Ada Wong | |
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Resident Evil character | |
First game | Resident Evil 2 (1998) |
Created by | Hideki Kamiya Noboru Sugimura |
Designed by | Isao Ohishi |
Voiced by |
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Motion capture | Various
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Portrayed by | Li Bingbing ( Retribution ) [10] Lily Gao ( Welcome to Raccoon City ) [11] |
In-universe information | |
Nationality | Chinese-American [12] |
Ada Wong [lower-alpha 1] is a character in Resident Evil (Biohazard in Japan), a survival horror video game series created by the Japanese company Capcom. She was introduced as a supporting character in Resident Evil 2 (1998), before becoming a playable character in Resident Evil 4 (2005). Ada is a mysterious spy and mercenary who is often hired by villains, such as Albert Wesker, though she has betrayed her employers for her own agendas and saved protagonist Leon S. Kennedy from dire situations.
Ada appears in several Resident Evil games, novelizations, and films, and has also featured in other game franchises, including Project X Zone , Teppen , and Dead by Daylight . Several actresses have portrayed the character, including Sally Cahill in her initial video game appearance, and Li Bingbing and Lily Gao in the live-action Resident Evil films.
Video game publications described Ada as among the best Asian female video game characters. She has received both acclaim and criticism with regard to gender representation in video games. Several publications praised her portrayal as a morally ambiguous femme fatale , while others argued she was a product of the male gaze.
Ada Wong is an American woman of Chinese descent. [13] [12] She was conceived for Resident Evil 2 as a white-coat-clad researcher named Linda who aids the player throughout the game, [14] but this changed after game director Hideki Kamiya and other staff members expressed interest in developing her into a full character. [15] When the question of the character's nature arose during a staff meeting, developer Kazunori Kadoi randomly wrote "Ada" without much thought and the name remained unchanged. Writer Noboru Sugimura expanded upon Ada's backstory and made her a spy sent to infiltrate the Umbrella Corporation, a pharmaceutical company responsible for a zombie outbreak. [15] Ada's cutscene model was not completed on time for the game's release, making her the only main character to be omitted from the game's cinematics. [16] Ada's appearance was designed by Capcom artist Isao Ohishi. [17]
Ada and protagonist Leon S. Kennedy meet for the first time in Resident Evil 2, and gradually develop a relationship as they save each other's lives throughout the game's events. Their relationship in the 2019 remake of Resident Evil 2 is more intimate; they kiss earlier in the game. In a 2019 interview with Siliconera , Kamiya said he believed expediting the kiss "works out because it makes Ada feel more manipulative of Leon". [18] Ada's revealing red dress is initially covered by a beige trench coat in the remake. Co-director Kazunori Kadoi said "wandering around in that dress just getting on with your job as a spy probably doesn't look as realistic and believable as we want in this new game". [19] Ada and Leon's relationship is further explored in Resident Evil 4 and its "Separate Ways" downloadable content (DLC). [12] For the 2023 remake of Resident Evil 4, Ada's costume was redesigned as a red, woolly jumper with a leather holster [20] to remove her "shady", sexualized persona. [9] In "Separate Ways", she uses a grappling gun for both combat and traversal. [21]
In Resident Evil 6 , players can unlock Ada after completing three individual character scenarios, which according to executive producer Hiroyuki Kobayashi makes her storyline "more enjoyable" and enhances her ambiguity because "one of the themes of Ada's story is a lone spy working in secret". [22]
Ada was intended to appear in Resident Evil Village as a "mysterious masked person" who saves Ethan Winters, but was cut from the game due to "conflicting scenarios". [23]
