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A tight apartment-block corridor with a cavalcade of bruising enemies?
Thatll be Park-chan WooksOld Boy.
Snow delicately falling on a deadly female assassin?
Of course Toshiya Fujitas seminal 1973 pictureLady Snowblood.
Like Quentin Tarantinos 2003 movieKill Bill: Volume 1,Sifuattempts to distill an entire universe of martial-arts movies.
But hiding in the room is a 12-year-old child.
There were five assassins, and so there are five levels, each culminating in a grueling boss fight.
They need to die.
Thats the entire plot.
Sifuis all action and zero emotion.
Your motivations lack psychological depth, and the same is true for your enemies.
Why does the third stage, which takes place inside an art gallery, feature a monochromatic rain-soaked battle?
Because its aniconic martial-arts image a historySifudesperately wants to be part of.
So where does Sloclaps gamediffer from these films?
Eventually you get better, gaining confidence, and there comes a point where the combat starts to click.
She, especially, will bring you back to Earth with a skull-cracking thump.
Thankfully, as in most games (but very few films), death isnt the end inSifu.
When you die, you resurrect, except you return a little older.
You start the game at 20, and the first time you perish, you come back as 21.
With each subsequent passing, your death counter rises, which means you age more quickly.
The process is relentless, often demoralizing, and occasionally euphoric.
The game certainly makes you work hard for its payoffs.
In the end,Sifudoesnt quite live up to its cinematic influences.
In this way, it reminds me of TarantinosKill Bill: Volume 1because of what it lacks.
