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Pay Your Respects - Getting To Know Bo' Rai Cho

BanTheTesters

“My AGENT is tougher than you...”
Moderator
Hey all, its Jay aka BanTheTesters here back again on the page to give you all new thrills and chills about everything that is MK. As the release of MKXL and the Kombat Pack 2 rolls ahead I figured I would write a bit about some of the characters from the Kombat Packs that we may not know all that well or possibly just have little to no knowledge about and shine some light on their backgrounds and character influences while diving a bit into their backstories. Today we are looking at Bo Rai Cho who is coming to us in just over a week, so hold your breath, drink up, and let’s dive in shell we?



Outworld born teacher Bo Rai Cho (Voiced by Carlose Pesina up until MKX where he is voiced among others by Steven Blum of Cowboy Bebop fame) first made his playable video game debut in Mortal Kombat: Deadly Alliance released in November 2002. This is interesting in itself because it has been said that Bo Rai is a very important character to the Mortal Kombat lore, having Kitana giving him command over her army to battle the Tarkatan’s!


Raiden is making that “Silent But Deadly” trapped in an Elevator look eh..?


Other friends of Bo's include Kung Lao and Lui Kang while his enemies include Shang Tsung, Quan Chi, and Baraka as well as Shao Kahn so its safe to say that we should assume that these characters should have some pretty heavy pre-fight dialogue in MKX to look forward to. Backstory wise Bo Rai has been training fighters for years on end but his success came in the form of Lui Kang. However disaster strikes and seals the fate of Lui Kang and in turn Bo Rai begins training Kung Lao to do battle against the evil forces (not to be confused by the Special Forces..) that Lui Kang had briefly became a part of.


Before and After workout Pictures of Bo Rai Cho...


Bo Rai Cho was made as a joke character right alongside of Mk’s very own Johnny Cage. His name actually comes from the Spanish word “Borracho” meaning “drunk” (the team figured that word broken up made for “a very Asian sounded word” as a whole)… the MK developers were hoping people caught that little detail right out of the gate back when Deadly Alliance debuted. While Rai’s outward appearance is that of a complete near black out drunkard he has been said by character artist Steve Beran that he is considered “one of the most powerful characters in the game”.


Empty hands equals more drinks!


The creation of this character was Ed Boons idea because he “basically wanted a character that was gross/a slob..puking and farting everywhere..” Epic sound guy Dan Forden came up with the farting and other bodily noises one hears from Bo Rai throughout his stay in the Mk Franchise. Animator John Vogel had said that another reason the character was created was because the team liked the idea that Mortal Kombat “finally had a Teacher type character in it like most Martial Arts films did”. Speaking of martial arts films there was one film that may have influenced the team we might want to take a look at…


The look on your face when you are about to let one rip…


Many martial arts movie fans know stunt man and actor Jackie Chan for his various stunt work in films such as the Rush Hour Series or his cartoon Jackie Chan Adventures ( Chan did not voice himself in that cartoon but was voiced by James Sie of Uncharted 2 and Kung Fu Panda fame). Chan who has made over 100 films stared as folk hero “Wong Fei-Hung” in a little movie called Drunken Master in Octorber 1978. While most audiences don’t remember said film they might have possibly seen his “reboot” 1994 film (Ultimate and Mortal Kombat 3 were released in 1995…) Drunken Master 2 (titled The legend of Drunken Master here in the states) which was named by Time Magazine as “One of the top 100 best films of all Time!”.




Jackie Chan: So bad-ass He punches through a poster..without breaking a Sweat..


Jackie Chan plays Wong Fei-Hung and guy who has to fight against the corruption of the British Consults to get back his Martial Arts school. Early on in the film Chan’s character fights an officer using the style of “Drunken Boxing” also known as “Zui Quan” similar to what we see Bo Rai Cho use in the Mortal Kombat series. “Zui Quan” is a style that can be used for fighting AND for maintaining a healthy lifestyle but most that use it focus on the combative aspect of the art. While focusing on actions, skill, and movement the overall goal is to win by basically confusing the heck out of your opponent. The emphasis on speed is essential; practitioners must not only have great eyesight but amazing speed as well.


