Chow Kang is a minor character in Mortal Kombat franchise. Chow is Liu Kang's younger brother. His whereabout was unknown before the first Mortal Kombat Tournament.[1][2]
Appearance in other media[]
Mortal Kombat (1995 film)[]
Liu Kang's brother is renamed Chan in the 1995 film Mortal Kombat.
After his older brother left the Shaolin Monks and went to America, Chan took Liu Kang's place and began training for the upcoming Mortal Kombat Tournament. One night, the sorcerer Shang Tsung visited the Monks' Temple and confronted Chan. The two fought, but Chan was easily defeated by the sorcerer. Shang Tsung killed Chan and took his soul, leaving a cryptic message for Liu as a warning. Chan's dead body was found the next morning by his grandfather and fellow Monks.
Hence, Liu Kang decided to enter the tournament to avenge his death. Liu Kang had harbored feelings of guilt for not being able to protect his brother since Chan's death. During the final battle between Liu Kang and Shang Tsung, the sorcerer attempted to confuse Liu Kang in order to killed him by morphing into his brother. While initially shocked by the image of Chan, Liu did not fall for the trick, though Shang Tsung temporarily gain upper hands. However, Liu Kang managed to fight back and defeated Shang Tsung, resulting in the release of all the souls that had been taken by the sorcerer, including Chan, who greeted his brother. Before ascending to the afterlife, he told Liu that his spirit would always be with him until they were reunited.
—Chan's farewell to Liu Kang |
Mortal Kombat (novel)[]
In the novel Mortal Kombat, Chow Kang was Liu Kang's year-older brother and the two grew up in the Hô-Nan Province of China.
Liu Kang used to play a game with Chow. One of them would sneak up on the other and pounce when he least expected it. The only time and place this was forbidden was when they were mending their father Lee Kang's fishing nets. Everything else was fair game: when one of them was asleep, when one was courting, even when one was using the chamber pot.
To make it more interesting, the brothers kept score: each surprise and take-down was worth two points for the attacker; each surprise followed by a take-down by the defender was worth three points for the defender, none for the attacker. The boys recorded the score in a notebook, and at the end of ten years, when Liu left home to visit the United States, the score was 18,250 for Liu, 18,283 for Chow.
Liu had insisted that the decade's worth of scores be retotalled, and for all he knew Chow had done it. However, shortly after he reached the United States, his parents died in a plague and his brother disappeared – to where, why, and how he never learned, though one day he vowed he would.
As Liu approached the village of Wuhu, Liu had experienced feelings like those of long ago when he used to sneak up on Chow.
Mortal Kombat (Mayday Comics)[]
In issue 1 of Mortal Kombat, Chan's spirit visits the Shaolin elder and requests to take over the body of Huo-Ho, the best warrior of the temple, so that he can participate in the Mortal Kombat tournament. His request is granted, and he travels to Shang Tsung's Island, attacking the sorcerer directly. However, Tsung easily defeats him and sucks his soul, handing Outworld its second victory in the tournament and overall dominance.
Notes[]
- Although "Liu", a common Chinese surname, is generally treated as Liu Kang's family name as seen in various localizations in Asia, his surname is "Kang" in Mortal Kombat Collector's Edition, the SNES manual of Mortal Kombat, and the 1995 film.
- Chan was portrayed by Steven Ho in the 1995 film Mortal Kombat.[3][4]
- Liu Kang's brother is simply credited as "Chan" in the 1995 film Mortal Kombat as well as the novelizations. In the film, the siblings refer each other as "Liu" and "Chan". Since siblings usually refer each other by given name, the character is generally referred as Chan Kang off-screen.
- Chan's demise in the film could be inspired from Chow's status of missing in the background story of the MKI game.
Gallery[]
