City Hunter (Cheng Shi Lie Ren): Special Collector's Edition (1993)

This review is sponsored by

BUY IT

General		Extras
Category	Martial Arts	Main Menu Introduction Menu Animation & Audio Audio Commentary-Bey Logan (Hong Kong Cinema Expert) Gallery-Photo Biographies-Cast-Jackie Chan And Joey Wong-Animated Biography Showcase Theatrical Trailer-2 Interviews-Cast-Jackie Chan, Richard Norton And Gary Daniels Outtakes Trailer-Hong Kong Legends
Rating
Year Of Production	1993
Running Time	98:05 (Case: 95)
RSDL / Flipper	RSDL (88:16)	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Menu
Region Coding	4	Directed By	Jing Wong
Studio Distributor	Fortune Star Universal Pictures Home Video	Starring	Jackie Chan Richard Norton
Case	?
RPI	$29.95	Music	Romeo Díaz James Wong Shirley Chan

Video		Audio
Pan & Scan/Full Frame	None	English Dolby Digital 5.1 (384Kb/s) Cantonese Dolby Digital 5.1 (384Kb/s) English Audio Commentary Dolby Digital 2.0 (192Kb/s)
Widescreen Aspect Ratio	1.78:1
16x9 Enhancement
Video Format	576i (PAL)
Original Aspect Ratio	1.85:1	Miscellaneous
Jacket Pictures	No
Subtitles	English	Smoking	Yes
		Annoying Product Placement	No
		Action In or After Credits	Yes, Outtakes

    Ryu Saeba (Jackie Chan) is a Japanese private detective hired to find and return the daughter of a wealthy businessman, who has run away to Hong Kong. In tow is Kaori (Joey Wong), the daughter of a deceased friend (played in a cameo by Michael Wong) who is infatuated with our hero.

    Arriving in Hong Kong, Ryu tracks the girl down to a cruise/gambling ship. Unbeknownst to him, a group of criminals led by Donald Mac (Richard Norton) are planning to take over the ship and extort ransoms for the numerous millionaires on board. But coming to Ryu's aid are undercover agent Saeko Nogami (Chingmy Yau) and gambling god Kotetsu (Leon Lai).

    This movie is basically an action comedy based on a manga, presumably reflecting an attempt to consolidate the star's popularity in Japan. The action is not bad but the comedy is dreadful. It comes from Hong Kong schlockmeister Wong Jing, a man not normally noted for his good taste. In fact, a man not ever noted for his good taste, at least not on celluloid. The comedy is very low grade indeed, with some very politically incorrect material.

    As far as the stunts go, some are impressive and others are just not well enough directed to be convincing or exciting. Most are just plain goofy, like the sequence in a games arcade where Ryu and his opponent turn into characters from the Streetfighter arcade game. Much better is the sequence in a movie theatre showing Game of Death where Ryu learns from Bruce Lee's moves against Kareem Abdul-Jabbar how to defeat two very tall black American terrorists.

    If you go for this style of dumb comedy, then this film will probably deliver. Jackie Chan diehards will enjoy it, as will those who enjoy seeing scantily clad Asian women. Chingmy Yau's career was not entirely propelled by her acting abilities, as her signature film Naked Killer will attest. There's also Carol Wan, who has a running joke about being unable to keep her balance due to the size of her bust. Yes, the humour is at that level. The film also includes a music clip with Hong Kong DJs Hard and Soft. Melbourne-born martial artist and actor Richard Norton plays the chief baddie, and his evil offsider is Briton Gary Daniels, whose martial arts skills make up for his poor acting. Overall, a guilty pleasure for some, but casual viewers beware.

Video

    The film is presented in an aspect ratio of 1.78:1 trimmed from the original 1.85:1 and is 16x9 enhanced.

    This is not a bad transfer, but is not perfect either. The transfer is quite sharp and detailed. Brightness and contrast are good. Colours are bright and vivid, though they fare better in the studio sequences, with the location footage starting to look its age.

    There is some very mild edge enhancement and some aliasing and moiré at times, but mostly this is held in check. Film artefacts are few. There is some flecking and dark lines appear briefly a couple of times.

    The optional subtitles are well done, in a clear white font with all of the dialogue translated.

    The disc is RSDL-formatted with the layer change a little disruptively placed at 88:16.

Video Ratings Summary

Sharpness
Shadow Detail
Colour
Grain/Pixelization
Film-To-Video Artefacts
Film Artefacts
Overall

Audio

    The default audio on this film is the English dub, which is in Dolby Digital 5.1. I listened to the Cantonese dub, which is also Dolby Digital 5.1.

    The audio is not bad. Dialogue is clear, and there are a few directional effects mainly involving crowd noise and special effects coming from the rears. The subwoofer kicks into life a few times with thumps accentuating some of the punches and kicks as well as the music track.

    Audio sync is problematic, given that the entire film was dubbed. The Anglo actors all speak impeccable Cantonese.

    The music is just as over the top as the rest of the film, so it fits in quite well. I did not particularly like the song by the two DJs, though I guess it is relatively innocuous.

Audio Ratings Summary

Dialogue
Audio Sync
Clicks/Pops/Dropouts
Surround Channel Use
Subwoofer
Overall

Main Menu Introduction

    An introduction to the main menu featuring graphics and shots from the film.

Menu Animation & Audio

    The main menu moves with some animation and has the usual generic music.

Audio Commentary-Bey Logan (Hong Kong Cinema Expert)

    Yet another informative commentary from Bey Logan, who details the backstory of the film as well as identifying just about every actor and extra in it. A lot of this material helps in understanding some of the less accessible humour.

Gallery-Photo

    A series of stills taken directly from the film, which makes this less than useful.

Biographies-Cast-Jackie Chan And Joey Wong-Animated Biography Showcase (43:25)

    Two scrolling biographies complete with voiceover, lasting 35:25 and 8:00 respectively. Both are informative though I have seen the Chan one before.

Theatrical Trailers (5:32)

    Two trailers, being for the original release and the HKL DVD release.

Interviews-Cast-Jackie Chan, Richard Norton And Gary Daniels (48:47)

    These interviews are all in English and run 3:40, 15:17 and 29:50 respectively. Best are the two Anglos, who discuss their careers in Hong Kong and how they got there.

Outtakes (4:38)

    This is basically an extended version of the outtakes that appear during the closing credits.

Trailer-The Way of the Dragon, Project A, Mr Vampire, The Big Boss, Once Upon a Time in China 2 (8:18)

    Trailers for other HKL releases.

    The Region 4 is a port of the UK Region 2, with slightly different trailers.

    The All Regions US disc from Tai Seng is apparently the same as the Hong Kong Mega Star release, and apart from additional subtitle options has none of the extras of the Region 4, though it does have an alternative Mandarin surround track.

    A more recent US release, this time coded for Region 1, comes from Fox and has a music video with outtakes. It also has interviews with Chan, Wong Jing and one of the stunt men, as well as posters and production notes.

    The HKL release seems to have the best extras, so either the Region 4 or Region 2 would be the first choice.

    Not Jackie Chan's finest hour, this lame comedy is not very good at all.

    The video quality is good.

    The audio quality is good.

    A fine selection of extras.

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall