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‘Mortal Kombat’ Movie (1995): Watch How the Cast Has Transformed Over the Years

‘Mortal Kombat’ Movie (1995): Watch How the Cast Has Transformed Over the Years

By:

Samantha Whidden

Although the Mortal Kombat film franchise was rebooted in 2021, die hard fans of the original 1995 action-packed movie can’t help but want to revisit its talented cast.

Based on the hit video game series, Mortal Kombat follows three Earth realm fighters as they are summoned to a mysterious island to compete in a tournament against other realms. The outcome of the tournament decides the fate of all the realms. Stars in the film included Christopher Lambert, Robin Shou, Linden Ashby, Bridgette Wilson-Sampras, Talisa Soto, and Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa. Shou and Soto ended up returning for the sequel in 1997, Mortal Kombat: Annihilation.

In an Instagram post, a Mortal Kombat fan shared a series of “Then vs Now” shots of the cast. “The original movie blew my 7-year-old mind away,” the video’s caption reads. 

Despite it being a cult classic, Mortal Kombat has a 47% rating on Rotten Tomatoes. Critics weren’t a big fan of the film, and noted that it “suffered” from “poorly constructed plot, laughable dialogue, and subpar acting.” The reviews haven’t stopped the film from gaining popularity. It also didn’t stop Warner Bros. from rebooting the film. 

While speaking to IGN in 1997 to promote the second Mortal Kombat movie, Robin Shou, who played Lui Kang in the films, spoke about what really draws people to the franchise’s films. 

“Hmm, what makes the MK series so popular?” Shou said. “Well, it’s me (laughter)! I think what happened is that it’s fun exciting, and the story’s really neat and the characters… people are attracted to the characters. The whole tournament and of course the martial arts. The fights, they’re the best.”

As he spoke about the films, Shou revealed his favorite fight sequence. “It’d have to be the fight between Reptile and Lui Kang and Scorpion against Johnny Cage,” he explained. The actor then shared that he ended up choreographing for the second film. “What happened also is that New Line thought that they were the best fight sequences too. So they said ‘Would you like to do the choreography for part 2?’ So I was the choreographer for part 2.”

In regards to what he planned to do after the second Mortal Kombat, Shou added that the film brought in new stunts. He then added he was becoming very picky in what roles he wanted. 

Following his appearance in the original Mortal Kombat films, Shou appeared in The Outer Limits, DOA: Dead or Alive, Street Fighter: The Legend of Chun-Li, and Black Tiger: Hunter Hunted. He did not appear in the reboot.