Fei Long

"Float like a moth, sting like a hornet."

- Fei Long (Street Fighter 4)

Fei-Long (フェイロン) is a character in the Street Fighter series. He is Capcom's tribute to Kung Fu Legend Bruce Lee, who was the actual inspiration for Fei Long's design itself. He first appeared as one of the four "New Challengers" in Super Street Fighter II, which was released in 1993. He later made his return in the Alpha series as well as the Street Fighter 4 series. Other media appearances he has made involve Street Fighter II: The Animated Movie and also the anime, Street Fighter II V.

Character Basis
Fei-Long is a tribute to the Kung Fu movie legend Bruce Lee. Not only do the two look alike and come from the same city, Fei-Long also lets out similar battle cries to Lee, and is just as furious and fast. Also, Fei Long is Mandarin for "flying dragon", as well as a type of kick. Bruce Lee's Chinese screen name was 李 小龍 (Li Xiao-Long) or "little dragon." He was one of the early Bruce Lee inspired characters in fighting games, after Kim Dragon from World Heroes and Liu Kang from Mortal Kombat, but predating Marshall Law and his son Forrest Law from the Tekken series, Li Long and Maxi from the Soul series, and Jann Lee from the Dead or Alive series.

Personality
Fei Long is serious most of the time. He is also shown to be calm at times. The best example of this is in his rival fight against Abel, where he is shown to be in a normal mood at first but all of a sudden loses his temper just as the frenchman repeatedly asks him for a fight. There are also times when Fei Long is shown to be a little cocky. This can be seen by many of his personal actions and also win quotes against certain characters. He is full of fighting spirit as shown in a lot of his win quotes and takes great pride in his fighting style which he seeks to honor it in all ways possible. He also despises all that is evil. Fei Long also enjoys a good match, although he is a famous martial arts movie's actor, he stills takes his time to appear at underground fighting areas to find a worthy opponent to spar (which can be seen in Street Fighter II: The Animated Movie).

Story
A youthful and talented man from Hong Kong, Fei Long began training in Kung Fu from the age of six, eventually developing his own form, and fought on the streets to sharpen his skills until he caught the eye of a movie director, who got him into the movie business.

Street Fighter Alpha 3
Engaging in street fights in search of inspiration, Fei Long attracts the attention of the criminal organization Shadaloo, which tries to recruit him by force, sending Balrog and Vega after him. After the destruction of the Psycho Drive, a film based on these events is put into production with Fei Long as the star, catapulting him into the big time and making him an international sensation.

Super Street Fighter II
He makes a string of action movies until he participates in the second World Warrior tournament. During the tournament, he realizes that he prefers the real thing to the staged, choreographed fight scenes in his movies, and gives up his career to disappear into the streets. Despite this, he soon returns to the world of cinema.

Super Street Fighter IV
Fei Long returns to the world tournament stage, after Shadaloo agents are suspected of attacking stage hands and co-stars in the movie he is working on. It transpires that the plot of the movie bears a dangerous resemblance to S.I.N. operations, which is what attracted their attention to the movie's cast and crew. During his journey, Fei Long encounters various fighters. First there is a young girl named Makoto who wants to fight Fei Long in order to build the reputation for her dojo. Fei Long, seeing great enthusiasm in the girl, agrees. He later encounters a man named Abel, who turns out to be an admirer of Fei Long and requests Fei Long to fight him, to which he also agrees. After their bout, Fei Long departs to continue his mandatory goal. Fei Long then faces and defeats the man behind the attack on his movie crew and the host of the tournament, Seth. When Fei-Long demands answers from Seth (or one of his copies), Seth replies that "Sometimes the media can get too close to the truth". However the conversation is interrupted when a kunai (a ninja throwing dagger) strikes Seth in the neck, killing him. Fei-Long leaves the S.I.N building without answers. When Fei Long returns to the set, however, he is confronted again by Abel. Abel, having heard that Fei Long plans to investigate further into S.I.N. and Shadaloo, wants to help but also to warn Fei Long of the danger. When Fei Long replies that it's "Not a problem", Abel is satisfied, having had a feeling he would say that. He then asks "Where do I begin?"

Street Fighter II: The Animated Movie
Fei Long makes an appearance in this movie. He faces Ryu in a fierce battle. At first he appears to be getting the upper hand but then Ryu begins to retaliate. This gets Fei Long angry and leads to him hitting Ryu with the Shienkyaku knocking Ryu down. Ryu then quickly manages to get back on his feet and hits Fei Long with the Tatsumaki Senpuu Kyaku, thus knocking Fei Long out. Afterwards, Fei Long is shown with a cast on his arm, walking with Ryu. The two appear to have formed a quiet friendship. Fei Long tells Ryu about Sagat joining Shadaloo after witnessing defeat to him. Fei Long then says good bye to Ryu and the two warriors walk their own paths.

