In 1999, demonic rollerblading triplets armed with hockey sticks laid cross-checks on the likes of Bud Cort and Chris Rock in Kevin Smith’s Dogma. The enforcer in the blue Highlands Clamdiggers jersey? That was Kitao Sakurai, a teenage actor based in Cleveland at the time. He couldn’t have known it then, but his role in Smith’s slacker-minded religious satire offered an early glimpse of the offbeat sensibility he’d later bring to his own filmmaking — a sensibility now on full display in Street Fighter, the number-one movie in America.
Fueled by the Cleveland Cinematheque’s programming diet of Jackie Chan, Jet Li and Robert Altman, young Sakurai grew just as interested in working behind the camera. By 19, he’d dropped out of college and moved to New York to give independent filmmaking a go. He got his start as a music video cinematographer before crossing paths with Eric André on a shoot in the mid-2000s.
Impressed by Sakurai’s eye for vintage gear and aesthetics, André quickly hit it off with the aspiring filmmaker. A few years later, the two teamed up to develop a proof of concept for The Eric Andre Show. But selling the chaotic “anti-talk show” proved difficult, with networks passing on the project one after another. Resigned to releasing it themselves on YouTube, Sakurai and André were stunned when Cartoon Network’s Adult Swim took a flyer on the series in 2010. Since then, it’s spawned 60 episodes, several specials and an Emmy win.
That same year, Sakurai premiered his feature directorial debut, Aardvark (2010). The experimental film fictionalized the real-life relationship between Larry Lewis Jr., a blind recovering alcoholic, and his jiu-jitsu instructor, Darren Branch, before pivoting from docu-narrative to revenge thriller.
While Aardvark hinted at Sakurai’s appetite for the unconventional, The Eric Andre Show pushed that instinct further, cementing an approach that continues to inform his work. As long as absurdity is embraced wholeheartedly, it doesn’t always need to adhere to conventional logic or narrative coherence to work.
“Sometimes things don’t necessarily need to make sense for you to lean in and love them,” Sakurai tells The Hollywood Reporter. “There can be elements that are so ridiculous they might not track narratively or make sense conceptually, but because they’re part of an overall energy and feeling, they fit.”
That mantra held true for Sakurai’s second feature, Bad Trip, starring André and Lil Rel Howery. Sakurai and André began spitballing ideas for the hidden-camera buddy comedy as early as the second season of The Eric Andre Show. The film follows André and Howery as two best friends who embark on a road trip to New York City so that André’s character can profess his love to his high school crush. Along the way, they stage in-character pranks on unsuspecting members of the public, weaving the reactions into the film’s narrative and punctuating the journey with a few shocking non sequiturs.
The film was originally slated for a 2019 theatrical release through MGM’s Orion Pictures, but was pushed to 2020, setting the stage for a South by Southwest premiere that March. Then the pandemic upended those plans, derailing the theatrical release as well. To add insult to injury, Amazon Prime Video accidentally made the film available on its platform — a mishap the service repeated recently with Jason Statham’s Mutiny. Netflix would ultimately acquire Bad Trip for a streaming release in 2021.
“The events that transpired were definitely a bummer. It was meant to be seen with an audience. On the other hand, it came out during a time in the pandemic when people really needed a movie like that,” Sakurai recalls. “So am I disappointed that Bad Trip didn’t have a theatrical release? Sure. But psychically, it resonated with a lot of people during that really shitty time.”
Following the warm reception of Bad Trip and his acclaimed work directing episodes of the FX series Dave, Sakurai received the opportunity to pitch on Legendary and Paramount’s Street Fighter after Danny and Michael Philippou dropped out due to scheduling conflicts with Bring Her Back. Playing Street Fighter at his childhood friends’ houses had been a formative experience for Sakurai. The video games offered a rare opportunity to see himself represented in popular media while also bonding with his friends over something that connected to his Japanese heritage.
Legendary wasn’t looking for Sakurai to conceive the Batman Begins of Street Fighter movies. They wanted the kind of left-of-center take that had defined his career up to that point. Running with the Philippou brothers’ idea of a film centered on Ken Masters and Ryu (Noah Centineo and Andrew Koji), Sakurai reshaped the premise into a story about two estranged best friends and adoptive brothers attempting to reconcile against the backdrop of the second World Warrior tournament.
“We, for sure, wouldn’t be sitting here right now [if I pitched a dark and grounded Street Fighter]. There’s a silliness to it, and there’s an absurdity to the world and the characters and how they interact,” Sakurai says. “[Producer] Cale Boyter at Legendary really held the torch for this vision of Street Fighter that had a gonzo energy to it.”
