CITY HUNTER Returns In April In The Upcoming Netflix Live Action Feature
After numerous adaptations of the popular manga by Tsukasa Hojo for cinema and television, director Yuuichi Satou (You, I Love, The Master Plan) brings back into motion the adventures of the finest sweeper on the streets of Shinjuku from a script by Tatsuro Mishima, with Ryouhei Suzuki (Poison Berry in My Brain, Kasane: Beauty and Fate) as Ryo Saeba/City Hunter and Misato Morita (The Naked director, Top Knife) as Kaori Makimura, Ryo´s always loyal sidekick.
Some brief glances of the upcoming film could be seen in a Japanese Netflix teaser that announces the upcoming realeases for this 2024 on the streaming service. Some images that suggest a faithful transition from the manga pages to the screen with a big resemblance of the actors with the characters they´re portraying.
City Hunter was first published in 1985 by Shūeisha on the pages of their mega popular magazine, Shonen Jump, becoming an instant hit that lasted for over 8 years. Nevertheless, the Tsukasa Hojo manga´s popularity continued spawning two spin-off sequels, a long succesful animated series, multiple animated movies, and different live action film adaptations that comes from Wong Jin´s “City Hunter” (1992) with Jackie Chan in the role of Ryo Saeba. “Mr. Mumbles” (1996) with Michael Chow as protagonist and director, a most faithful adaptation than the Wong Jin hilarious Jackie Chan´s vehicle, or the best of the film adaptations until the date, masterfully delivered by French filmmaker, Philippe Laucheau, “Nicky larson et le parfum de cupidon” (2018). Apart from all these adaptations, there was also a big number of films that were clearly inspired and influenced by the Tsukasa Hojo´s work, such as films as “Saviour of the Soul” (1991) by Corey Yuen and Jeff Lau, where Andy Lau portrayed an alter ego of Ryo Saeba. Nonetheless, television has not been alien to the adventures of Ryo Saeba, and in recent years the characters have been adapted into a live-action series such as the marvelous “Angel Heart” (2015, Nippon TV) that was an official adaptation of the City Hunter Spin-Off´s manga of the same name. Aside from this, the series influence has also spawned another inspired adaptations into television such as Korean Drama of the same name produced by SBS in 2011, starring Lee Min-ho and Park Min-young or a Chinese series from 2014 starred by Jimmy Lin, also titled City Hunter but on chinese. However, both shows can´t be really considered adapations of the manga, since they only borrowed the title of the popular manga having barely no relation with the original story, apart from some small homages.
This upcoming City Hunter upcoming film has hyped into the heart of fans around the world, that has already marked this 25th of April on their calendars, to tune into Netflix and return to Shinjuku to rediscover the exciting adventures of their favorite sweeper.
