one. The highlights of this episode are its style and how Hanzo is portrayed. It's good that we get to see the human side to his character before he becomes the specter that we are familiar with. Like Pred, it is a bit off to not have any mention of Takeda being the founder of the Shirai-Ryu.

It is a bit odd that that Bi-Han is in this as opposed to an ancestor of Sub-Zero. I mean, the Cryomancers are from Outworld and would likely have a longer lifespan than humans, so the Sub-Zero brothers would have at least somewhat of a longer lifespan than most humans.

Chrome had brought up Shirai-Ryu being the name of a shurikenjutsu tradition, which is correct. In the backstory stuff for MK Mythologies: Sub-Zero, Scorpion is mentioned to have been a master of shurikenjutsu yet he never uses the shuriken in any of the games. Oh, and for those of you who don't know better, a kunai is NOT a type of shuriken. To digress, I wanted to bring up that Shirai-Ryu is also the name of what was allegedly one of the oldest Ninjutsu traditions along with Hakuun-Ryu, Shinto-Ryu, and Negishi-Ryu. So with that said, John Tobias was unintentionally clever in using the name Shirai-Ryu for Scorpion's clan and having it be more or less the first Ninjutsu tradition.

Anyway, all in all, it's a good episode. I feel like this episode has that nice balance of realism mixed with the fantasy without going too far into either side. I can't wait for the next part.

Not the clan. At least not just to the clan, but to the shogun. Scorpion is the military no.1 guy of the resident leader of the empire's military power.

Since shogun itself means general, that would make Scorpion a vice-general, sub-commander. He still is referred as a -tono/dono, which implies that Scorpion is of royal blood nonetheless....

Which brings me to say that Scorpions function is either outside the staple military hierarchy (actually understandable as ninjas weren't actually welcome additions), or they fucked it up and used shogun (supreme commander, generalissimo) instead of daimyo (feudal lord) for better recognition as a Japanese term. Scorpion is probably a noble commander to the shogun, and a ninja to the shirai-ryu (something not unheard of in real-life Japanese history).

And for the most part, the Takeda angle of the storyline I found not only to be redundant but disrespectful, same way they implemented the founder of aikido to be a member of the Black Dragon.

This episode was really well done. It definitely stands out as one of the best so far. I don't get why some of you dissect these things right down to the wire, it baffles me. Everyone was all shits and giggles when the rebirth trailer came out because it was taking its own route down the path of MK, while sticking to the more important cues. Now that they are making these episodes, a good portion of peeps are pissing and moaning. Are you ever fucking happy? Who gives a shit if its not this and its not that, its entertaining as hell and that's where it counts!

I find these episodes to be a breath of fresh air into the MK franchise. The only thing that I can say bad about them is the length of the episodes. Definitely sucks when your just getting into it and they cut you off. That is something I'm sure we all can agree upon. I would love to have the hour episodes they gave to freaking Conquest, because this is much better than that. However I would like to transfer the Shao Kahn of Conquest over to this series because he was by far the best Kahn. The Kahn in MKA movie was half-decent but I hated that he was mask-less for most of the movie and during the final fight, even though the movie was ridiculously awful. He had a good Kahn voice, but that sure as hell wasn't gonna save that movie.

And for all of you nitpicking that costumes aren't like the game in this series, or things aren't like the game in this series, well if you make it exactly like the game, it turns into a camp fest that's ridiculously laughable, that is what happened with MKA. For me, these new episodes are fresh and not over done. Although their length can be argued.

I work in independent film making, and the budget on a film is what makes or breaks a Director. In my opinion, Kevin is doing an excellent job with what he has to work with. The ideas start flowing, but right along with that the cost keeps rising, so you have to find a middle in all that. He's doing very well at that. All in all, excellent episode.

I loved this episode.

I'd wait until part two to speculate how Sub can exist in the future. I'm sure quan chi will have something to do with it.

I hate Bi-Han/Elder Sub-Zero even more now.

You are so emotionally attached to Scorpion, a fictional character, that it's starting to worry me... I think maybe you need to see some professional help to make you realize that Scorpion isn't real.

^ all he said is that he doesn't like bi han jeez
just chill genetic-jade-fan

but bi-han is awesome

I loved this. Loved it completely.

Of course the episode was going to end just before the fight, what did you expect?

Hopefully they'll explain the rivalry between the Shirai Ryu and the Lin Kuei in the next episode. I thought it was cool how Scorpion already knew Bi-Han, I had never really thought of it that way.

I don't like how all Lin Kuei wear blue, but that's in the games as well so I can't blame them too much, I was just hoping they'd go the route of MKC. In Conquest, they created a whole new ninja-look for the Lin Kuei guys who weren't Sub-Zero.

Anyway, can't wait for the next episode. Going to watch episode 7 again now.