In an odd twist, the Philippou brothers actually cameo in Sakurai’s film. Rather than body-slamming each other in their own backyard, as they’ve done countless times in their YouTube videos, the brothers were invited by Sakurai to perform their signature bit during an establishing shot of M. Bison’s (David Dastmalchian) Golden Bullion Hotel. Their cameo is a rare example of filmmakers who departed a project returning to support the person who took their place.
“Part of the reason for including them was just a spiritual thing and to say, There’s no bad blood. We’re all part of the same family. So there was no animosity, and it’s all love,” Sakurai shares.
Below, during a conversation with THR, Sakurai also discusses his use of ‘90s-style animation for Street Fighter’s flashbacks, as well as his memorable experiences filming Beef season two and Dave season three with Brad Pitt.
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I have to start with your backstory. How did you end up holding a hockey stick as a Stygian Triplet in Kevin Smith’s Dogma?
I grew up as a child actor. That was my entry point into the industry. I was a very shy kid in Ohio, and I went to a Japanese Saturday school. I eventually was cast in this play, and it was this huge awakening for me. So then I started getting into acting in Cleveland, and one thing led to another.
Kevin Smith was shooting Dogma in Pittsburgh mostly, and because I had a local acting agent, they hooked me up with Kevin Smith. I auditioned and got the role of one of the Stygian Triplets who beats up Bud Cort, which was incredible [as a fan of Robert Altman’s Brewster McCloud and Hal Ashby’s Harold and Maude].
So I’d already been doing a lot of film work when I was shooting that movie, and moviemaking and acting are all part of the same world that I love.
You seemed to shift your focus to filmmaking because Dogma was your last acting role for a decade. Was it the turning point that it seems to be on paper?
Yeah, I would say so. It’s not that I became disinterested in acting. I was just more focused on the other things like cinematography and directing.
Growing up in Cleveland, I’d go to the Cleveland Cinematheque a lot, which is an incredible repertory theater. I watched a lot of Jackie Chan and Jet Li movies, and I became really, really obsessed with the filmmaking behind these movies that I loved so much. I then built myself a darkroom in my basement and got really, really interested in photography and the image-making process. So I shifted a bit more toward that as my obsession.
That dominoed into me dropping out of college when I was 19 and moving to New York to work in independent film, primarily as a cinematographer. Eventually, in 2010, I made my first feature film [Aardvark] in that world of independent filmmaking.
In 2012, you directed the first of your 60-something episodes of The Eric André Show. How did you guys link up?
After I moved to New York, I started out doing very low-budget, underground, weird cinematography. Our mutual friend, Carlos, was doing this noise rock music video, and he had approached me to shoot it. I then met Eric on that set. He was playing a character in the music video.
I was shooting these music videos on vintage tube cameras that we had actually bought from Dolly Parton’s estate. They’d been used in the ’70s and ’80s, and they didn’t want them anymore, so we bought them through this camera house. So Eric really liked the vibe I was bringing, and we linked up shortly thereafter to develop the sizzle reel, essentially, for The Eric Andre Show.
We were both completely outside the industry at the time, and we both had no connections to TV or film whatsoever. So we thought we’d do it for YouTube until Adult Swim eventually saw what we’d made and picked it up. That became this incredible decade-plus collaboration.
The show led to your second feature, Bad Trip, a hidden-camera buddy comedy starring Eric and Lil Rel Howery, which had a nightmare of a release. It was pushed from 2019 into 2020, then the pandemic canceled its South by Southwest premiere and MGM/Orion’s theatrical release. To make matters worse, Amazon accidentally leaked it digitally before Netflix eventually acquired it for release in 2021. Were you pretty crushed by all of that at the time? Or did the state of the world soften the blow?
It was a mix. The events that transpired were definitely a bummer. We really imagined the movie as a theatrical experience, and it was meant to be seen with an audience. On the other hand, it came out during a time in the pandemic when people really needed a movie like that.
It’s about human connection. It’s so authentic to human dynamics. The comedy comes from real people, and in a tactile sense, the people around you are the heroes of the film. So it really became this cathartic outlet for so many people who were stuck in their homes and didn’t have things like that to connect to.
So am I disappointed that Bad Trip didn’t have a theatrical release? Sure. But psychically, it resonated with a lot of people during that really shitty time.
A couple months ago, Amazon Prime Video accidentally released Jason Statham’s Mutiny right before its theatrical release, so someone is still pressing the wrong buttons over there.
(Laughs.) I saw that.
