FFWD Weekly
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Video Vulture by John Tebbutt City Hunter: The Motion Picture (animated, 1999): You’ve got to see this. The serious parts are as exciting, detailed and beautifully drawn as anything from Ghost In The Shell, and the wacky parts are indescribably wild and ridiculous. How do these two contrasting styles fit together? Surprisingly well. One minute, you’ll be absorbed in the save-the-city-from-the-brilliant-terrorist plot, and the next, you’ll pee yourself laughing as the hero goes into horny overdrive at a girl’s dorm, just before getting flattened by a giant mallet. Clang! Joe Saeba, the "City Hunter," is a freelance adventurer who dresses like he just stepped out of Miami Vice. He has a bit of a hyperactive libido, and every time he leers at a pretty girl, his beautiful (but ill-tempered) assistant Kaori pulls out a sledgehammer the size of a Volkswagen, and knocks him through a wall. (Their relationship is strictly platonic, and Kaori is the only female character that Joe doesn’t come on to. This is probably the source of Kaori’s frustration with him.) There’s a mad bomber on the loose, and Joe has to stop a subway train rigged to explode if it’s speed drops below 60 km/h, setting off a chain reaction that will destroy all of Shinjuku. (Okay, so it’s Speed with a little bit of Patlabor 1&2 thrown in. With a hero who occasionally turns into Ace Ventura: Pet Detective.) Very cool. At the beginning of this tape, there’s a preview for a live-action City Hunter movie starring Jackie Chan. Interested? Read on... City Hunter (live-action, 1993/1999): This could be the single weirdest movie Jackie Chan’s done since 1979’s Fantasy Mission Force. A lot of critics hate it, but if you’re in the mood for something absolutely ridiculous, it’s great. When some friends of mine asked me to bring this tape over, I only showed them the action-packed second half, because I wasn’t sure how they’d react to the film’s shamelessly broad humour. I needn’t have worried. They loved it, and we’ve all watched the tape many times since, often throwing in our own Rocky Horror-type comments at the screen. (Try it – you’ll like it.) This time, the main character’s name is Ryu Saeba, just like it is in the manga (comic book) that introduced the character. Chan’s City Hunter character is more hungry than horny in this version, but he’s still an endearing cross between James Bond and Pee Wee Herman. And yes, Kaori does hit him with a giant hammer. A team of elite terrorists have taken control of a cruise ship, and it’s up to City Hunter to save the day. Along with the lovelorn Kaori (Joey Wong), he’s assisted by sexy gun-toting undercover cop Saeko (Chingmy Yau) and an extremely suave professional gambler who can hurl playing cards with deadly accuracy. There’s one incredibly cool scene that everybody always remembers: near the end, Jackie gets thrown into a game machine in an arcade. Sparks fly everywhere, and suddenly, Jackie and his opponent turn into characters from the Streetfighter II video game! Their battle continues at a revved-up pace, to the accompaniment of sound effects, battle cries and tinny electronic music that will be instantly familiar to arcade buffs. "Round one: Fight! Hadoken!" (Jackie looks distressingly attractive as female streetfighter Chun Li.)

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