Street Fighter II V
One of Dorai's best students, he is now an up-and-coming martial arts movie star whose insistence on "making the fight real" rapidly becomes detrimental to production, due mainly to damaged props and public property as well as injuries to the stunt doubles. Ken Masters briefly volunteers to be his opposite in a fight scene while touring Hong Kong with Ryu and Chun-Li, but the destruction caused by the fight forced the director to halt the filming and cut the scene completely. Later, upon learning of his Master's supposed "death", he become distraught with grief and seeks to avenge him. While visiting the hospital where Dorai was taken, the Chief of Interpol informs Fei-Long of the charade. Later still, Fei-Long with the assistance of Cammy, after a brief fight with her in Dorai's hospital quarters, identifies Balrog as the Shadowlaw operative who ordered the hit on Dorai.

Techniques
Fei-Long has two special techniques in his debut appearance in Super Street Fighter II. The Rekkaken (烈火拳) is a series of rushing punches towards his enemy. When the player inputs the Rekkaken command while Fei-Long is already performing the technique, he will follow it with another Rekkaken. He can perform up to three in a row, the third ending in a different cry and a cooldown that plays off of Bruce Lee's notable finale of tensing himself after the final blow. The Shienkyaku (熾炎脚), his other special technique in Super, is a jumping flame kick. This technique is also referred as the Rising Dragon Kick, due to its similarity with Ryu and Ken's Shoryuken (Rising Dragon Punch) and its similar input command. He gains an additional special technique and his first Super Combo Shienrenkyaku (熾炎連脚) in Super Street Fighter II Turbo. The Rekkukyaku (裂空脚) is a technique in which Fei-Long jumps towards the opponent with a spread kick. His Super Combo is the Rekkashinken (烈火真拳), a more powerful version of the Rekkakens. '''

In Street Fighter Alpha 3, he has all of his techniques from Super Turbo and two new Super Combos in A-ism mode. There is a more powerful version of the Shienkyaku. The Ryuhassai (龍八砕) is a Lv.3-only Super Combo in which he punches an opponent and then uppercuts them into the air, followed by a jump kick. If the move connects at maximum distance, then it becomes the Ryu Shin Hassai and does much more damage.

In Street Fighter 4, Fei Long retains his old Rekkaken punches and Shienkyaku whilst gaining new moves such as Rekkukyaku and Tenshin. The Rekkukyaku involves Fei Long performing a flying kick which he then branches into a front flip kick. The Tenshin is a grab in which Fei Long hooks his leg to the opponents and flips over them. This move allows him to catch the opponent off guard and set up certain combos. He retains his Super Street Fighter 2 Super Combo, the Rekkashinken and gains a new Ultra combo called the Rekkashingeki. It starts with Fei Long doing a couple of Rekkakens which eventually lead to a devastating punch to the opponents mid-section. After that, Fei Long procedes on to deliver a series of fury punches leading to a powerful uppercut which launches the opponent in the air and finishes them off by following up with a ferocious flaming flying kick.

In Super Street Fighter 4, Fei Long has a new Ultra Combo which is a counter move called the Gekirinken. It starts with Fei Long countering his opponents attack by delivering a hard jump kick to the back of their leg, temporarily stunning it followed by a barrage of fast and deadly punches which he performs whilst standing side ways. He then switches sides, places his fist on the opponents chest and finishes them of with the One Inch Punch.

Reception
The Seattle Times described Fei-Long as "the deadliest" of the new characters introduced in Super Street Fighter II. IGN ranked Fei-Long at number nineteen in their "Top 25 Street Fighter Characters" article, stating "If there's any martial arts star who deserves a video game homage, though, Bruce Lee is probably the one. Fei Long helped begin a long...string of characters inspired by the Kung Fu icon Bruce Lee".

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Trivia

 * Along with Akuma, Fei Long was the only original Street Fighter character not to appear in the Street Fighter movie although it is assumed that the movie exclusive character Captain Sawada is his replacement (although Akuma did appear in the game based on the movie whereas Fei Long was dropped due to time constrains).
 * Interestingly compared to all the other Bruce Lee based characters from other franchises, Fei Long's story and background matches Bruce Lee's the closest.
 * In Street Fighter 4, one of Fei Long's win quotes are "Float like a Moth, Sting like a Hornet". This can be seen as a reference/tribute to the quote said by the legendary boxer Muhammed Ali which was "Float like a Butterfly, Sting like a Bee". It also combines the word hornet with the quote further refrencing Lee as he played Kato in the Green Hornet Television series.
 * Fei Long's alternate outfit in Street Fighter 4 is of Bruce Lee's fight attire from the opening scene of Enter the Dragon. His second alternate outfit in Super Street Fighter 4 is of Kato who was a character played by Bruce Lee in the TV series, The Green Hornet. His third alternate outfit resembles a suit that Bruce Lee wore back in his days.
 * Fei Long is among the only two characters in Super Street Fighter 4 who have been given a counter ultra with the other character being Cammy.
 * Fei Long only eats Chinese food according to his win quote against El Fuerte in Super Street Fighter 4.
 * Fei Long is one of the 19 characters in Street Fighter 4 to not have second rivals in Super Street Fighter 4, despite having a ultra combo video which hinted he had a second rival (Gen).
 * Fei Long wears a top in his Super Street Fighter 2 and SSF2 Turbo portrait, despite not wearing one in normal gameplay.
 * In his ending for Super Street Fighter 2 he somewhat mentions Bruce Lee and his son Brandon Lee when he says "There can never be another legend like the great one and his son." Also Bruce Lee's statue can be seen when the students are training.