But between Bad Trip’s reception and your TV work, you’d earned a chance to pitch on Street Fighter. Did you have to base your pitch on any assets or ideas that Danny and Michael Philippou had established before they left the project?
What they had developed was very loosely a Ken and Ryu story.
It makes sense that the Philippou brothers would focus on a fraternal relationship between Ken and Ryu.
(Laughs.) Yeah, it made a lot of sense to me, too, because I love stories about friendship. If you watch Bad Trip, that’s the kind of story I love to tell. So that very loose structure was there, and then I put my own spin on a story that, at its core, centered around this brotherhood arc between Ken and Ryu. But the rest of it had to be redone in the way that I saw fit.
Danny and Michael actually cameo in the movie. They’re fighting on the pickup truck in the foreground when you first establish M. Bison’s hotel. What’s funny is that, much like your homage to Raul Julia’s line in 1994’s Street Fighter, that’s a Tuesday for them. They do that kind of thing in their own time anyway.
(Laughs.) They’re great.
I also can’t think of another example where a former director(s) cameoed in a new director’s movie. [Writer’s Note: Director Richard Stanley appears as an extra in 1996’s The Island of Dr. Moreau, but only because he snuck onto the set after being fired.]
Part of the reason for including them was just a spiritual thing and to say, There’s no bad blood. We’re all part of the same family. So there was no animosity, and it’s all love. What they do is incredible, and while it didn’t work out with the timing of this movie, they’re still part of the family of people who love this franchise.
If you had pitched the Batman Begins of Street Fighter movies, would we be sitting here right now? Did they always want a tone that didn’t take itself too seriously?
We, for sure, wouldn’t be sitting here right now. The assignment specifically came about because of the spiritual nature of Street Fighter and the fact that it’s not gory. There’s a silliness to it, and there’s an absurdity to the world and the characters and how they interact. [Producer] Cale Boyter at Legendary really held the torch for this vision of Street Fighter that had a gonzo energy to it. I also love comedy and craziness and energy.
Sometimes things don’t necessarily need to make sense for you to lean in and love them. That was a big lesson from The Eric Andre Show. There’s a quote from a famous stand-up comic who says that if you do a 60-minute stand-up special, not every minute needs to be hilarious and funny, but every minute needs to be interesting. So there can be elements that are so ridiculous they might not track narratively or make sense conceptually, but because they’re part of an overall energy and feeling, they fit. So I kept that in mind when I was developing this film.
In my circle, I remember Street Fighter and Mortal Kombat being a lot like Star Wars and Star Trek. You had to choose a side. You couldn’t like both even though you very easily could. Did you get caught up in that at all?
I was a Street Fighter person. I didn’t play a lot of video games, but that was the one that resonated with me. We never owned a video game system. We were poor, so I would always go over to my friends’ houses to play, and that was the one people played.
I was born in Japan and grew up in Ohio, but family friends would send us manga and anime from Japan. So I discovered Street Fighter at a time when I was reading Dragon Ball Z, and the game really connected to the anime-manga interest that was already going on in my life.
Animation is used to deliver the film’s backstory. I was going to ask if that was partly a budgetary move, but it sounds like it was more about cultural influence and adding that mythmaking quality to the story. Quentin Tarantino did something similar in Kill Bill.
Totally, and Kill Bill was certainly an influence and inspiration. A modern movie would de-age actors or hire child actors. But since we were embracing this very gonzo ’90s spirit, we thought, What’s the craziest, most interesting choice? What about embracing anime-style animation? What if it was completely hand-drawn and not even VFX? What if we actually hired a team of animators to do this?
At the end of the day, it wasn’t a budgetary save because doing fully hand-drawn animation and working with all these animators isn’t a cheap or quick solution. In fact, the pipeline and how it works are so much longer than live-action, so there are a lot of things you have to do to make room for that kind of choice. But I love it, and people seem to be really resonating with it.
I assume you cleared 4 Non Blondes’ “What’s Up?” well before filming started. Did you have a contingency in case Linda Perry said no?
We were considering a number of songs, but there was no obvious backup. “What’s Up?” felt the most right for us, lyrically, conceptually, and tonally. It was just like, Yeah, that’s the one we want. So Linda Perry and her orbit thought it was a good idea, too, and it just felt like kismet.
Jordan Peele was thanked in the credits. Did he offer you guys notes or anything like that?
During the pitching phase, when I was trying to get the movie, I consulted with Jordan. He gave some really good advice. There’s very archetypal dynamics between Ken and Ryu, and comedy can flow from that. So he was a really good sounding board for those dynamics between the two main characters.
Did you know him from the comedy world?
