city hunter movie review

Didn't you get the email?

By joining, you agree to the Terms and Policies and Privacy Policy and to receive email from the Fandango Media Brands .

By continuing, you agree to the Privacy Policy and the Terms and Policies , and to receive email from the Fandango Media Brands .

Log in or sign up for Rotten Tomatoes

Trouble logging in?

By creating an account, you agree to the Privacy Policy and the Terms and Policies , and to receive email from Rotten Tomatoes and to receive email from the Fandango Media Brands .

By creating an account, you agree to the Privacy Policy and the Terms and Policies , and to receive email from Rotten Tomatoes.

Email not verified

Let's keep in touch.

Sign up for the Rotten Tomatoes newsletter to get weekly updates on:

Upcoming Movies and TV shows
Rotten Tomatoes Podcast
Media News + More

By clicking "Sign Me Up," you are agreeing to receive occasional emails and communications from Fandango Media (Fandango, Vudu, and Rotten Tomatoes) and consenting to Fandango's Privacy Policy and Terms and Policies . Please allow 10 business days for your account to reflect your preferences.

OK, got it!

About Rotten Tomatoes®
Login/signup

Movies in theaters

Opening This Week
Top Box Office
Coming Soon to Theaters
Certified Fresh Movies

Movies at Home

Fandango at Home
Prime Video
Most Popular Streaming Movies
What to Watch New

Certified fresh picks

86% Carry-On Link to Carry-On
86% Nickel Boys Link to Nickel Boys
80% The Last Showgirl Link to The Last Showgirl

New TV Tonight

-- Laid: Season 1
-- Fast Friends: Season 1
-- Virgin River: Season 6
-- Beast Games: Season 1
-- Aaron Rodgers: Enigma: Season 1
-- The Secret Lives of Animals: Season 1

City Hunter Reviews

Full Review | Jul 5, 2024

In order to adapt this manga for a modern audience, City Hunter tries to reduce the original's sexism and main character's sexualization and objectification of women, but there's still plenty of it.

Full Review | May 10, 2024

Accessible and endlessly energetic, City Hunter should hit the target for fans and first-timers alike.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/5 | May 10, 2024

It's as silly as crying wolf when thinking you spotted a Brown Bear monster in the film.

Full Review | Original Score: C+ | May 9, 2024

You can get away with a lot of this stuff in video games and animation. But this tries to go the extra step... It's just not that engaging.

Full Review | May 8, 2024

A cheesy crime action-drama with some comedy thrown in. What's most interesting about it is how backward these characters are and how different Japanese attitudes are from ours.

A lively, action-packed extravaganza that successfully brings the anime to life.

Full Review | May 3, 2024

While maintaining a structure similar to its predecessor, director Kenji Kodama infuses fresh elements throughout.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/5 | Apr 30, 2024

It is a very Japanese comedy, with its characteristic excesses and conventions. [Full review in Spanish]

Full Review | Original Score: 3/5 | Apr 29, 2024

The horniness of the tone and main character can be off-putting, but when viewed in context of his heart, the antics showcase an endearing contradiction with the outward projection versus the inward beliefs.

Full Review | Original Score: 4/5 | Apr 27, 2024

The film can’t quite settle on the right tone. The final act is a particular drag, as the story shifts to a series of generic sets that look like John Wick knock-offs.

Full Review | Original Score: 2/5 | Apr 26, 2024

It is a hard-boiled detective drama with the stylised kinetic gunfights -- bullet time, zoom shots -- of a pacy page-flipping read.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/5 | Apr 26, 2024

Mainstream animation from the U.S. and Japan may be far apart in sensibility, style, and intended audience, but cartoons from both countries do share one major piece of common ground: the vast difficulty of translating them into live action.

Full Review | Apr 25, 2024

It's not for me, but it might be for you, if you like your entertainment to be slapdash, silly, and sexist, until it gets bloody.

When it comes to unfunny jokes that should have died a death in some smoke-filled boardroom from the 1980s, City Hunter takes the cake.

Full Review | Original Score: 2.5/5 | Apr 25, 2024

The action was satisfactory, but I guess I was blindsided by the fact that the comedy was so misogynistic in nature. Maybe if I was familiar with the source material, I would’ve been better prepared to tackle some of [City Hunter's] perverse stuff.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/5 | Apr 25, 2024

If you’re even slightly against playboy characters, this might not be for you. But if you’re all in on a seemingly horrible guy with a real heart of gold and badass action sequences, then City Hunter is ace.

Full Review | Original Score: 8.5/10 | Apr 25, 2024

Sponsored High-Tech Home Gift Guide
Anker Power Station Giveaway
Best AI Tools
The State of GPUs in 2025
The Batman 2
RTX 50-series
Best Tech Gifts
Luxury Gadget Gifts
Entertainment

Netflix is streaming the craziest action movie of 2024. Here’s why I loved it

This month seems to be the time to release action movies that color outside the lines. We’ve already had Dev Patel’s Monkey Man , a messy, throw-everything-at-the-wall action movie that blends intricate fight sequences and on-the-nose social commentary in an entertaining package that will surely gain cult status in the near future. Just this weekend, Boy Kills World dished out loads of cartoon violence and over-the-top gore in a bid for John Wick-level fandom. Both movies bend or break the rules of reality to deliver quickly cut fight scenes that push the boundaries of the genre, all in an attempt to one-up the high standards set by the best movies in the Mission: Impossible and Fast and Furious franchises.

Yet the best of the April bunch is the one that has the lowest profile. City Hunter doesn’t star anyone you’d recognize like It actor Bill Skarsgård in Boy Kills World and hasn’t been backed by an extensive marketing campaign like Universal’s Monkey Man . But the movie is a blast; it’s like putting Pop Rocks in a can of Mountain Dew and chasing it down with a couple of Pixy Sticks. It’s ludicrous, immature, and totally unrealistic. It’s also my favorite action movie of 2024. Here’s why you need to stream City Hunter pronto.

It’s an adaptation of a massively popular franchise

If you’re not a manga, anime, or Jackie Chan fan, you’ve probably never heard of City Hunter . That’s OK, I hadn’t either until I watched Netflix’s version. City Hunter began life as a popular manga series in 1985. It was quickly adapted into an anime series in 1987 and, later, theatrical animated movies released in 1989, 1990, 1999, 2019, and 2023. It’s also been adapted into several live-action iterations, including a 1993 Hong Kong movie starring Jackie Chan (who publicly trashed the film) and a 2019 French version with Pamela Anderson (!) in the cast.

If you have to watch one Disney+ movie this December 2024, stream this one
Netflix is now streaming a killer AI horror movie that’s like M3GAN’s twisted sister
The Recruit season 2: Netflix reveals streaming date, first photos for spy show

The Netflix version carries no baggage from the previous versions; in other words, you don’t need to know anything about the mythology of City Hunter to understand what’s going on. The movie’s plot is pretty straightforward: Former cops Ryo Saeba and his partner Hideyuki Makimura run a detective agency named City Hunter. They’re hired to find a teenage runaway, who has ingested a bootleg Angel Dust drug that gives its user temporary super strength. The only down side? You kinda die after the effects wear off.

After Hideyuki is murdered by one of these Angel Dust users, Ryo must team up with his partner’s adopted sister, Kaori, to find the the runway, protect her, avenge Hideyuki’s death, and take down the criminal organization behind the whole drug enterprise.

This is a fairly typical action movie plot (it reminded me a bit of the first two Lethal Weapon movies as well as The Adventures of Ford Fairlane ), and it’s retro simplicity is part of its charm. There’s no spooky AI algorithm to battle or world-ending crisis to solve; instead, Ryo has to overcome a designer drug cartel and a police force that doesn’t entirely trust his renegade behavior.

