City Hunter (Cheng shi lie ren, 1992)

Wong Jing

Hong Kong

95 mins, color, Cantonese (English subtitles)

A very untypical Jackie Chan vehicle, in which the amazing action scenes are only part of the hilarious slapstick action comedy. Based on a Japanese manga, the film follows the adventures of the intrepid private dick Ryo Saeba (Jackie). From the very first scene, in which Ryo's partner dies after being riddled with bullets, we know we are not expected to take anything seriously. This particular scene is actually one of the most funny, and the mockingly prolonged dying sequence reminds one of the Shakespearean deaths where characters manage to utter pages upon pages of monologue before finally kicking the bucket.

Anyway, among the things that his partner asks him to do, is to take care of his sister and not bed her. At first Ryo finds this easy (the girl is like 8 years old) but within seconds she grows into Joey Wang, and now Ryo has a problem, a really big problem, as anyone who has ever seen Joey would know. Although Joey has fallen for Ryo, the latter's womanizing ways make it hard to effect this relationship. When Joey finally gives up and goes on a boat trip with her snivelling cousing, Ryo follows her while accidentally managing to continue working on the last case they had been assigned: returning to daughter of a Japanese newspaper mogul to her father.

The rest of the film turns into a "Die Hard" on a boat, perhaps something like "Speed 2" but with more imagination and a lot more humor. Briefly, a bunch of gwailo (and some black) thugs take over the ship and Jackie rescues the day with the help of several ravishingly beautiful women.

There's not much plot to get in the way of cool action and lots of gimmicks. I was particularly partial to two of them. In the first, Jackie battles it out with the pony-tail fighter (Gary Daniels) in a game arcade. It would have been a dreary fight without Gary throwing Jackie into the "Street Fighter" game console, after which the two assume the guises of several characters from this game and re-enact computer fighting scenes with hilarious fidelity. I laughed hard at Jackie's impersonation in particular. In the second bit, Jackie swing-dances with Chingmy Yau while the latter shoots everyone in sight using guns attached to various parts of her body. It is incredible. I must say that Jing Wong knows his funny and Jackie knows his action.

The HKL DVD is predictably excellent. In addition to the flawless 16:9 video transfer and the DD5.1 surround sound, the disc is loaded with extras. There's a audio commentary with Bey Logan, interviews with Jackie Chan, Gary Daniels, and Richard Norton (who plays the main bad guy), trailers, and bioraphies for Jackie and Joey. This DVD is the way the gods intended us to own this film.

May 4, 2002