Yeah, we have mutual friends. John Francis Daley is our good mutual friend, and so we know each other socially. There’s a supper club that I cook at a lot, and he’s always around. So I ‘ve bent his ear a few times.
Jason Momoa showing up for two scenes, did Legendary engineer that since they’ve worked with him so many times?
I wouldn’t say Legendary engineered it. Jason Momoa, because he has such a relationship with Legendary, just really advocated for the role. He was like, “I need to be Blanka.” So he knew the right people to talk to, but he was always incredibly passionate about wanting to play this character.
(Spoiler warning.) Instead of taking down M. Bison (David Dastmalchian), the ending focuses more on reconciling Ryu and Ken’s relationship. Was Bison always going to be left dangling for potential follow-ups?
Yeah, that was the idea. It’s a 40-year-old franchise with six main games and 30 to 40-something sub-games. The idea that the story should continue, or at least leave room for it to continue, seemed like a must within the context of the fact that this world is so huge. I don’t want to make a movie that, at the end, is like, Alright, that’s it. We’ve wrapped it up.
(Spoiler warning.) The mid-credit scene then sets up another story as Bison seeks out Sagat. Is preliminary writing underway on a sequel if the box office and home markets call for it?
It’s something we’re thinking about. We haven’t put pen to paper. This is a story that we all love, and I would love to tell more of it. I think everybody in the cast had such an incredible time, so there’s certainly interest in it. But there’s nothing set in stone or any concrete plans.
Do you and Beef star Cailee Spaeny feel guilty over the fact that you’ve collectively ruined freshly squeezed orange juice for so many people?
(Laughs.) Have we? Maybe, maybe.
I literally have not touched the stuff since I saw that episode.
Yeah, it’s quite visceral. I love that Beef can take these things that are pedestrian and give you this indescribable, creepy feeling. There’s a certain quality to the writing.
Big Orange Juice must loathe Kitao Sakurai. Even Sunny Delight doesn’t like you.
(Laughs.) Yeah, Sunny Delight has a target on my back.
Did you meet Sonny (Beef creator Lee Sung Jin) and director Jake Schreier on Dave?
I met Jake much earlier, but I met Sonny on Dave. Sonny had written [season two’s] Rick Rubin episode, and that episode in particular allowed the show to take on this more surreal A24-esque turn, especially in season three. We just loved working together. I loved his script, and he really liked what I did with the episode. So that led to wanting to work together on Beef.
Was it just the luck of the draw that you landed Dave season three’s Brad Pitt episode?
I wouldn’t say it was luck of the draw. Dave [Burd] and I had a special kind of artistic relationship where I understood what he wanted to strive for. His ambitions for the show were maybe a bit hard to articulate, and what I helped him do was realize the show’s more cinematic potential. It could do things that weren’t quite as expected from a show like that, but I knew that, within what Dave wanted, they would work. So the Brad Pitt episode is the natural culmination of what we’d been working toward.
The lines between TV and features are as blurred as they’ve ever been, but it must’ve been bizarre to have Brad Pitt on a TV set.
It was bizarre. There was a lot of nervousness leading up to the first day of shooting. We were like, What’s Brad going to be like? It was also all nightshoots, so it wasn’t the easiest thing. Brad wanted to do the show, so we knew there was enthusiasm going in, but we didn’t know exactly how to cater the production to him.
As soon as he got on set, though, it was very clear that he was fully all-in. Usually, actors will go back to their trailer after they’ve done a scene, and then you have the AD department call them back for a rehearsal or whatever. But Brad never once went to his trailer. Throughout the entire episode, he was on set the whole time. He would second-team for himself, acting as his own stand-in and going over his lines near the camera.
He was such a part of the production in a way that was remarkable to witness, and everybody else stepped up their game to the maximum level. It was a really beautiful experience.
Lastly, decades from now, when you reminisce about Street Fighter, what day will you likely recall first?
A few days before production started, we were doing our final camera test. It was the first time all our actors had really stepped into their costumes and makeup in front of our anamorphic C-series lenses from the ’70s. It was the first time everybody had stepped into their roles, and it was the first time I knew it would work as a film. It didn’t feel like cosplay or people pretending to do this silly thing. I was seeing these characters as real people, stepping out of the game and into three-dimensional space.
That vibe was shared by the entire crew. Everybody got shivers from that moment, and we kept talking about it throughout production. It felt like something magical happened, and it just worked. It set the stage for everybody to commit so fully and embrace their roles with such wholeheartedness. I’ll certainly never forget that.
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Street Fighter is now playing in movie theaters.