Certain clothes don’t go well together, like say, an aloha shirt and a tie. The same is true of certain filmmakers, like action master Jackie Chan and schlock master Wong Jing. But that’s not the only thing going against CITY HUNTER. Both filmmakers also unwisely attempt to bring the worst aspects of Japanese anime into real-life. While Jackie comes about as close to anyone in becoming a cartoon in real life on screen with his unbelievable dexterity, speed and charming personality, the gag is way too heavy-handed here. Further problems such as a senseless plot and obnoxious supporting characters cause even more harm. Yet, a glimmer of solid entertainment peeks through in several action scenes that possess much of the bravura and magic of Chan’s finer cinematic moments.
CITY HUNTER is based on a hugely popular Japanese comic book, or manga series that originally ran from 1985 to 1991. The title character’s real name is Ryu Saeba (Chan) who is a private detective for hire. He lives with young Kaori (Joey Wong), the sister of his now-deceased partner (Michael Wong). Ryu is the cool dude with the fancy car who is constantly making passes at women, much to the chagrin of Kaori who has a jealous crush on him.
The film sticks to this premise in an introduction and then shifts to a plot concerning Ryu’s search for the runaway daughter of a newspaper tycoon. After nearly nabbing her following a series of skateboard stunts, he follows Kaori on a cruise ship. The rest of the action plays out on board as mercenaries led by Colonel MacDonald (Richard Norton) take over the ship with plans to rob the passengers and hold the wealthiest of them for ransom. Ryo leaps into action with the aid of a sexy undercover agent (Chingmy Yau) and a dapper gambler (Leon Lai-ming) with the deadly ability to toss playing cards like shuriken. As police drop in to take on the mercenaries in massive exchanges of bullets and explosions, Ryu takes on MacDonald in a furious battle employing batons, whips and poles.
Jackie as a sex-starved maniac is not an attractive premise and even he admits the film is one of his least favorite, although this may be in part due to a clear and mutual dislike shared between him and Wong Jing. While Jackie is at home in comedy situations, Wong’s slant is more exploitative and simply juvenile. What results are situations with Jackie ogling women’s breasts thinking they are hamburgers, getting mauled by the wives of men he put in prison (though somehow off camera their clothing starts to come off), scowling as he’s upstaged by a filmed image of Bruce Lee, and worst of all, dressing up as two characters from the Street Fighter video game and playing out a fantasy match with Gary Daniels who is also dressed up.
Things don’t get any better when Jackie’s not around. An admittedly buff Daniels is gratuitously filmed stretching in nothing but his briefs, superkicker Ken Lo plays a gay thug who gets trounced on by the leading girls without delivering any good legwork and the biggest waste of screen time is performed by two obnoxious DJs, no doubt popular locally at the time, who perform an entirely unnecessary and bad rap song filmed MTV style. Also, I rarely find myself complaining about body counts, but it’s exceedingly high for a Jackie Chan film and the fact that it’s all done with a thoughtless and mischievous glee only comes off as distasteful.
Several action scenes have some redeeming value. The skateboard chase is fun and features a wild ride through a plate of glass several floors up. Jackie’s first fight with Daniels in his cabin is straight forward but well done. A theater brawl between Jackie and two giant-sized black thugs is memorable for the tips he receives from Bruce Lee as he fights Kareem Abdul-Jabbar in GAME OF DEATH, as it plays on the large screen above him.
Jackie’s final fight with Aussie Richard Norton is worth waiting for, or possibly fast-forwarding to. Norton must have caught on to the Hong Kong style of fighting back when Sammo Hung cast him in MILLIONAIRE’S EXPRESS. Not only does he seem to match Jackie well for a gweilo but he effectively shows up again as the villain opposite Jackie in MR. NICE GUY four years later. You don’t repeatedly get invited back into the close circles of Hong Kong elite action teams unless you’ve made the grade. The lighting on this scene in the ship’s damaged casino hall is poor but the fighting is hot. Nods also go to Leon Lai-ming’s simple yet slick card tossing antics and Kumiko Gotoh’s high-wire flight from a thug on the ship’s deck.
If Wong is good at one thing it’s picking leading ladies and I cannot complain about having to watch Joey Wong, Chingmy Yau or Kumiko Gotoh parading across the screen. Chingmy had already established herself as a memorable femme fatale in Wong’s NAKED KILLER so having her break from the trend of wimpy Jackie Chan female co-stars is neither surprising nor unwelcome. She does a nice little bit of choreography with Jackie near the end as he swings her about so that she can fire the guns holstered on her legs.
Despite its assets, nothing can hide the fact that CITY HUNTER is below Jackie’s better filmmaking standards at the time. The positive spin on this is that while there was some experimentation going on that ultimately flopped, Jackie partially redeemed himself by steering clear of Wong Jing and this type of film since. Of course, he’s been taking a nose dive into comic mediocrity in more recent years but that’s another topic. While I cannot profess to be an authority on the source manga, I’d wager that this isn’t the film adaptation that everyone was waiting for.
by Mark Pollard- onet
- onet