The action scenes are over-the-top and sublime

Is it a shock to claim that action movies live or die by their action sequences? No, of course not. And if you judge City Hunter purely by its fight scenes, the movie is a clear winner. It opens with one of its best scenes: an extended chase scene that starts with Ryo hand-gliding his way into a skyscraper, shooting a window so it break upon impact, executing a Street Fighter-style flying kick that would make Chun-Li proud, and concluding with Ryo using a massage mat to slide down some stairs and fly out another window, his flight scored by soaring rock music and punctuated by slow motion so you can soak it all in.

And that’s just the first 15 minutes! Later in the movie, there’s a showdown at a crowded cosplay convention where Ryo fights a leather-clad woman with a whip a la Catwoman , who then pulls out two small knives from the base of her bullwhip to subdue Ryo. Oh, and there’s also someone with a rifle shooting at Ryo while all this is going on. City Hunter ‘s action scenes are intense and often brutal, and even if they aren’t remotely realistic, you’re still on the edge of your seat to see how it will all turn out.

Ryo is both incredibly cool and utterly immature

Two of my favorite action heroes ever are Steve McQueen’s cool, stylish cop in Bullitt and Spike Spiegel’s aloof loner in Cowboy Bebop . With his fashionable turtleneck shirts, beige trench coat, and playboy attitude, City Hunter ‘s Ryo Saeba is clearly drawn from the same cloth. And it’s a credit to actor Ryohei Suzuki that he embodies the aspects of this character flawlessly. Ryohei is incredibly charismatic, and he makes you love Ryo even when he’s acting like a complete idiot.

Unlike the characters that clearly inspired him, Ryo is immature and a bit goofy. He’s addicted to porn, ogles women’s breasts shamelessly, and is prone to showing his, er, excitement, when someone attractive is around him. (And someone always is.) Yet City Hunter doesn’t let its hero off the hook with this behavior.

Through Kaori’s constant disapproval and nudging to be better, Ryo eventually reigns in his immaturity enough to keep his focus and solve the case. It’s a redemptive arc that isn’t overplayed, and it feels earned.

City Hunter constantly surprises you

I’d be remiss to not briefly touch on one of the best aspects of City Hunter : It always keeps you guessing as to what will happen next. The movie has its own narrative logic, so it never feels choppy, but it also constantly springs one surprise after another. From the aforementioned chase scene that opens the movie to its third-act showdown that pits Ryo and Kaori against a seemingly endless stream of foes, City Hunter throws constantly curveballs at you.

One such curveball is its non-sequitur humor. The movie is funny in ways that is both cheap and sophomoric, but it works. This is pre-adolescent humor that cheerfully finds comedy in the most juvenile things like uncontrollable erections, pervy photographers, and exploding heads, but it somehow all makes sense.

And then there’s a scene at a disco that finds City’s Hunter ‘s hero in nothing but a barely-there Speedo, dancing and posing joyfully in front of an adoring crowd. Why is Ryo doing this? And what purpose does it serve the movie? I’ll leave it to you to discover the answers to those questions because it’s all part of what makes the movie such a hoot to watch. You’d never find Tom Cruise’s Ethan Hunt doing what Ryo does in this movie, which makes it all the more unique and special to watch.

City Hunter may not be for everyone, and that’s OK. If you prefer dour action movies that are deadly serious, then give this film a hard pass. But if you want to see some of the craziest action scenes in film today, and don’t mind engaging with a movie that wields immature humor like a giant hammer (Kaori literally does this in several scenes), then start streaming City Hunter as soon as possible. It’s a movie that doesn’t take itself too seriously (just look at the last image of this article for proof) and remembers to prioritize one of the key reasons why we want to watch action movies in the first place: to have fun.

City Hunter is now streaming on Netflix.

Editors’ Recommendations

Netflix’s most popular show right now is this dark 2024 spy thriller
2024’s most polarizing movie now has a streaming release date on Max
This great 2015 Liam Neeson action movie is popular on Netflix now
This overlooked 2019 World War II movie is now on Netflix. Here’s why you should stream it
The Rock has a hit with Moana 2, but one of his best movies is now streaming on Netflix
Streaming Services

We all have different opinions about what is the ideal movie to watch over Thanksgiving. For some, they want a cheerful, sappy movie like The Family Stone that reminds them of the warm bonds of family. For others, they want to be taken away from reality with fantasy movies like any of the Harry Potter or Lord of the Rings movies.

For misanthropes like me, I prefer to watch a movie that reflects the messiness the holiday inevitably brings. When it was released in the fall of 1995, Jodie Foster's Home for the Holidays didn't cause much of a stir. Despite being directed by a two-time Oscar winner and starring Holly Hunter (who has just won an Oscar for 1993's The Piano), Anne Bancroft (The Graduate's Mrs. Robinson), Claire Danes (hot off of My So-Called Life), and Robert Downey Jr. (the future Tony Stark), the movie flopped at the box office. Almost 30 years later, its cultural footprint is largely the same -- non-existent.

Squid Game: Season 2 | Official Teaser | Netflix

It seems like only yesterday we were ringing in 2024. Now, it's almost December, and a momentous year is set to close with an avalanche of highly anticipated movies and shows set for release. Thanksgiving will give the public "Glicked," a double feature of Wicked and Gladiator 2 that aims to replicate the success of Barbenheimer. Then, there's Moana 2, Kraven the Hunter, the Bob Dylan biopic A Complete Unknown, and, to close out the year, the retro horror flick Nosferatu.

Max has one of the deepest libraries of any streaming service out there, but that doesn't mean it's easy to find what you want to watch. In fact, because there's so much interesting stuff, it can actually make picking any one thing more difficult.

We've decided to do some of the hard work for you by picking three great action movies that are worth checking out this month. These action movies represent a wide swath of what action cinema can be, and each of them is worth watching for very different reasons. We hope you'll see all three, but at the very least, you can certainly find time for one.

Home » Movies » Movie Reviews

‘City Hunter’ Review – A Solid Final Act Redeems An Insufferable First Half

Live-action adaptations tend to be hit-and-miss. It’s hard to convey the exaggerated and physically impossible animation elements in the real world with human actors. There’s also a fine balance between pleasing existing fans while remaining accessible enough for new viewers to enjoy. City Hunter (2024) has plenty of good qualities, but I wouldn’t call it the best introduction to the franchise’s lore.

City Hunter , the Tsukasa Hojo manga , has seen numerous adaptations since its first issue hit the shelves in 1985. The franchise includes several anime series, a few movie adaptations (including one starring Jackie Chan), and a highly popular K-Drama . But despite its origin, a Japanese-produced live-action version was missing from the roster. That’s where the 2024 Netflix release directed by Yûichi Satô comes in.

Ryo Saeba (Ryohei Suzuki) and his best friend Makimura ( Masanobu Andô ), a former police officer, are two Tokyo-based guns for hire who agree to help a woman find her missing sister, the cosplayer Kurumi (Asuka Hanamura) . The pair find Kurumi and even rescue her from a group of thugs, but the young girl refuses to go with them and keeps running.

Later that night, Makimura is murdered by a man with superhuman strength while celebrating his sister Kaori’s birthday at a restaurant. The man who kills Makimura is only the most recent person to exhibit such extreme violent tendencies seemingly out of the blue.

City Hunter | Image via Netflix

To Ryo’s dismay, Kaori insists they work together to learn why Makimura was targeted. As they delve deeper into the investigation they uncover a conspiracy involving illegal human experiments, a mysterious evil organization, a drug known as Angel Dust, and Kurumi in the center of it all.

The fast-paced action sequences are top-notch and arguably the best parts of this movie. The fights are expertly choreographed and Suzuki is a believable action hero.