Voice actress Sally Cahill played Ada Wong in her initial video game appearance in Resident Evil 2, and reprised the role in Resident Evil 4 and Resident Evil: The Darkside Chronicles . [24] Cahill described Ada as an "oddity" and a "mystery", stating: "Not all is played out. [Ada] holds her cards close to her body and only lets you see so much. Now and then bits and pieces of her break through in the dialogue and the read, even the crack in my voice." [24] Megan Hollingshead voiced Ada in Resident Evil: The Umbrella Chronicles , [1] while Courtenay Taylor provided her voice in Resident Evil: Operation Raccoon City , Resident Evil 6, and Resident Evil: Damnation . [1] [25]
Michelle Lee performed the motion capture for Ada in Resident Evil 6; Lee said the process was "definitely a challenge" and that "the amazing team ... were very specific on how [Ada] moved, her specific characteristics and even how she stood still". [7] Jolene Andersen provided both the voice and motion capture for Ada in the 2019 remake of Resident Evil 2, [26] having previously done the motion capture performance for the character in Resident Evil: Damnation. [8] Lily Gao, who played Ada in the reboot film Resident Evil: Welcome to Raccoon City , [11] provided the character's voice and motion capture in the 2023 remake of Resident Evil 4, [27] making her the first Asian actress in the series to both voice and portray Ada on-screen. [9]
For the character's non-canonical appearances, Shannon Chan-Kent voiced Ada in Puzzle Fighter , [1] while Vicky Psarakis voiced her in Dead by Daylight . [2] Junko Minagawa voiced Ada in the Japanese versions of Resident Evil: Operation Raccoon City, Resident Evil 6, Project X Zone 2 , Teppen , and the remakes of Resident Evil 2 and Resident Evil 4, [1] while Rie Tanaka voiced her in Resident Evil: Welcome to Raccoon City. [6]
Chinese actress Li Bingbing portrayed Ada in Resident Evil: Retribution , the fifth installment of the live-action Resident Evil film series; original voice actress Sally Cahill dubbed over Li's voice, as director Paul W. S. Anderson wanted Ada to retain her American accent from the games, which Li had trouble speaking in. [28] Although she was unfamiliar with the games, Li researched the character and received firearms training during filming. [10] [29] Producer Jeremy Bolt said fans were "very, very pleased with all of our choices [in the film], particularly Li Bingbing, who plays Ada Wong. They visited us on set last week, and they were really blown away by her." [30] Producer Robert Kulzer said Li was "perfectly cast", adding: "In addition to being an extremely talented actor, she's sharp, sexy and smart—all qualities that the Ada Wong character had to have." [31] Li found wearing Ada's revealing qipao cold and uncomfortable, but stated: "I wanted the slit to be that high after I saw the images of Ada Wong from the game ... that was where the opening would be the most beautiful and cool." [32]
1998 | Resident Evil 2 |
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1999 | |
2000 | |
2001 | |
2002 | |
2003 | |
2004 | |
2005 | Resident Evil 4 |
2006 | |
2007 | Resident Evil: The Umbrella Chronicles |
2008 | |
2009 | Resident Evil: The Darkside Chronicles |
2010 | |
2011 | |
2012 | Resident Evil: Operation Raccoon City |
Resident Evil 6 | |
2013 | |
2014 | |
2015 | |
2016 | |
2017 | |
2018 | |
2019 | Resident Evil 2 (remake) |
2020 | |
2021 | |
2022 | Resident Evil Re:Verse |
2023 | Resident Evil 4 (remake) |
Ada Wong made her first appearance in Resident Evil 2 (1998) as a corporate spy hired by an unnamed organization to recover a deadly virus from the Umbrella Corporation's lab in Raccoon City, a fictional American metropolitan area that becomes infested with zombies following a viral outbreak. [33] [34] Ada meets rookie police officer Leon S. Kennedy, and aids him in destroying the T-103 Tyrant before escaping with a sample of the G-virus. [35] [36]
Ada's next starring role is in Resident Evil 4 (2005), in which she encounters Leon during his mission to rescue the U.S. president's daughter Ashley Graham from the cult Los Iluminados, which is based in a remote area of Spain. Ada is hired by Albert Wesker to obtain the Plaga parasite developed by the cult, and enlists the help of researcher Luis Sera, who steals a sample of the parasite but is killed by the cult's leader Osmund Saddler. [37] Ada saves Leon from the Plagas-mutated Jack Krauser, whom Wesker has ordered to kill Leon, but Saddler takes Ada hostage to use her as bait. After being freed by Leon, Ada helps him destroy the mutated Saddler before escaping with the sample via helicopter. [38] Later ports of Resident Evil 4 include a new scenario starring Ada as a playable character. Titled "Separate Ways", it depicts the events of the main game from her perspective, [39] while the fictional documentary "Ada's Report" describes her involvement with other characters in the story. [40]
