City Hunter
Director: Wong Jing
Year: 1993
Rating: 7.5
At least to me City
Hunter is an acquired taste. The first time I saw it I was so taken aback
by what an incredibly silly film it is that I was flabbergasted. For
some reason though I watched it again and enjoyed it more and then another
time and began getting a kick out of this film. It certainly doesn’t rank
with Jackie Chan’s best films – but it has a number of charming elements
and a few well-choreographed action scenes. It is directed by Wong Jing
and in a sense it is more his film than Jackies - as it is filled from top
to bottom with assorted facial mugging and cleavage jokes.
It is based on a Japanese manga and Chan’s character is Ryu Saeba a private
investigator. The film reflects its manga roots by utilizing bright colors,
fantasy sequences, curvaceous women, exaggerated action and cartoonish slapstick
comedy. Nearly all the comedy is physical in nature – pratfalls, funny
faces – similar to that of the silent movie days.
The opening scene is a bit off-putting as Jackie explains that he was a
partner with Michael Wong, but Wong is killed and in his last words asks
Jackie to take care of his little girl, Kaori. The whole scene is done in
an absurd – unreal – almost Busby Berkely surrealistic style that signals
to the audience not to take anything seriously in this film – not even the
killing of your partner. The girl quickly grows up (in a matter of seconds
on the screen) to be the fetching Joey Wong who becomes Jackie’s girl Friday.
Joey is very much in love with Jackie – but sticking with one girl is not
City Hunter’s style – he is a lady’s man to the end.
A rich Japanese industrialist hires Jackie to look for his runaway daughter
– Kumiko Goto. Kumiko is apparently a fine gymnast off the screen and performs
a number of her own stunts. This search leads to a wonderful skateboard
chase through the streets of HK as Jackie both dodges cars and jumps over
them.
Both Kaori – in a snit at Jackie – and Kumiko end up on a cruise ship and
Jacky is not far behind them. Among the other passengers are the stunning
Chingmy – also a private detective – and her top-heavy assistant. Nearly
the first half of the film is completely comedy – with the skateboard chase
being the only exception. Then the film kicks into high gear for the second
half as a large group of thieves attempt to take over the boat to kidnap thirty
billionaires on board – everyone else though is very expendable.
The action is great fun – again very cartoonish for the most part – though
quite violent – and some of the set pieces are very clever. Jackie’s fight
with the two black giants while in the background Bruce Lee’s fight with Abdul
Karem Jabber plays on the screen; the scene in which he and Gary Daniels take
on the persona of video game characters (though I hate this bit myself); Jackie’s
swing dance with Chingmy as she guns down the opposition and then the final
fight against Richard Norton. These are all done tongue in cheek, as is nearly
the entire film.
Jackie or perhaps Wong Jing leave lots of room for the other characters
to have some nice moments. Kumiko has a great gymnastic scene high above
the ship, Leon Lai is a professional gambler who is literally deadly with
a deck of cards, Joey has a very funny scene with Gary Daniels and Chingmy
is just sizzling hot and very deadly. Among the baddies is also a slightly
fey Ken Lo and look for an early appearance of Eric Kot and Jan Lam.
If you go into this film with the right frame of mind – that there is nothing
serious in this film – just enjoy the beautiful women, shrug off the corny
comedy and appreciate the action – this film can be a guilty pleasure.
For a few more pictures
from the film, click here.