Lei Wulong

Lei Wulong (雷 武龍(レイ・ウーロン), Rei Ūron, pinyin: Léi Wǔlóng) is a fictional character from the Tekken fighting game series. Tekken 2 introduces him as a respected police officer who puts countless criminals behind bars. The game goes on to detail his investigation of Mishima Zaibatsu's illegal hunting and trading of protected species. He continues to fight against Mishima Zaibatsu in Tekken 3, 4, 5, and 6. He also appears in other Tekken media, as a playable character in DLC for Street Fighter X Tekken and several non-canonical Tekken games. Lei is a homage to Jackie Chan, as the latter's period kung fu films heavily influence the former's fighting styles. Critics have received the character positively.

Appearances

During Tekken 2 and Tekken 3, Lei is a respected police officer (dubbed Super Cop) who puts countless criminals behind bars. He investigates Mishima Zaibatsu's illegal hunting and trading of protected animals during Tekken 2 and fights Bruce Irvin, a former cop and his former comrade who works for Kazuya Mishima. Lei defeats Bruce, who escapes in a plane that crashes. He discovers the crash is staged and doubts Bruce's supposed demise.

After the third tournament, Lei continues his job as a crime investigator. However, his reputation wanes because his girlfriend dumps him for his assistant and he has failed to solve several crimes. When he discovers a syndicate will send assassin Nina Williams to assassinate professional boxer Steve Fox, he sets out to stop her to restore his reputation by joining The King of Iron Fist Tournament 4. He tracks down Nina and prevents her from killing Steve, but she escapes through a window. Upon chasing after Nina, he has her at gunpoint, but Steve intervenes and saves Nina by tackling Lei to the ground. However, Lei stops the organization that sent Nina and becomes famous.

Lei enters The King of Iron Fist Tournament 5 to search for Feng Wei, who has been destroying dojos in China and Japan. Asuka Kazama is also searching for Feng because he nearly killed her father, one of the dojo owners Feng sought. Lei informs her that Feng may enter the fifth tournament. At the same time, he is also attempting to destroy the Mishima Zaibatsu with the help of Steve Fox. In pursuit of Feng for his criminal offenses, the military sends Lei to Japan. As the trail for Feng grows cold, Lei has no choice but to return to Hong Kong. With China in utter chaos and frequent riots, Lei discerns that the Mishima Zaibatsu is behind everything.

In an attempt to arrest Jin Kazama, Lei enters The King of the Iron Fist Tournament 6. He assisted Lars Alexandersson and Alisa Bosconovitch in defeating the G Corporation's forces at ICPO and telling them that Kazuya claimed the Corporation after eliminating all who opposed him. Unlike the majority of characters, he appears as an ally in the Scenario Campaign mode of the console version.

Lei appears as a playable character in non-canonical Tekken games Tekken Card Challenge, Tekken Tag Tournament, Tekken Tag Tournament 2 and Tekken 3D: Prime Edition. He also appears as a playable character via DLC in Street Fighter X Tekken, with his official tag partner, Christie Monteiro.

Other media

Lei appears in the original video animation Tekken: The Motion Picture, in which he is partnered with Jun Kazama to investigate Heihachi Mishima and the Mishima Zaibatsu during the tournament. Rather than actually competing in the tournament, Lei infiltrates the island's underground base with Jack-2's help. Lei appears briefly in the 2011 CGI film Tekken: Blood Vengeance, appearing on Ling Xiaoyu's phone sending her a text message informing her that Heihachi Mishima is confirmed alive.

Background

Just as Marshall Law bears a resemblance to Bruce Lee, Lei bears a strong resemblance to Jackie Chan - to the point where he is voiced by Hiroya Ishimaru, Chan's official Japanese voice actor, who also plays a super cop in some of his movies like the Police Story series. The fighting style of Lei Wulong is called the Five animals-style kung-fu. The style includes elements of tiger, crane, leopard, snake and dragon kung fu. Lei Wulong has also some techniques from Zui Quan, also known as the drunken fist.^[1]

Reception

About his introduction in Tekken 2, VG247 stated "his multi-stance move set delivered incredible depth that was foreign to the fighting genre at the time."^[2] UGO Networks placed Lei among the 50 "greatest fictional detectives of all time" in 2008, describing him as "the longtime star of the Tekken franchise".^[3] In 2010, 1UP.com listed Lei as one of the characters they wanted to see in Street Fighter X Tekken.^[4] In GamesRadar article for Street Fighter X Tekken, they stated "If you need any more proof he's based on Jackie Chan, Lei's also an expert in Drunken Boxing."^[5] In 2012, Kotaku's Evan Narcisse called Lei his favorite fighting game character.^[6] In 2013, Complex named Lei the eighth best "Tekken" character, commenting: "Inspired by Jackie Chan, Lei Wulong is strictly for Tekken experts."^[1] In 2013, 4thletter placed Lei's Tekken Tag Tournament 2 ending at 163rd place in their list "The Top 200 Fighting Game Endings".^[7] WatchMojo named Lei as one of the "honorable mention" characters in their list of top ten Tekken characters and for his resemblance to Jackie Chan, they ranked him as the sixth "best video game character based on celebrities", adding: "Wether [sic] it's the classic martial arts' animal stances, the drunken fighting style, or just kicking and punching, they all came from the master."^[8][9]

References