It’s impossible to fault Suzuki’s performance. The comedy may be mediocre but he adds charm to an otherwise insufferable character. Suzuki is at his best during the more serious action sequences and even during some more emotional scenes.

On the flip side, a movie needs to have a lot of blatant misogyny for me to think it’s worth mentioning in a review. But when it comes to unfunny jokes that should have died a death in some smoke-filled boardroom from the 1980s, City Hunter takes the cake. The original manga was a product of its time; this version isn’t.

When we first meet Ryo, he’s gleefully singing (yes, singing) about the “babes in bikinis” he’s stalking from a rooftop. He also repeatedly refers to their client as “Miss Sexy Melons” and makes irritating high-pitched sounds at the mere sight of a female in any state of undress.

While Ryo’s exaggerated wannabe playboy character traits are successfully played for laughs in the manga and the animes from more than 3 decades ago, they wear far too thin in a live-action adaptation. After all, the movie version of Kaori can’t exactly pull out a giant hammer every single time Ryo says or does something incredibly inappropriate (even if the iconic hammer does make an appearance).

However, despite the film’s lackluster first half, it does grow into a more enjoyable comedy action flick as the plot progresses. By the third act, City Hunter (2024) seems to have finally hit a good balance of slapstick, action, and narrative. Ryo also becomes a more toned-down version of the annoying character we meet in the opening scene.

I also discussed the City Hunter ending too, if you’d like to check it out.

Article by Lori Meek

Lori Meek has been a Ready Steady Cut contributing writer since September 2022 and has had over 400 published articles since. She studied Film and Television at Southampton Solent University, where she gained most of her knowledge and passion for the entertainment industry. Lori’s work is also featured on platforms such as TBreak Media and ShowFaves.

The Playbook: A Coach’s Rules for Life review – a solid, if brief, limited series

Netflix documentary series Lenox Hill episode 7 - Pain

Lenox Hill episode 7 recap - what happened in "Pain"?

This website cannot be displayed as your browser is extremely out of date.

Please update your browser to one of the following: Chrome , Firefox , Edge

Mental Health

City Hunter 2024 Review: A new Netflix movie based on the famous manga City Hunter by Tsukasa Hojo is here, and I am delighted to review it. Let us see how this movie fared compared to the already beloved manga/anime franchise.

City Hunter 2024 Overview

The beloved manga City Hunter , which mesmerized readers with over 50 million copies sold, finally hits the big screen in an eagerly anticipated live-action adaptation. It tracks Ryo Saeba, as he manoeuvres through the tough streets of modern-day Shinjuku, Tokyo, handling risky situations as a top “sweeper.”

Ryohei Suzuki, Misato Morita, Masanobu Ando, Asuka Hanamura, Ayame Misaki, Moemi Katayama, etc, come together to give life to this project. Directed by Yuichi Satoh and produced by Keisuke Sanpei this movie sets the stage for an electrifying adventure.

The ending theme for this movie is “Get Wild Continual” by TM NETWORK (Sony Music Labels Inc.) and the music is by Eishi Segawa.

– City Hunter 2024 Review Contains Minor Spoilers –

City Hunter 2024 Review and Recap – Nostalgia vs. Adaptation

City Hunter 2024 Review: A Better Live-Action Movie Than Many

This movie depicts only the segment of how Ryo met Kaori. On the surface, the story is about a mysterious detective who goes by the name City Hunter whom you can approach with only a very special mean. Things go awfully wrong when Ryo and his partner get the request to track the sister of a young woman.

It is definitely true that adapting any manga or anime into live-action is a difficult chore that will likely face criticism from fans for not being too accurate. And this happens because the things that we see in manga and anime are often extraordinary and when somebody tries to put that into reality, it can turn into a farcical mess. But it’s possible to create adaptations that preserve the essence of the original source material while also bringing something new to the table.

