| Movie
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Extras
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| Audio
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Video
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This is exactly the same as the Fox release from 2003 but has a DTS track and optional Korean subtitles everywhere. The release is a region 3 Korean one, by a company called Spectrum. Unlike the ‘Magnificent Butcher’ DVD from Spectrum, this one has optional Korean subtitles on the extras as well as the movie.
Movie
I had to watch this movie twice to see if I liked it or not.
I decided to pay more attention to the story the second time around; this
is a Wong Jing movie, after all. He is nice enough to keep it simple,
which is a rare thing for him in the years surrounding 1993, especially
for comedies. In any case, the movie was better the second time I
watched it. It also has a bunch of action sequences in it.
Maybe that’s helpful if you didn’t like the movie the first time around
and are forced against your will to watch it again… then again, maybe not.
Even after the second time, I thought the same thing as I did after the
first time, namely, ‘Okay, so Wong Jing was smoking something when
he made this.’ Maybe he was smoking many things. If the dance
number doesn’t convince you of that, then the ‘Street Fighter’ fight certainly
will. The plot goes thusly: a bunch of terrorists take over a boat,
on which Jackie Chan (‘Drunken Master’,
‘Drunken Master 2’), the City Hunter,
finds himself. That’s sounds simple, but this is Wong Jing, folks,
so it gets kind of strange after a while. The setup for why Mr. Chan
goes onto the boat are purely Wong Jing and encompass some purely Wong
Jing contrivances.
Within the first five minutes, you realize you’re watching a Wong Jing movie because of the silly sex jokes. In don’t know why Mr. Wong insists on having so many silly jokes. In an interview from the ‘Naked Killer’ DVD (I think), he said that he makes movies for people to enjoy. Yeah, well, Steven Spielberg said the same thing and he never resorted to silly sex and fart jokes. Whatever Mr.Wong’s justifications for what he does, this movie has a very cartoon-like feel to it. That might not be surprising when you know that ‘City Hunter’ was an animé before it was a movie. What might be surprising is what ends up in the movie. I’ve never seen the show but I’m sure it was very respectable and very entertaining. When you look at this movie… Okay, here’s what I mean: the show, I’m sure, was a very respectable, well-made animé, while the movie looks more like a very goofy cartoon.
The comedy is a mess; very obvious, very broad and sometimes quite crude. Some of the jokes are missed because of the subtitles’ bad timing. All the subtitles appear at the same time, but the person says half the sentence, then Jackie reacts, then the second half (which is the punchline to the joke) is said. Meanwhile, I’ve read the entire sentence, wondering what the joke is until I pay attention the action on screen. Other bits of comedy, like I said, are broad. Jackie gawking at breasts, girls doing things to men, silly misunderstandings, things like that. There were, however, a few genuinely funny moments, as are apt to happen in Mr. Jing’s movies from time to time. Some of the physical comedy is good. Say what you will, this is Jackie Chan doing Jackie Chan-type physical comedy when he’s fighting. So that’s good.
So why did I like this movie? Well, if ‘Jackie Chan’s Stuntmen Association’ and ‘Ching Siu-Tung’ don’t mean anything, then let me enlighten you. Mr. Chan and his stunt team won a whole bunch of Hong Kong Film Awards for their stunt work. They’re experts and, even back in 1993, they knew their stuff and how to make it look good. As for Mr. Ching, just take a gander at ‘The Killer’ (here) and ‘Hero’ (here), and that should prove my point. Both Mr. Chan and Mr. Ching have been making movies since the 1970s and both their resumes are very impressive. Mr. Ching’s first stint as a director was the minor classic ‘Duel to the Death’, which featured some pretty impressive choreography. Since then, he’s worked with just about everybody in Hong Kong and has won some awards for his work. Mr. Chan is, well, Jackie Chan. If you haven’t seen ‘Who Am I?’ or ‘Rumble in the Bronx’ or the ‘Police Story’ movies (part 2 and sort-of 5) then you haven’t seen some of his best work. You know him so I’ll go on. The combination of the two is very, very good. The requisite American bad guy fighter isn’t the best ever, but he’s still very good (I’ll get to him later, kind of). He has two fights with Mr. Chan: one is very good, the other is the wasted ‘Street Fighter’ fight. The fight between the main antagonist (go-to American bad guy actor Richard Norton in Hong Kong) and Mr. Chan is very impressive. The movie has a lot of action throughout, so if you’re only looking for fights, then you won’t have to wait for very long before the next action bit.
Another thing is the prologue. I actually liked the beginning. It has a small cameo by Michael Wong (go here or here). I thought, okay, neat, fun and light and quirky. It’s a nice way to give out enough information without wasting a lot of screen time (which Wong Jing sometimes does, though not often). I also liked the music a whole lot, especially when they get to the cruise. It’s a very nice ragtime-inspired score and is very fun.
The cast was also good. Just go ahead and take a look at it… I dare you: Jackie Chan (obviously), Wong Jing’s ex Chingmy Yau, quintessential melodrama king Leon Lai (‘Infernal Affairs 3’), veteran actress Joey Wong, auteur extrodinaire (wink, wink) Eric Kot and wannabee Van Damme guy Gary Daniels. What I found very funny is that Mr. Lai is not dying or crying or looking into his kid’s eyes in sappy slow-motion. This is a comedy, and Mr Lai is doing non-dramatic stuff in here! (Notice I said ‘non-dramatic stuff’ because it isn’t quite doing comedy. He’s just not doing something where he has to cry or die.) Mr. Daniels is good. Well, he isn’t bad, but he isn’t great. I can say that he’s quite limber. He seems to be a nice match for Mr. Chan, but I bet anything Brad Allen (that tiny dude from ‘Gorgeous’) could easily handle him. Mrs. Yau plays a cop (yeah right, about as credible and Denise Richards playing a nuclear scientist), but she does a nice job. Joey Wong handles herself very well as the assistant-who-loves-her-boss-but-doesn’t-know-her-boss-loves-her.
