City Hunter Starring Jackie Chan?

City Hunter is a 1993 comedy film starring Jackie Chan based on a manga of the same name.  I honestly don't know if I can make a review of this very long, but seeing as how I just watched it, I will give it a try.  Now, I am a big fan of Jackie Chan.  His films are pretty different from most martial arts action movies, or even comedies.  Most of his comedy comes from a very Buster Keaton inspired world.  This isn't me being clever by the way, he does recreate a Buster Keaton moment on one occasion.  It is completely fair to say that once Jackie started to hit it big, he changed action forever.  His scenes are fast and crazy with plenty of real stunts also performed by Jackie Chan himself.  Jackie fever hit America hard in the nineties and we got nearly every one of his movies here in the states, for better or worse.

City Hunter is a departure even for a guy used to comedy.  Seeing Jackie Chan in a live action manga is really strange, and I do mean live action manga.  Depending on which version you get Jackie's name is Ryo, or City Hunter.  What the hell is with that English Dub?  Why call your character the name of the movie?  It makes sense to call something James Bond 007, but City Hunter?  That isn't even a name you jackasses!

So the movie is about City Hunter and his friend's little sister who lives with him.  City Hunter is a detective and is hired to find a girl.  His friend's little sister is all grown up and they are into each other but City Hunter is womanizer.  Often there are strange cartoon moments where people have visions and stupid things happen.  In one, the girl Hunter lives with smashes him with a hammer.

So anyway the girl City Hunter must find is on a boat and he sneaks on but is almost thrown off because he is very hungry.  That is the real plot during his harrowing escape from the boat workers.  Some other girls are on the boat doing stuff and it turns out there are terrorists on board as well.  Yeah, it is like a comedy version of Under Siege.  So City Hunter and these random girls must stop some Terrorists.  There is a scene in a theater which is on the boat showing Game of Death where Hunter has to beat up some people and is helped by watching Bruce Lee on the screen.  There is another scene where some band is playing and dancing that really makes no sense.  This is the point I am trying to make here.  The movie is mostly a series of random events.  It makes the film a bit hard to sit through, though occasionally the jokes do work out.  The best thing about this movie does come out of this however.  A scene in this movie happens where City Hunter is electrocuted by a Street Fighter II machine and that makes him think he is in the game while fighting an American guy who is suddenly dressed as Ken.  Then this happens.

Yep, Jackie Chan as Chun-Li.  That is why you should watch the movie.  The Street Fighter sequence is funny and awesome because you get to see Jackie cosplay as a girl.  He does a good job too.  As far as I am concerned, Jackie Chan is the best actor to have played Chun-Li.  He really nails the character.  Then the movie keeps going and the terrorists are punished when City Hunter dances with a girl who has holsters with guns in them on her legs.

It is slapstick entertainment with bad anime comedy through and through.  Jackie Chan does get some good stunts in and a couple good fight scenes, but if you looked at this right after something like Police Story you might be pretty disappointed.  The movie cases are very misleading as well, so if you picked it up in the video store (not likely I know) you would probably be annoyed at what you ended up seeing in the end.  Do I recommend it?  Not really, but if you have to see the whole movie just to see the Street Fighter segment then yes.  Otherwise you could just look that part up on Youtube.  I do however recommend watching Police Story.  Go do that now!