In this movie’s case, I would say they got pretty close to making a good City Hunter adaptation but failed because of the timeline difference.

If we consider the positives of this movie, then I must admit that Ryohei Suzuki, as Ryo Saeba, the charismatic and perverted detective is very good. I will say that physically he’s the closest to what you would imagine Ryo to look like in reality. Ryohei managed to pull all the eccentricities of Ryo’s character pretty decently, considering this is a movie of less than two hours. We see his lewdness when he ogles at the breasts of his clients or when he frequents shady establishments, but we also feel his sincerity when he deals with his enemies.

The action sequences are also nicely choreographed and you do consider Ryohei to be a great shooter with impeccable marksmanship just like the original Ryo. Even Kaori, his companion comes off as clumsy but determined when she joins Ryo for a deadly mission. Hence, from the actor’s side, both the protagonists did everything they could in their power to make City Hunter as realistic as possible.

But we must admit that City Hunter was crafted in the 80s, deeply rooted in the Tokyo of that era. Every detail, from Ryo’s car to the locales he frequents, reflects a bygone Japan. Thus, completely overhauling a story from the past to fit the mould of the 21st century might seem abrupt and lacking. Even the mission that Ryo and Kaori were on was not that intriguing and was pretty predictable till the end.

The conclusion of the movie was also not that impressive but at least it hints towards a continuation. You can say that this movie was just the introduction and things ended before the main journey of Ryo could begin. The music was tastefully done and I especially loved how they used a rendition of the original City Hunter opening towards the end.

Must Read : Spice and Wolf Merchant Meets the Wise Wolf Episode 4 Review: Sudden Unsuspecting Twist

As a fan of the City Hunter anime, watching this movie was a delightful trip down memory lane for me. Personally, I found it quite enjoyable, especially seeing Ryohei’s portrayal that closely mirrors the character of Ryo. If you’re familiar with the original anime or manga, I highly recommend watching this film for its nostalgic charm. But even if you’re new to the franchise, this movie is still worth a watch, as it offers a decent and entertaining experience overall.

Must Read : Best City Hunter Moments (2024) That Gives Us The Quintessential Ryo Saeba Experience

City Hunter
City Hunter 2024
Live Action Adaptation

psycho-cinematography

Japanese cinema looked at awry

City Hunter (2024) review

As time passes, the ideological fabric of society changes, shifts and even fractures. Such societal shifts often lead to certain cultural products becoming more difficult to digest. Due to these ongoing societal changes, a few of these cultural products, which despite not fitting well within the fabric of societal discourses retain their ‘cultural’ and ‘entertainment’ value, become the object of a process of tweaking.

Yet, while such tweaking appears to merely reflect changes within the societal field, the fantasy that is painted on the silver screen also aims to determine the further course of societal change by showing the subject-spectator how and what to desire. The latest cultural product that has been altered for contemporary audiences is Yuichi Sato’s City Hunter , the brainchild of manga author Tsukasa Hojo. The result proves that such altering, i.e. the diminishing of the hero’s sexism and the erasure of his problematic exploits of masculinity, does not complicate the creation of a faithful adaptation. Yet, is this faithful adaptation worth watching?

The narrative of City Hunter commences when Natsumi (Moemi Katayama), after realizing that impotence of the police force, tuns to Ryo Saeba (Suzuki Ryohei), the City Hunter, to find her sister Kurumi (Asuka Hanamura). The same night, a tragedy ensues. Not only do Ryo Saeba and Hideyuki Makimura (Masanobu Ando) fail to capture Kurumi, but Makimura dies after being attacked by the drugged driver that rammed his truck into the restaurant where he was having a birthday dinner with his adopted sister Kaori (Misato Morita). While both incidents appear to have no connection, Kurumi’s inexplicable escape and the feral and lethal attack on Makimura are linked to a string of cases of feral attacks and bloody deaths that plague the neon-lit streets of Toko’s nightlife district.