Ada appears as a playable character in Resident Evil 6 (2012), in which she is a lone spy. The game allows players to select between four scenarios with interwoven storylines, and Ada's campaign becomes available after the player completes the storylines of Leon, Chris Redfield, and Jake Muller. [41] During the game, it is revealed that Ada is a former associate of rogue National Security Advisor Derek C. Simmons, who is dangerously obsessed with her. Though she initially pursues her own agenda, Ada is forced to help Leon and the other characters stop Simmons and his associate Carla Radames, who is forcibly transformed by Simmons into Ada's doppelgänger. [42] [43]
Ada Wong features in several of the Resident Evil films. She appears in the live-action film Resident Evil: Retribution (2012), where the Umbrella-controlled Jill Valentine holds her captive; Ada teams up with Alice to fight against Jill and Bad Rain. [44] She did not appear in the final film, Resident Evil: The Final Chapter (2016), apparently dying offscreen. [45] To contrast Claire Redfield's role from Resident Evil: Degeneration (2008), Ada was chosen as the returning heroine in the second animated film Resident Evil: Damnation (2012). [46] Kamiya initially wanted to explore the dysfunctional romance between Leon and Ada but the idea was scrapped. [47] In Resident Evil: Welcome to Raccoon City (2021), Ada appears only in a mid-credit-scene. She was intended to appear earlier but the director found it difficult to fit too many main characters into the story. [48]
Ada is a playable character in several non-canonical Resident Evil games. [lower-alpha 2] She appears as a non-playable character in the tactical role-playing game Project X Zone 2, [52] and is a playable character in the asymmetrical survival horror game Dead by Daylight (2016). [53] She made her first guest appearance in the browser-based social game Onimusha Soul (2013), where she was redesigned to fit a feudal Japan theme. [54] She also made a cameo appearance in Street Fighter V (2016) for Kolin as an alternate skin, [55] Knives Out (2017), [56] the digital collectible card game Teppen (2019), [57] Puzzles & Survival (2023), [58] and State of Survival (2023). [59]
Ada features in novelizations of the films and games. [60] [61] She appears in the 1998–1999 manhua Shēnghuà Wēijī 2 ("Biohazard 2"). [60] Chingwin Publishing released a romantic-comedy retelling the Resident Evil 2 story centering on Leon, Claire, and Ada in the Taiwanese two-issue comic Èlíng Gǔbǎo II (1999). [62] Capcom screenwriters created two Resident Evil 2 radio dramas that were broadcast on Radio Osaka in early 1999 and later released by publisher Suleputer as two separate CDs with the common title Biohazard 2 Drama Album. [63] [4] Set a few days after the events of the game, it follows Ada's mission to retrieve Sherry Birkin's pendant with the G-virus sample from Umbrella enforcer HUNK. Ada intercepts the delivery of the locket in the village of Loire, France, eliminating HUNK and his men. She escapes an accidental T-virus leak and realizes her feelings for Leon, deciding to quit the espionage business to return to him. [63] Canonically, the characters' story arcs are continued differently; Ada keeps the pendant with the G-virus and resumes her espionage. [64] [65] In printed trading card media, she appears as a card in the Bandai-produced game Resident Evil: The Deck Building Game. [66] Merchandise featuring Ada includes action figures, figurines, statues, plushies and t-shirts. [lower-alpha 3]
