R E V I E W

City Hunter

Mega Star / 1993 / 95 minutes
Directed by Wong Jing
Written by Wong Jing

With Jackie Chan, Chingmy Yau, Leon Lai, Joey Wang

B A C K G R O U N D
director, in cinemas, recent and related films

Jackie Chan's two previous films were Twin Dragons (January 1992) and Police Story III: Supercop (July 1992). During 1992, Wong Jing directed five films and produced an additional four, including the well-known Naked Killer. Reportedly, the two did not get along well during the filming and Chan has essentially disowned it.

The film opened for Chinese New Year in January 1993 and was a big hit, grossing HK $30.7 million.

Chan's next film was Crime Story in June of the same year, followed by Drunken Master II in January 1994. Wong directed another nine films in 1993, but got his revenge against Chan by making High Risk, a thinly-veiled roman a clef making fun of the action hero.

M O V I E

plot
Ryu Saeba is a private investigator with a lovely assistant named Kaori. He is hired by newspaper magnate Imamura to find his runaway daughter, Kiyoko. The investigation leads to a luxury yacht that is soon taken over by a group of international terrorists. A beautiful undercover cop and her assistant are also on the cruise. To be honest, I lost track of the plot, but I doubt that will affect your enjoyment (or lack thereof).

performances
I've never seen Jackie Chan look so lost. He makes a lot of faces, and jumps around when needed, but his performance mostly consists of showing up and hitting his marks. Chingmy Yau looks wonderful and sexy as the undercover cop. Joey Wang is very cute as Kaori. Leon Lai plays a wildly dressed cardsharp. Michael Wong has a cameo at the beginning of the film as Saeba's partner.

production
The film is jam-packed with things happening. Much of the time, those "things" include low-brow humor, senseless action, and a lot of running around. Personally I watched for quite a while with my mouth agape, not quite believing what I was seeing. It's the same sort of fascination as might be experienced by watching a non-fatal train wreck in slow motion. It holds your attention, but it seems to take forever. Putting aside any thought of character development (this is an adaptation of a comic book, after all), it's hard even to have fun, and it would be stretching it to describe the hijinks as inspired. But it's photographed nice (by three different choreographers) and the music by Romeo Diaz and James Wong is pretty good.

rating
Category II. A lot of fight scenes, explosions, and vicious card throwing, but no explicit violence is depicted.

D V D

look
The letterboxed (approximately 1.85:1) presentation is good. The black levels are sufficiently deep, the colors are fairly vibrant, and the flesh tones, for the most part, look natural. The source print looks pretty clean.

sound
Both Cantonese and Mandarin DD 5.1 audio tracks are provided. I listened to the Cantonese version and it sounded very good with an expansive sound field and constantly engaged surrounds - a real plus on a soundtrack with so many explosions and so much noise. But be aware that all of the dialogue is post-synched and does not always precisely match what is on screen.

subtitles
The white removable English subtitles are fine - easy to read and well timed. Also available are subtitles in traditional and simplified Chinese, Japanese, Bahasa Malaysia, Thai, Vietnamese, and Spanish.

features
Nine chapters can be selected from a video clip menu. "About the Film" presents biographies and film listings for Wong Jing, Jackie Chan, Joey Wang, and Chingmy Yau. "More Attractions" consists of the original theatrical trailer and trailers for Police Story, Jackie Chan: My Stunts, Miracles, and the generic Media Asia DVD advertisement.

R E C O M M E N D A T I O N
buy, rent, or pass?

Rent. Low priority. Some more forgiving fans have really enjoyed this film, but I grew bored and restless as it sputtered to its overdue conclusion.

Note: If you're considering a purchase and have the capability to play Region 2 disks, consider the recently-released Hong Kong Legends (UK) version, which is said to have superior audio and video qualities.

(Reviewed 05/10/01)

THIS DVD IS AVAILABLE AT HKFLIX.COM