City Hunter is a prime example of a trick of all trades, but a master of none. Sato blends mystery, action, drama, comedy together into a pleasant whole, but nothing stands out, nothing succeeds in pulling the spectator into the narrative. While the blend of different genres does not create a disjointed experience, the refusal to fully commit to one genre robs the narrative from the emotional core that could make the presence of other-genre elements more impactful.

Sato tries to structure City Hunter around the element of mystery – who is behind the string of incidents caused by the drug Angel Dust and why Kurumi is a valuable target ? – but fails to fully exploit its narrative potential – the few twists are delivered without much of an impact. The main reason why the narrative’s structure does not lend itself to the mystery genre or any other genre for that matter is the choice to turn this adaptation into a buddy narrative.

It is, in other words, by structuring the narrative City Hunter merely around the events that determine the course of Ryo and Kaoru’s relationship that Sato is rendered unable to fully develop the different genre-elements. Yet, while such choice turned City Hunter into an emotionally bland genre-mix, Sato’s narrative still succeeds in delivering an interesting thematical exploration of the phallic function for men.

The way Ryo, our city hunter, turns female subjects into sexual objects to be seduced or to visually ravish proves that his logic within the societal field is determined by the phantasmatic assumption of the phallus. The uninhibited nature of his sexualizing acts and signifiers – Yes, you make me so mokkori – is function of his pious belief that he possesses what the female Other desires. However, and this is fundamental, he can only indulge in this phantasmatic position when a female subject is around, when a phallic prosthetic presents itself (e.g. one or more hostesses, a porn-DVD, a sexy police officer, …).

As the narrative emphasizes Ryo’s unabashed phallic position, it should not surprise us that the comical moments are all about revealing the artificial nature of possessing this phantasmatic object – e.g. Ryo missing his jump and crashing into a soap land, police officer Saeko’s firm refusal to be his seductive approach, his inability to pay his tabs, him falling victim to women’s trickery, … etc. (Narra-note 1). The laughs and smiles are generated by letting spectators understand that the phallus, while taken possession off by the male subject in phantasy, has no material reality; that the phallus is merely a semblance to cover up one’s symbolic castration.

The fact that the phallus needs to be absent from the field to have its effect on desire and to play its role in the fantasy of having it is illustrated by Ryo’s striptease dance. During this dance, he merely teases the female spectators by veiling the phallus with a variety of objects. Were Ryo to lift the veil, the mendacious nature of this playful seduction would be revealed – the phallus deflates, a miserable member for all to see.

The composition of City Hunter is highly dynamic and often sports fast-paced cutting. What stands out in the framing of the action-sequences are not the choreographies, but Sato’s emphasis on creating visually pleasing action-moments. Rather than tracking the whole of the choreography, Yuichi Sato offers a more cut-up-like concatenation of visual moments that aim to impress and please the spectator. While the dynamism that marks the framing of these sequences give the unfolding of the action-moments a pleasing flow, the surges of visual pleasure lie in the rhythm of static moments (Cine-note 1).

Yet, while this way of framing action delivers some visual pleasure, it comes at the cost of delivering tension. Some action-sequences would have been more enjoyable if Sato did not only emphasize cool-moments, but also the choreography that leads up to these moments. The failure to find such balance hurts the final battle the most – a visual pleasure, yet not exciting enough.

The composition does not merely emphasize Ryo’s unrepressed sexual desire by interweaving close-ups of voluptuous breasts, zoom-ins on the deep decollete, and so on in the visual fabric but forces the spectator – male and female – to share his sexualizing look. The spectator is, in other words, given the permission to satisfy his scopic drive by enjoying the coinciding of sexualizing or phallic gaze of the camera with his own.

With City Hunter, Yuichi Sato succeeds in creating a fun experience, yet one that is also very forgettable. What dooms this narrative to this fate is Sato’s unwillingness to compositionally support the myriad of genres the narrative tries to juggle together. City Hunter delivers a bit of everything, but in a manner that is to bland to impress and satisfy the spectator thoroughly.

