City Hunter (1993) [Film Review]

City Hunter; or, Jackie Chan in Live-Action Manga Adaptation

This week’s review will be about another classic motion picture from Jackie Chan’s repertoire, in which he took on the character of adventurous private detective, Ryo Saeba.

Release Info

Directed by: Wong Jing Starring: Jackie Chan, Joey Wong, Kumiko Goto, Richard Norton, Chingmy Yau

Language: Cantonese Original Title: Sing si lip yan Movie Industry: Hong Kong Runtime: 100 min

Plot

Ryo (Jackie Chan) gets an assignment from a prominent Japanese CEO to track down and retrieve his daughter Shizuko (Kumiko Goto). After failing to do so, his assistant Kaori (Joey Wong) takes a leave of absence and boards a cruise liner called Fuji Maru. Ryo goes after her and while travelling as a stowaway, the detective discovers that Shizuko is accidentally on board as well. Apart from the trio, there also happen to be terrorists led by Colonel MacDonald (Richard Norton) who take control of the ship and take all the multimillionaires hostage. Now, only Ryo Saeba with the help of his sidekicks and undercover police officer Saeko Nogami (Chingmy Yau) can save the passengers.

City Hunter not in the city

After seeing the trailer and reading some info about City Hunter manga (I have never read or seen anything from that franchise), I had high hopes for an excellent 100 minutes of ass kicking done by Jackie. Well, my expectations were only partially satisfied.

The major issue of this film is that it is very inconsistent in style. I know that it’s supposed to be an action comedy flick, and whereas the action is delivered flawlessly, the comedy fails miserably. That is the case mostly due to a huge amount of slapstick humour that is thrown at the viewers every two minutes. Slapstick in general is okay, especially when done by Jackie, but in this movie it is stretched to the limits of anime. Like, as if the movie tried to copy anime style, which totally doesn’t work. Whilst, I like watching Jackie struggling at his fights with the baddies, it is quite tiring seeing him constantly grinning and making stupid faces like a handicapped mime. Yet, this is not the problem only with his characters, but with all the characters in the film. In addition, the situation is not improved when the action sequences are accompanied by sound effects straight from Scooby Doo!

 

Perhaps the primary fault of all this is that the dialogue was allegedly written on the set by the director, because the film actually never had an actual screenplay aside from a brief story outline. Also, the music score is literally ear piercing and totally disrupts the film. On the one hand, the theme song is quite catchy but incidental music strikingly resembles circus tunes, making the action look not as epic as it actually is.

Aside from these issues, I really liked the rest of the film. Jackie did an awesome job with all the stunts and fights, especially the final showdown with the terrorist leader. The supporting cast does an okay job, apart from all the grinning. However, Chingmy Yau deserves an honourable mention, because she engages into some combat, which is a rare thing to see in her films.

From the particular things I truly enjoyed were definitely Jackie’s fight scene at the movie theatre while Game of Death was being shown on the screen, the Street Fighter arcade parody, which is definitely the icing on the cake, and a stunt with exploding corridor (bombastic stuff!).

Recommendations

Safely recommended to Jackie Chan fans, though I’m not so sure about City Hunter fans. Nevertheless, if excessive slapstick does not bother you, go ahead and check it out; but, if it does, I suggest watching the film with the volume set low. One way or another, you should enjoy at least the action aspect of the film.

Overall score: 6/10 (Would have been 8 if the movie had been more serious.)