Bullet Points: City Hunter (2024)
Remember City Hunter? Well, he’s back… in Netflix form.
Admittedly I don’t know much about City Hunter. I know City Hunter began as a Japanese manga and spawned several anime television series and feature films, both animated and live action, including the Jackie Chan version from 1993 that I honestly have never seen from start to finish.
So if you are like me and not well versed in City Hunter lore, rest assured you don’t need to be to enjoy 2024’s City Hunter and that became evident before the opening credits even rolled…
- XYZ: There is a physical message board in Shinjuku City where people in need can contact the City Hunter aka Ryo Saeba (Ryohei Suzuki) seeking help… as the movie begins Ryo and his partner (and former cop) Hideyuki Makimura are on a mission to help recover a client’s younger sister, Kurumi. Ryo makes one of the best first impressions in cinematic history… it is clear he has a great love for the ladies as he is checking out some bikini clad beauties when he is supposed to be keeping his eye out for Kurumi. (Ryo referring to the client as Sweater Melons and his POV shot of their meeting was also a good indication that Ryo had an eye for the fairer sex.) But to his credit, when Ryo does spot Kurumi he springs into action, ziplining high above the streets of Shinjuku and crashing through a window making one hell of an entrance before taking out multiple goons who had Kurumi held against her will. Mission accomplished?!!? Not so fast, after Ryo eliminates all the baddies, Kurumi freaks out and takes off running and now Ryo and Hideyuki are scrambling to catch her… this includes a scene with Ryo and an air mattress that was a thing of beauty. Minutes in and City Hunter was already taking the audience on a wild ride. It becomes clear that something has happened to Kurumi that has given her superhuman capabilities, perhaps the mysterious vials she dropped during the chase have something to do with it!
- Happy Birthday: Ryo and Hideyuki don’t manage to catch Kurumi and the whole thing has made Hideyuki late for his sister’s birthday dinner. Not only is it Kaori’s birthday, Hideyuki is going to tell her something their father never had a chance to… that Kaori is adopted. The siblings have a window seat at the restaurant and before Hideyuki can tell Kaori what he needs to tell her, a truck comes barreling through the window of the restaurant sending Kaori in Hideyuki in opposite directions. The driver gets out of the truck, and like Kurumi, it appears he has enhanced powers. The driver goes after Hideyuki who stabs him with a knife, but the driver is not phased… he pulls the knife out and then proceeds to stab Hideyuki repeatedly with it before fleeing the scene. Ryo shows up, a dying Hideyuki hands him the vials he picked up in the alley after Kurumi dropped them and he tells Ryo to look after Kaori… now at the 18 minute mark, we get the opening credits. Well done, City Hunter. I am hooked…
- Tag Team: After witnessing her brother’s death, Kaori (Misato Morita) is motivated to find out why her brother was brutally murdered. Hideyuki’s murder was not an isolated incident either. There are strange things afoot in Shinjuku with people losing control and then turning up dead shortly thereafter. Kaori wants to team up with Ryo to get to the bottom of all of this craziness, Ryo does his best to steer Kaori away from the world in which he and Hideyuki lived in. But Kaori is persistent, so Ryo eventually takes her with him to the Shinjuku underworld where she gets to witness Ryo dance around in some star spangled briefs, be present when Ryo meets with the Yakuza and ultimately join Ryo as he resumes his original mission of finding Kurumi. And things turn when we learn Kurumi has quite the cosplay following AND that Kurumi doesn’t have a sister… Sweater Melons tricked Ryo!!!
- You’re Invited: The cosplay angle comes into play, when Kurumi (or Milk as she is known in the cosplay world) is invited to participate in Cosplay Wonderfest sponsored by the Lore Corporation. Obviously with bad guys after her, this may not be the best idea, but business really picks up here with Ryo in a ridiculous cowboy outfit and in total horndog heaven seeing all the attractive young women in their cosplay gear… it all leads to an epic fight on the stage of Cosplay Wonderfest that the attendees have no idea is not a part of the show. And it is also here where the pieces start falling into place… with the Lore Corporation being in cahoots with the villains of the movie, a mysterious group known as The Union. This leads to a finale that is as frenetic and action packed as the movie’s open!
2024’s City Hunter had it all… action, violence, gore, comedy and one of the most charismatic leads I have ever seen. Ryohei Suzuki delivered an amazing performance… he could go from pure badass in one scene to Japan’s answer to Austin Powers in the next and not miss a beat. Apparently Ryohei is a big fan of the City Hunter manga, so his love for the character was no doubt inspiration for the performance he delivered.
City Hunter was anime come to life in the best way possible and I can only hope there are plans for more City Hunter movies with Ryohei Suzuki and Misato Morita as the star in the future. If you were hoping for some more bullet points, you are in luck…
- If You Ever: …wanted to see an action hero prevent some horny fans from taking up skirt photos, then 2024’s City Hunter is the movie for you.
- TIL: While doing some IMDb research, I found out that Ryohei Suzuki was in a live action Gatchaman movie back in 2023, that I didn’t even know existed. Now I need to see this movie!
- If You Ever: …wanted your action hero to have several stashes of physical media porn in his home, then 2024’s City Hunter is the movie for you.