Narra-note 1: The light-heartedness of the dynamic between Ryo and Saeko is function of the playful contrast between having and not having. It is Saeko’s possession of a phallic object – i.e. the gun – that further emphasize Ryo’s structural position of not having what the female Other desires.

In other words, Saeko’s refusal to function as phallic prosthetic lays bare the phantasmatic nature of his assumption of the phallus.

Cine-note 1: The most extreme version of this stylistic choice are the four action-still-lives within the composition. These still-lives, the freezing of a character’s motion, emphasize the elegance of the bodily shape in the state of fighting. In some cases, these frozen moments also raise the spectator’s anticipation for the violence that will follow.

City Hunter (2024) Synopsis

A career-changing tragedy forces Shinjuku sweeper and legendary marksman Ryu Saeba (Suzuki Ryohei) to partner with the headstrong Makimura Kaori (Morita Misato). Will the new unlikely partners be able to uncover the truth behind a series of bizarre rampages that’s seemingly caused by superhumans?

Snappy Review

Hojo Tsukasa’s City Hunter was one of the first “major” 80s Manga that I came across during my school days, but it wasn’t until decades later that I delved into the tankōbon and watched the 80s Anime series.

There were two reasons for this. First, while I knew Saeba Ryo’s many adventures would be thrilling, I just couldn’t stand the mokkori elements and that ludicrous hammer gag. Like I previously mentioned when I reviewed Shinjuku Private Eyes , these gags just feel too incongruous with the noir-ish storylines.

Secondly, I disapproved of the sexist undertones, an unfortunate trademark of many 80s Manga. The series features many independent, strong-willed women, but no matter how capable they are, all end up relying so much on Saeba-San. And in many cases, even submitting to his lascivious fantasies in exchange for a favour.

Such elements wouldn’t resonate well with today’s international audience, to say the least. Netflix and director Satoh Yuichi are aware, and so for this first-ever Japanese live-action adaptation of Hojo’s signature work, there is a perceivable downplaying of all such gags.

To be clear, mokkori still pops up everywhere, grrr , and when these gags happen, they stick out like a sore thumb. But in general, none of these moments are as outrageous or offensive as the ones in the Manga/Anime and you can sense there was a concerted effort to tone down. For me, this made the story much more intense and inviting, which is a definite plus. My personal dislike of these gags aside, I feel they made the (wild) storyline easier to sink into too.

Suzuki Ryohei also shines as the legendary Shinjuku sweeper! Now, if you’re unfamiliar with him, the stocky actor has over the years taken on roles ranging from the heroic to the deranged to the bizarre , each time, always excelling with whatever character he embraces.

As Saeba Ryo, he is suave and focused, the very definition of charismatic deadliness. As the sleazy version of Ryo, he pivots so dramatically and so enthusiastically it’s like watching another character altogether, and in doing so, paid surprisingly effective homage to the original tone of the Manga.

In fact, Suzuki is so good, he sucks the life out of every other character. While no one was downright awful in this show, the rest of the cast simply pales beside the lead man. Even Morita Misato, who tries hard with the tomboyish Kaoru, seems more of a plot vehicle than an anchor.

Coming to the action, well, this is a Manga/Anime live-action adaptation. Most if not all sequences are over-the-top and conceptualised to be stylish rather than gripping or realistic.

I enjoyed it all, though. Swooned every time, too, whenever Ryo fired his immaculate shots.

Again, it’s because it’s effective homage to the source material—the parts that I like—and it is homage done well. I enjoyed these moments and Suzuki’s performance so much that I would love a sequel too. If that happens, I’m even willing to put up with more mokkori moments.

I believe that qualifies as an achievement for the movie?

Watch the trailer here.

Check out my other snappy movie reviews .

Read my other Asian Movie Features .