Game publications described Ada Wong as among the best Asian female video game characters. [lower-alpha 4] Critics commented that Ada was not oversexualized in her initial appearances and highlighted her as an example of the series' female characters who were not judged solely on gender. [9] [80] [81] Ada's relationship with Leon has been noted as a memorable video-game romance and described as a hallmark of the "sexpionage" trope. [9] Lara Crigger of The Escapist considered Ada a "femme fatale" and "feminist role model" who is "beautiful and sexual" in the mold of Simone de Beauvoir's existentialist philosophies. [81] Harri Chan of Polygon said Ada's ethnicity and portrayal in Resident Evil 4 relegate her to the "Dragon Lady" stereotype, citing her dress and her "sexualized and shady persona". [9] The Guardian staffs praised Ada's intelligence and her tendency to be "numerous steps ahead of everyone else". [76] Mike Wehner of The Escapist said, "Capcom’s manipulation of the Resident Evil timeline hasn’t exactly been kind to this particular theory surrounding Ada Wong’s fate" when Ada returned in Resident Evil 4 following her supposed death in Resident Evil 2. Wehner said Capcom buried Ada’s death in the series lore to the extent "you’re not supposed to acknowledge that it even exists". [34]
Jenny Platz, author of Unraveling Resident Evil: Essays on the Complex Universe of the Games and Films, opined that Ada is genderfluid, and contrasted her with "sexless object" characters such as Resident Evil's Claire Redfield and Rebecca Chambers. Platz stated that Ada possesses attributes "typically associated with males", including strength and intelligence, while also having "beauty and poise", which are "typically associated with females". [80] Author Andrei Nae of Immersion, Narrative, and Gender Crisis in Survival Horror Video Games said that Ada and fellow character Ashley Graham in Resident Evil 4 "correspond to the submissive woman-femme fatale character couple" while the game attempted to "reinscribe Ada Wong within patriarchy" to "compensate for the male protagonist's incomplete hypermasculinity". [82] As explained by the Female Representation in Video Games article, women have long been included in video games. In this case, they specified Ada's outfit, stating that the physical appearance is where the lack of representativeness is evident, and conduct, is where women are primarily portrayed in a visually stereotypical manner. [83]
The male gaze in video games has been explored in critiques of Ada. [lower-alpha 5] Université de Montréal professor of cinema Bernard Perron said that Ada's introduction in Resident Evil 4 features the "traditional male gaze montage" because in-game cinematics focus on her body parts and her slit dress while her identity is not revealed. [85] Matt Cundy of GamesRadar+ deemed Ada's outfit unrealistic in the game's context, stating that anyone dressed for a zombie apocalypse "in an elegant side-split evening gown, choker and high heels would have to be certifiably mental". [88] In Tropes vs. Women in Video Games , feminist media critic Anita Sarkeesian criticized Ada's outfit for being too revealing. [84]
Lily Gao's voicework as Ada in the 2023 remake of Resident Evil 4 attracted strong criticism from fans, resulting in the game being review bombed. [20] [89] [73] Gao deleted her Instagram posts after suffering online harassment, [90] then later stated: "It is time we stop only capitalizing on the sexualized, eroticized, and mysterious Asian woman and make space to honor every kind of Asian woman. ... Ada is a survivor. She is unpredictable, resilient, and absolutely not a stereotype." [91] Jade King of TheGamer considered Ada to be the worst part of the game, stating: "[Gao's] vocal performance doesn’t nail the self-aware camp everyone else in the cast deals out in spades. She sounds almost bored half the time, her delivery seldom doing justice to her own feminine gravitas or the power she holds over those working with her... Ada is almost in a different world altogether, or doesn’t express a campy irreverence in her femme fatale performance seen in other takes on the character." [20] Chinese audiences criticized Li Bingbing's performance as Ada in Resident Evil: Retribution. [92] According to Xiao Mei of People's Daily , Li was not given the opportunity to act and her role was relegated to "being pretty on screen, just filling in space". [92]
Resident Evil, or Biohazard in Japan and parts of Southeast Asia, is a Japanese horror game series and media franchise created by Capcom. It consists of survival horror, third-person shooter and first-person shooter games, with players typically surviving in environments inhabited by zombies and other frightening creatures. The franchise has expanded into other media, including a live-action film series, animated films, television series, comic books, novels, audio dramas and merchandise. Resident Evil is the highest-grossing horror franchise.
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