A whole new meaning to the word “Posted Up"


While this may seem awesome to hear I have some pretty bad news. The overall nature of the martial art is to Deceive the opponent, tricking them into thinking you are actually a drunk slob. See the general perception of Drunken Boxing at least in the media has been that the users are always drunk or have to be drunk to fight, this is an incorrect assumption. According to Master Phillip Wong “falling” is the most important part of the art. If one were really drunk or did not properly master the art of falling for this style of combat it could result in serious back and head injuries…so in other words you can’t just watch a Jackie Chan flick and start imitating the moves or even try to study them that way as the results could be disastrous. It should also be noted that semi closed hands and not “fist” are used for combat which tricks your opponent or “baits” them to make mistakes in combat (kind of like fighting games eh..?).​



Come on Jackie can I at least get the Button Notations?


It’s good to see Bo Rai Co (who’s fighting styles from Alliance to Armageddon included “Drunken Fist", "Mi Zong", "Sumo" and weapon of choice a Jojutsu or “short Staff” which is also back as a variation called “Bartitsu” in the new game) back in action with us for MKX. He was a playable character from Deadly Alliance (if you all have been keeping up with the Kombat Network streams you all should know how much @Tom Brady LOVES Mk Deadly Alliance) all the way to Armageddon, with cameos in MK9 (MK 2011) and MKX but now he will be in the flesh this year!


Bo Rai comes back with a throw that is a shout-out to his Fatality from Deadly Alliance (the “Belly Flop” Fatality) along with other classic move’s such as “Monkey Flips” (an overhead move) his signature “Fart” (an advantage on block, combo pressure starter which due to the TERRIBLE smell causes stun and can also be used as a Frame Trap against opponents) ,his Earthquake move (which is an unblock able move that causes decent damage) the “Puke Puddle” (in the form of an un-blockable X-Ray attack!) and his “Belly Bash (a mid-range move) also from Deadly Alliance! He also has some new tricks up his sleeve including the an anti-air fire move and “Dragons Breath” where he spews fire out of his mouth (like a Dragon of course) and the ability leave fire on the ground a la Riptor from Killer Instinct AND to Light his Farts on Fire….you did indeed read that last part correctly, you can light farts on fire South Park style!

LOOK at that air breaker animation…LOL



Well that about raps it up for today’s post hope everyone learned a little something new from our Master Bo Rai Co! Again big shout-out to @Tim Static and the gang and I’ll be back with more in a few days, thanks for reading!​


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WATCHD0G

Noob
Never thought i would prefer leatherface to Bo. i dunno what it is but i just don't like his gameplay. so far leather face and Triborg are gonna be my new mains
 

BanTheTesters

“My AGENT is tougher than you...”
Moderator
Never thought i would prefer leatherface to Bo. i dunno what it is but i just don't like his gameplay. so far leather face and Triborg are gonna be my new mains
Nothing unusual about that man, there are a lot of people (a very high majority as he's been rated on a lot of "Top X dumbest characters website lists..but i dig him lol..) who aren't fans of Bo Rai's i think he looks quite fun here (one of his variations has a kind of Hakan SfIV feel to it), but nothing wrong with preference man!

I can already tell Leatherface is going to be a solid character with some of the tools he has been given...lol
 

WATCHD0G

Noob
Nothing unusual about that man, there are a lot of people (a very high majority as he's been rated on a lot of "Top X dumbest characters website lists..but i dig him lol..) who aren't fans of Bo Rai's i think he looks quite fun here (one of his variations has a kind of Hakan SfIV feel to it), but nothing wrong with preference man!

I can already tell Leatherface is going to be a solid character with some of the tools he has been given...lol
Yeah i think he just looks too complicated to me and LF seems more straight forward....and i don't think he will be a bad character at all just not my style
 

BanTheTesters

“My AGENT is tougher than you...”
Moderator
One little correction - Bo didn't train Shujinko in Deadly Alliance, he trained him in Deception. Other than that, well done!
You know I literally noticed that the Day after and logged on and didnt have time to fix it lol?

Edited, and Corrected! :)

Glad you enjoyed the article man, more to come soon and thanks!
 
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BanTheTesters

“My AGENT is tougher than you...”
Moderator
Yeah i think he just looks too complicated to me and LF seems more straight forward....and i don't think he will be a bad character at all just not my style
Yea Leatherface looks like hes got some really good stuff going on, i'm surprised he also has that zoning variations as well...i think hes going to be quite popular haha

Itll be interesting to see which Variation people go with the most as i'm curious...
 

WATCHD0G

Noob
Yea Leatherface looks like hes got some really good stuff going on, i'm surprised he also has that zoning variations as well...i think hes going to be quite popular haha

Itll be interesting to see which Variation people go with the most as i'm curious...
It's gonna be either Killer or butcher....I just love the way both play so far but i think i might go with butcher more though....THAT BRUTALITY