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City Hunter
Chinese: 城市獵人
Jackie Chan and Chingmy Yau
Year: 1993
Director: Wong Jing
Action: Ching Siu-Tung
Cast: Jackie Chan, Joey Wong Cho-Yin, Leon Lai Ming, Chingmy Yau Suk-Ching, Kumiko Goto, Richard Norton, Gary Daniels, Sin Lap-Man, Ken Lo Wai-Kwong, Jan Lam Hoi-Fung, Eric Kot Man-Fai, Peter Lai Bei-Tak, Leila Tong Ling, Michael Wong Mun-Tak (cameo)
The Skinny: Wong Jing made this, which is bad. Jackie Chan is in it, which is good. The result: somewhere vaguely in between.
 
Review
by Kozo:

This non-sensical, alienating version of the popular Japanese manga/anime City Hunter also happens to be one of the most trying Hong Kong Cinema experiences around. Some cool stunts and fight sequences abound, but nothing in the way of character or even plot. And furthermore, the inane, in-your-face comedy makes fingernails scratching a blackboard seem like a pleasant way to spend the evening.

Jackie Chan plays Ryu Saeba (or Mang-Boh, in Cantonese), a private eye with a lust for babes and burgers. He’s assigned to find a runaway girl (Kumiko Goto), who just happens to hitch a ride on a luxury liner that comes Under Siege by terrorists (led by Richard Norton). Joey Wong is Kaori, Jackie’s partner and love interest and Chingmy Yau is Saeko, who’s quite sexy as an unidentified law enforcer of some sort. Sky King Leon Lai plays a suave gambler with a talent for throwing cards. To top it all off, there’s a cameo by Michael Wong (as Jackie’s dead partner) and the Soft/Hard duo of Eric Kot and Jan Lam make an appearance.

Needless to say, fast-forward was invented for films like this. The comedy is sophomoric in that Wong Jing way, with too many wasted gags and annoying mugging from the cast. The action is dead-on, though. Like most of Jackie Chan's films, City Hunter comes alive when Chan is called upon to risk life and limb. The last fight sequence with Richard Norton manages to mix the action and comedy extremely well. Too bad the rest of the movie is criminally uneven and annoying. Furthermore, the infamous Street Fighter sequence pays tribute to Wong Jing's other favorite pastime: video games. It's great that he likes them, but when he references them in such god-awful ways (see this or Future Cops) you wish he would just stay away. (Kozo 1994/1999)

 
Availability:

DVD (Hong Kong)
Region 3 NTSC
Joy Sales
16x9 Anamorphic Widescreen
Cantonese and Mandarin Language Tracks
Dolby Digital 5.1 / DTS 5.1
Removable English and Chinese Subtitles
Various Extras

*Also Available on Blu-ray Disc

image courtesy of Mega Star Video Distribution, Ltd.

   
 
 
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