In the original manga and anime, the protagonist, Ryo Saeba, is a sharp-shooting, brilliant private detective operating in Tokyo’s criminal underworld. He has one major flaw: he is an unrepentant, easily distracted pervert.
: Digitally rent or purchase the film, or look for official uploads from licensed martial arts film channels.
Unlike many of his later Hollywood hits like Rush Hour , Jackie Chan did provide his own voice for the original English dub of City Hunter . During the early 1990s, English dubs for Hong Kong action films were typically produced by local dubbing studios using Western expatriates or professional voice actors living in Hong Kong.
Purists often stick to the original Cantonese with subtitles. However, the English dub of City Hunter is a . It represents the era when foreign films were aggressively "Westernized" for home video—adding snappy one-liners, changing character names slightly, and turning down the original film’s more adult manga elements (like Ryo’s actual womanizing) in favor of slapstick. jackie chan city hunter english dub
Before the English dub, there was the film. City Hunter is based on a long-running Japanese manga by Tsukasa Hojo. The story follows Ryo Saeba (Jackie Chan), a lecherous but talented "sweeper" (private detective) who is always chasing beautiful women and his next big payday. In the film, Ryo is hired to find Shizuko (Kumiko Goto), the runaway daughter of a rich tycoon, leading him and his reluctant partner, Kaori (Joey Wong), onto a luxury cruise ship. Unfortunately, the vessel is also targeted by a group of ruthless terrorists, forcing Ryo to combine his mission with a high-stakes rescue.
Wong Jing’s film strips away most of the noir elements, replacing them with frenetic Hong Kong comedy. Jackie Chan plays Ryu Saeba (changed slightly from Ryo), a starving detective tracking down a millionaire's runaway daughter (Joey Wong) onto a luxury cruise ship. The ship is subsequently hijacked by American terrorists led by Richard Norton.
: They released City Hunter on a double-feature Blu-ray with Battle Creek Brawl . In the original manga and anime, the protagonist,
One of the most unique aspects of City Hunter is that it has two separate English dubs. For a movie that wasn't a major US theatrical release, this is highly unusual. The existence of multiple dubs is a common phenomenon in Hong Kong cinema, often resulting from different distributors creating their own versions for export. Here is the breakdown of the two primary versions:
: Ryo is hired by a publishing tycoon to find his runaway daughter, Shizuko (Kumiko Goto).
The 1993 live-action film , starring Jackie Chan Unlike many of his later Hollywood hits like
In 1993, martial arts superstar Jackie Chan teamed up with visionary director Wong Jing to bring Tsukasa Hojo’s iconic manga City Hunter to the big screen. The result was a live-action film that departed radically from Chan’s usual grounded, gritty action-comedies. Instead, audiences received a hyper-stylized, live-action cartoon filled with colorful visuals, absurd humor, and a legendary Street Fighter II parody sequence.
Jackie Chan does not voice himself in this version. Instead, a voice actor attempts to replicate Chan’s distinct, energetic cadence, with mixed results. 2. The Golden Harvest / Miramax Style Recut
is notable for several reasons:
If you are looking to watch the film with the English dub, recent high-quality physical releases are your best bet for multiple options.