So in the end this movie isn’t a total loss. You get enough action and enough of Mr. Chan beating up people. This is a Wong Jing movie so expect the typical Wong Jing things: comedy that sometimes isn’t funny, contrivances only his mind could think of, and the like. Oddly enough, this movie doesn’t have crazy plot twists. The comedy sometimes works, but it’s usually not because of dialogue or situations. The only real funny bits happen during the physical comedy that happens in the fights. It’s not one of Mr. Chan’s best movies, and it’s not one of Wong Jing’s worst movies. That’s the bottom line.
City Hunter Trailers
You have the original trailer, which lasts for about an eternity (some
4 minutes long) and the new Fox trailer (1:50). Both show fighting
pretty much the whole way through. There’s not much else worth showing.
Not that the entire movie is non-stop action, mind you, just because the
comedy, drama, and other such things aren’t very good. If you’re
in any doubt that these trailers are from the Fox DVD, just listen to the
new one and hear Jackie Chan’s dubbed voice. That is so hilarious
when you think that the movie on this disk isn’t dubbed in English.
‘City Hunter’ Photo Gallery
Nice set of stills from the movie. Good amount, I think.
Not too many, not too few.
Exclusive Interviews
Jackie Chan
This is only around 10 minutes long. I really wish it were longer.
Mr. Chan talks about the movie and his role, then talks about his first
American movie. I find that very interesting because I saw it a while
ago and I was interested to hear what Mr. Chan thought about it.
He said it was a very bad experience. I wish he would have spoken
more, but the interview that’s there is very good.
Wong Jing
This lasts 7 minutes and 13 seconds. He talks about Jackie, Joey
Wong, Chingmy Yau, movies and the post-1997 Hong Kong movie world.
What isn’t very fun is that much of this interview is the same as the interview
from ‘Naked Killer’. He also talks about worked with Sammo Hung and
Chow Yun-Fat. Those two things, a part of the Jackie Chan bit and
the post-1997 answers are also on the ‘Naked Killer’ DVD (unless my brain
completely fails me, which I don’t think it is right now).
Rickie Lai
He says that Mr. Jing just concentrated on the drama and comedy, while
the action was left to the stunt people. I find that very surprising
because many little camera moves during the action scenes are found in
Wong Jing movies (take a gander at the action in ‘Naked
Killer’ to see what I mean). In any case, he talks about meeting
Jackie Chan, what Hong Kong movies were like when he started out and what
they are like now. He’s very interesting. A very good 11 minutes.
He speaks Cantonese with burned-in English subtitles.
Jackie Chan Photo Gallery and Biography
You have a very nice biography. Nothing extremely detailed, and
if you know Mr. Chan’s life before reading this, you won’t find anything
new. It’s a good overview of his life, though.
Original Promotional Materials
Just a bunch of posters and production stills. Very nice collection.
Production Notes
You have the usual synopsis, cast and crew information. This
times, you have a filmography for Jackie Chan, Joey Wong, Chingmy Yau and
Len Lai. That’s a nice change. In any case, the filmographies
are complete, so that’s good.
Trailers
The last thing you have is the ‘Magnificent
Butcher’ trailer. It’s only 74 seconds long and it’s all fighting.
Audio
This movie comes in DTS, and I don’t think it was remastered much.
The speakers were used a lot, but not the rear ones. During the prologue,
the dialogue seemed a bit muffled, and I though, ‘ah great…’, but it got
better. It’s not the clearest audio in the world but it’s understandable
throughout the movie. The rear speakers could have been used more.
Even during the more intense sound moments, the rear speakers could have
been used more. Sometimes the rear speakers are used for trivial
sound effects, like cards being whooshed out of pockets, but not for gunfire,
which I found an inexplicable choice on the part of the sound mixer.
(Okay, I understand the importance of cards and Mr. Lai’s characters, but
why the rear speakers go ‘flick’ when he’s onscreen and takes the
card out of his pocket, and why the bullet hits behind the camera don’t
make a sound in the rear speakers are questions that only the sound mixer
knows, I suppose.) Anyway, sometimes the rear speakers are used for
bullet hits, sometimes they’re not. You don’t have score from behind
and you have some trivial sound effects. Okay, now the sub-woofer.
It gets an okay workout. The explosions make good use of it, and
that’s about it. The front speakers are used well, I suppose.
The dialogue comes solely from the centre speaker and there aren’t any
real surrounds or directional effects. Clear sound but could have
better use of the 5.1 speakers, is what I say. (I doubt the DD track
is any different.)
Video
1.85:1 anamorphic widescreen. Just like ‘Magnificent Butcher’,
looking at the original trailer shows you just how much work was done on
the video. I noticed some grain sometimes but I think I’m being picky.
It was always at very good levels, though. Nothing very distracting.
No specks or dirt or anything like that, which is even better. The
movie was shot in very bright and vivid colours, and most of the time the
picture is clear enough. The only real problem was during the Leon
Lai scenes, which were intensely blue, and where the picture was a bit
fuzzy. The bright blue neon lights (which is an artistic decision
I will never understand, by the way) were probably too much to make a perfect
picture. Overall, I’m very impressed and it’s a very good quality
picture.
13/1/2004