City Hunter (1993)

I am running behind reviewing weekly picks for the Fridays of Fury Action Club, but if you want to see past and future selections join us here

City Hunter is a 1993 action comedy adaptation of the manga/anime series of the same name, starring Jackie Chan as the pervy titular character. It was written and directed by prolific producer and bad-taste king Wong Jing (writer of Naked Killer), who never heard an AIDS joke he didn’t like. That means your ability to make it through, let alone enjoy this movie is based entirely on your tolerance for a concentrated dose of anime bullshit and toxic Hong Kong goofery. After decades of consuming this nonsense my own brain is broken, so I kind of loved this ridiculous ass movie.

City Hunter sets the bar low immediately with an opening flashback that shows Ryo, nicknamed City Hunter (Chan), promise his dying partner that he will take care of the guy’s little sister. Ryo is such a horndog that his partner has to make him promise not to ever “seduce” the child in his care when she grows up, ewww. Cut to little girl Kaori grown up into an adult (Joey Wong) and Ryo lusting after her. Yes, wanting to sex up the orphan he raised since childhood is Ryo’s primary character conflict/goal. Between that and the over-the-top cartoonish nature of the flashback, I would not be surprised if a lot of people stopped watching this in the first 5 minutes.

bonk go to horny jail

Those cartoon cutaway gags continue throughout the movie, and not only does Ryo’s horniness for Kaori continue but eventually her annoying cousin who ALSO wants to fuck/marry her gets added to the mix! Gags range from silly slapstick to rape jokes and borderline hate crimes. This movie is a stew with a thick base of misogyny, meaty chunks of homophobia, and a dash of racism for flavor. I watched this with my wife and nephew, and each of us said “what the fuck?” or “oh my god” at least once in response to different moments. It hits pretty much every potentially offensive bullet point except religion. Yet somehow these moments aren’t as painful as a lot of other “comedy” scenes in Hong Kong movies I have endured. I think it has to do with the rapid-fire nature and number of attempted gags in City Hunter. So many Hong Kong movies have scenes where there is one bit of wordplay, confusion, or double entendre that gets dragged out for what feels like minutes past when you already saw the (unfunny) punchline coming. City Hunter will lob an offensive grenade of a gag at you and then cut to the next scene before you finish gasping. The high volume also means there are a decent number of gags that actually work, and not all the laughs are uncomfortable (although they are all pretty stupid).

The plot is messy and inconsequential. Private investigator Ryo is hired to bring back Kyoko (Kumiko Goto), a rich business man’s missing daughter. A series of coincidences result in Kyoko, Ryo, Kaori, Kaori’s aforementioned horny cousin, undercover detective Saeko (Chingmy Yau, Legendary Couple), and her assistant Kasumi (Carol Wan) all boarding a cruise ship that is eventually taken over by terrorists. The terrorists are led by Colonel MacDonald, who in an amusing bit of language/cultural confusion introduces himself as “Donald Mac, but you can call me MacDonald!” MacDonald is played by Richard Norton, an Australian martial artist who frequently played an evil gwailo fighting the heroes of Hong Kong movies in this era. I recently saw him in a (seemingly rare) good guy role in China O’Brien. Norton just passed away in March of this year, RIP.

Here Norton gets to engage in some full-on theatrical villainy, wave Robocop’s pistol around, and show off his fighting skills extensively in the climax. His head henchman Kim is played by British martial artist and 90s direct-to-video star Gary Daniels.

Gary Daniels on the right, and hey behind him is the crazy eyed henchman who dangled a child out a car window in Fatal Termination!

But wait, there’s more! ALSO on the ship is chaotic good rogue Kao Ta (Leon Lai), who is as dangerous throwing his playing cards as he is gambling at the tables. I have to assume they were cramming in multiple popular side characters from the source material as Saeko, Kasumi, and Kao Ta are all fun but don’t get a huge amount to do. Then again, it means we get to see Chingmy Yau do a John Woo-style slo-mo pistol dive (and some fun moves with Jackie at the end I won’t spoil), so I support it.

Other than a skateboarding setpiece (ahh, the 90s!), the first 40 minutes are all setup, comedy beats, and a bonkers but boisterous musical number featuring two flamboyant gay stereotypes who are also recurring characters on the ship. Then the action finally kicks in, although it is still silly as hell. The goofiness reaches its pinnacle in a fight sequence where a hallucinating Ryo imagines his opponent Gary Daniels as Ken from Street Fighter II. Ryo then imagines himself as various characters in the roster until he pulls out the win as Chun Li. Random images of Chan dressed as Chun Li were my (and probably lots of other people’s) only experience with this film before I watched it. Pretty crazy considering Street Fighter II was only 2 years old at this point, I wonder if it started as intentional product placement or Wong Jing was just cashing in on a popular trend and Capcom agreed?

When the movie finally lets Chan and Norton throw down, it is an extensive and epic fight. I have only seen some of Jackie’s extensive filmography, but so far this is the sequence where I most see the influences of silent film comedy stars and classic musical/dance movie choreography on his work. Buster Keaton, Gene Kelly and the like loom just as large over the movements as martial artists like Bruce Lee. Speaking of Lee, there is even a meta-moment where Ryo walks into a theater showing Lee’s Game of Death and takes inspiration from Lee’s fighting style.

While a lot of the jokes’ subject matter is lazy, the execution of the movie is not. Everyone involved is giving 110% trying to sell every moment, no matter how stupid that moment is. Rapid cutaway gags move faster than Family Guy. Chan as Ryo might as well be a horny Tex Avery cartoon Wolf, except for when he is so hungry that he imagines an attractive woman’s body parts as food like in a Bugs Bunny cartoon.

Every part of the movie is bright and colorful. Even outside of the big musical number, the score is incessant and just as over the top as the visuals. During a particularly cacophonous moment in the climax my wife said, “The music in this movie is… perfect.” When she paused, I didn’t know if she was going to say “insane,” “ridiculous,” or “perfect,” because they would all be accurate! 

We all enjoyed City Hunter, but my nephew said it might be too exhausting to ever re-watch and I am inclined to agree. Hell, for many people I am sure it is too exhausting to watch once. Watching with friends so you can stare at each other in disbelief after a terrible joke or crazy stunt is also recommended. If you can handle or even enjoy the hyper-active stupidity and constant crass jokes, this is recommended. If you need more sanity or seriousness in your action movies, stay far away. Although anyone who enjoys watching Jackie do his thing should still check out clips of his final fight with Norton, there is some incredible choreography and creativity on display there. I will definitely return to that and the musical number for future dopamine hits. Now if I could just get the damn recurring musical sting out of my head… CITY HUNTER!

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