6.6 | / 10 |
Users | 0.0 | |
Reviewer | 3.0 | |
Overall | 3.0 |
This film is a live-action version of a popular Japanese comic book and animated series, transformed into a vehicle for international action hero Jackie Chan. Ryu Saeba, a womanizing private detective, is hired to find the runaway daughter of a wealthy businessman. Ryu's pursuit of the girl leads him to a cruise ship. Through coincidence the ocean liner is hijacked, leaving Ryu to contend with the hostage takers as well as the elusive daughter.
Starring: Jackie Chan, Joey Wang, Chingmy Yau, Richard Norton, Michael Wong (I)Foreign | 100% |
Martial arts | 42% |
Action | 24% |
Comedy | 2% |
Comic book | Insignificant |
Video codec: MPEG-4 AVC
Video resolution: 1080p
Aspect ratio: 1.85:1
Original aspect ratio: 1.85:1
English: DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 (48kHz, 24-bit)
Cantonese: DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 (48kHz, 24-bit)
English
50GB Blu-ray Disc
Single disc (1 BD)
Region A (B, C untested)
Movie | 3.0 | |
Video | 2.0 | |
Audio | 4.0 | |
Extras | 3.0 | |
Overall | 3.0 |
Note: This film is currently only available in this double feature: Jackie Chan: Battle Creek Brawl /
City Hunter.
If at first you don’t succeed, try, try again. Jackie Chan is one of the biggest international superstars of his
generation, a performer who not only performs his own stunts, but has become synonymous with a certain subgenre of
martial arts fare where comedy is often king. But it may surprise some to know that Chan actually not only had a fairly
hard time matriculating into the American market, even his early Hong Kong efforts were met with less than resounding
success. Though Chan had actually been appearing in films since his early childhood, it took him several tries as an
adult to finally break through into mainstream prominence in Hong Kong, ultimately really breaking into the big time with
1978’s blockbuster Drunken Master, a film which perfectly typified what would become the almost patented
Chan blend of action and comedy. A couple of years later Chan made his first starring attempt for the American market,
Battle Creek Brawl, which bombed pretty spectacularly. He stuck around long enough to play a fairly minor role
in The Cannonball Run,
before striking out again in The Protector Chan retreated to his more familiar geographical turf for the next
several years, increasing his star power and box office appeal in that neck of the woods. It would be close to a decade
until Chan finally attempted to reestablish himself once again stateside, and even then it took a little while before he
finally had his first true blockbuster, 1998’s
Rush Hour. The rest, as they say, is history, and it’s perhaps indicative of how popular Chan has become
that few seem to remember his long struggle to achieve that level of stardom. This new double feature from Shout!
Factory collects that first American bomb Battle Creek Brawl with a fondly remembered 1993 Hong Kong offering
from Chan, City Hunter.
City Hunter is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Shout! Factory with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 1.85:1. This is one of those "glass half full, glass half empty" situations, rather like the other recent Shout! Factory Jackie Chan double feature release, Jackie Chan: Police Story / Police Story 2. As happened in that case, the second film is considerably better looking, at least when compared to the first. Therefore, my perhaps over generous score above must be taken in the context of me having watched this outing directly after Battle Creek Brawl, which looks pretty horrible. City Hunter may in fact be an upscale, but it's a considerably more artful one than Battle Creek Brawl. Colors are better saturated, the image is decidedly clearer (again, this is a relative statement, compared to Battle Creek Brawl), and there is not the rampant ringing and shoddy looking fuzziness that hobbled the earlier film's high definition presentation. Does that mean things are great here? Hardly. There's still an overall softness and lack of fine object detail that at least hints at this being an upscale. My advice: watch Battle Creek Brawl first, and then this presentation will look pretty darn good, at least by comparison.
City Hunter features DTS-HD Master Audio 5.l mixes in both Cantonese and English. As seems to be the case with many of these titles, the English mix is considerably more amped up than the Cantonese, with louder dialogue, effects and music. That said, some may prefer the original Cantonese track, especially since it doesn't really sound like Chan dubbed his own voice in the English version (I could be wrong about this, but the voice is considerably higher than Chan's voice on the Cantonese track). Fidelity is very good on both of these tracks, and both offer some nice immersion during the big set pieces. Dynamic range is also very wide.
If you're willing to put up with an unapologetically cartoonish approach, City Hunter is at the very least fitfully entertaining, and for some will be a good deal more than that. Some of the humor is admittedly juvenile, but the action sequences are often spectacular, showing Chan really coming into his own and developing his own unique style. This Blu- ray presentation leaves something to be desired, but at least when compared to its sibling in the double feature it's paired with, looks relatively decent and comes with some good supplementary material.
(Still not reliable for this title)
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1984
Xià rì fú xīng | 夏日福星 | Hong Kong Cut & Extended Cut
1985
5 Lucky Stars / Kei mau miu gai: Ng fok sing / Qí móu miào jì: wǔ fú xīng / 奇謀妙計五福星
1983
Jung on zo / Zhòng àn zǔ / 重案組
1993
Armour of God II: Operation Condor / Fei jing gai wak / Project Eagle
1991
Zui quan
1978
The Armour of God / Lung hing foo dai
1986
蛇鶴八步 / She he ba bu
1978
劍花煙雨江南 / Jian hua yan yu jiang nan
1977
'A' gai wak
1983
Fei lung mang jeung
1988
'A' gai wak juk jaap / 'A' ji hua xu ji / A計劃續集
1987
警察故事 / Ging chaat goo si
1985
龙拳 / Long quan
1979
警察故事續集 / Ging chaat goo si juk jaap
1988
1982
Fuk sing go jiu / Fu xing gao zhao / 福星高照
1985
寶貝計劃 | Rob-B-Hood / Bo bui gai wak
2006
Shuang long hui
1992
Hai Phuong
2019