Prime Time: City Hunter (1993)

I had somehow not seen City Hunter, despite being a big Jackie Chan fan, and despite being aware of it as "the one in which Jackie Chan appears in one scene as Chun Li". Having now seen it, I now know why I never got around to it. It's not really worth bothering with, and is really built up from all of the worst parts of Jackie Chan movies (horrible jokes, worse dialogue, and not enough action).

Chan plays Ryu Saeba, a cocky detective who spends his time chasing women and trying to look cool. He also looks after a relative of his dead partner, and regrets the promise that he made to not hit on her. Ryu is hired to track down Shizuko Imamura (Kumiko Goto), the daughter of a wealthy businessman, and ends up on a cruise ship that's about to be taken over by terrorists (headed up by Richard Norton).

Written and directed by Wong Jing, based on the popular manga, City Hunter aims to be a light and enjoyable bit of entertainment from the very beginning, with Chan explaining some backstory and his character directly to the camera. Perhaps if they'd decided to keep that style throughout then this would have been a better film, but things move into more traditional narrative style, although you often get punchlines to moments that feel like an obvious wink or smile to viewers.

Chan is saddled with the worst character he has ever played onscreen, in my experience of his filmography anyway, and cannot do enough to overcome the general cloak of douchebaggery that he has to wear throughout. It's still great to watch him when he fights, which doesn't happen often enough, but his dialogue is even more cringe-inducing than usual, with most of his sentences either being sexist, creepy, just outright irritating, or horribly homophobic. I get it. The humour is different. It should still make people laugh though, and I really don't see how anything here would do that.

Joey Wong has to pout and stamp her feet as Kaori Makimura, the young woman who was essentially raised by Ryu after the death of his partner (yes, there's extra creepiness in their relationship that we're just supposed to ignore), but Goto gets to do a little bit more with her role. Norton is a scenery-chewing villain, as you want in these movies, and Gary Daniels gets to enjoy a couple of good moments as his main henchman. Leon Lai plays a gambler on the cruise ship who has exceptional skill with playing cards, and both Chingmy Yau and Carol Wan add to the complement of beautiful women given rather thankless roles in the film.

There ARE a few good fight sequences, including one that has Jackie emulating a set-piece from Game Of Death as that film plays on a big screen behind him, but not enough to warrant sitting through the worst parts of this film. The plotting is awful, there's never a feeling that anything is really at stake, the humour falls flat, and I cannot recall the last time I watched a film with such an unlikeable central character. I did enjoy that Street Fighter sequence though, even if I knew I'd end up seeing Chan as Chun Li.

4/10

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