City Hunter (film)

Sing si lip yan (Cantonese), City Hunter (English)

City Hunter Hong Kong film poster
Directed by Wong Jing
Produced by Raymond Chow
Leonard Ho
Chua Lam
Written by Tsukasa Hôjô (manga)
Wong Jing (screenplay)
Starring Jackie Chan
Joey Wong
Kumiko Goto
Chingmy Yau
Leon Lai
Richard Norton
Gary Daniels
Louis Roth
Vincent Laporte
Mike Abbott
Ken Lo
Music by Romeo Díaz
James Wong
Cinematography Tom Lau (Lau Moon-Tong)
Ma Gam Cheung
Gigo Lee
Editing by Cheung Ka-fai
Peter Cheung
Distributed by Golden Harvest
Paragon Films
Ga Lok Chai Chok Faat Hang Yau Haan Gung Shut (Hong Kong)
Release date(s) 16 January 1993
Running time 105 minutes
Country Hong Kong
Language Cantonese
Box office HK $30,762,782

City Hunter (城市獵人; Sing si lip yan) is a 1993 Hong Kong martial arts action comedy film based on the Japanese manga of the same name. It was directed by Wong Jing, produced by Paragon Films and filmed by Golden Way Films Co. Ltd. The film starred an international cast that included Hong Kong superstar Jackie Chan as Ryo Saeba a.k.a. City Hunter.

Contents

Plot

Ryo Saeba and Kaori Makimura are assigned to locate Shizuko Imumura, the runaway daughter of the CEO of a prominent Japanese newspaper. Kaori leaves in the middle of the search, unhappy with the way Ryo ignores her romantic feelings for him and flirts with other woman. Ryo finds Shizuko at a skateboarding park and a chase ensues, but she escapes in disguise.

Shizuko boards a luxury cruise liner, the Fuji Maru, with the ticket she found in the suit she stole. Kaori also boards the ship with her lustful cousin while Ryo sneaks inside to follow her. A terrorist gang led by Donald Mac have plans to hijack it and take the rich passengers hostage with Police Officer Saeko Nogami and her buxom sidekick in pursuit.

Staying next door from each other, Shizuko overhears Donald's plan. Donald discovers her and sends one of his men to kill her, but she knocks him out and escapes. She then bumps into the ship's first officer, who takes her to the boiler room and reveals himself as a terrorist. When he attempts to silence Shizuko, Ryo, who had been staying there since his encounter with Kaori and her cousin at the swimming pool, saves her. When Donald's gang arrive, the officer is killed in the shootout while Ryo and Shizuko escape into the movie theater, where Game of Death is being shown. To beat two towering opponents, Ryo interprets Bruce Lee's techniques from the film.

At the ship's casino, a party hosted by the captain is interrupted when Donald kills the captain and terrorizes the partygoers, including Saeko and her sidekick. After robbing them of their valuables, he entices the rich patrons into a sadistic card game. A few opponents are quickly disposed of until Kao Ta, a skilled card gamer who uses his cards as shurikens, joins in. When Donald is distracted by seeing Ryo and Shizuko not far away, Ta and Saeko put an end to his game.

Donald's henchman Kim kidnaps Kaori and takes her to his room. When Ryu bursts in, both men fight before Donald and his men interrupt, capturing Ryo in the process. Kaori escapes, bumping into Shizuko, Saeko, and the rest of the main characters. They take down a gay terrorist trying to seduce Kaori's cousin and prepare to save Ryo.

The next day, Ryo is stood before a firing squad. Shizuko, Saeko, and her sidekick interrupt the planned execution, but are forced to separate by Donald's gang. Shizuko uses her gymnastic skills to defeat one henchman, Saeko saves Ta after he runs out of cards in a fight with several terrorists, and her sidekick falls of a ledge and is left unconscious. Ryu goes into the gaming parlor with his hands still tied, but is thrown into a Street Fighter II arcade game by Kim and suffers an electric shock. This causes him to hallucinate and think Kim is Ken from the game. After two failed attempts, Ryo defeats him as Chun-Li.

As a Taiwanese counter-terrorism unit, the "Thunderbolts Squad", arrives and take his men out, Donald blows up bombs he had set up all over the ship and takes Kaori hostage at the casino. When Ryo and Saeko arrive, he injures both women and starts a long fight with Ryo. Donald is thrown into the stage and dies when he accidentally steps on his remote, setting off the bombs behind the T.V. panels.

Ryo and Kaori find Shizuko and return her to her father. He speaks to Ryo privately, seeing him as a future husband to Shizuko. Listening to their conversation, Kaori leaves in anger, unaware that Ryo has declined the man's offer. Ryo finds her and tries to apologize with a rose, but then Saeko drives up and flirts with him. He gives her the rose instead and furious, Kaori smashes him through the air with a hammer. Ryo wakes up in his recurring dream with beautiful women at the pool.

Production notes

Box office

City Hunter grossed a strong HK $30,762,782 at the Hong Kong box office.

DVD release date

On April 23, 2001, DVD was released in Hong Kong Legends at Europe in Region 2.

Two years later, Hong Kong Legends DVD were released on December 29, 2003 at 3 disc set Manga in Motion including two classic martial arts films they were: Story of Ricky and Dragon from Russia.

Cast

See also

References

  1. ^ a b c City Hunter (film), Audio commentary by Bey Logan, Special Features (DVD featurette) (DVD). Hong Kong Legends, UK. 1992 (film), 2001 (DVD). 

External links