Unlike some colleagues of his profession, mangaka Tsukasa Hojo has always been blessed with interesting adaptations of his work in his transitions to the audiovisual media. In 1993, we had the the first of the adaptations of his most famous manga, the iconic City Hunter, a Hong Kong production in which HK director and producer Wong Jing teamed up with Jackie Chan for a hilarious adventure that, despite not being completely faithful to the original material, It retained much of its essence, and gave us a fun visual spectacle that fans still remember with nostalgia.
Three years later, Michael Chow starred in “Mr. Mumbles”, an unofficial adaptation, in which the names and part of the plot were changed but which maintained the original concept of the story. It was a year later when Cat’s Eye had its first live-action adaptation, in a Japanese production directed by Kaizo Hayashi, with Yuki Uchida, Noriko Fujiwara, and Izumi Inamori in the leading roles, however, it was again his most popular work, City Hunter, which transferred its vignettes into live action in 2011, with a disappointing and non-recommendable version starred by Lee Min Ho, in a Korean drama in name only, which had nothing in common with the original story, simply keeping the occasional references to the original manga.
Nevertheless, it was this year when Netflix Japan brought us what it could be considered the definitive live-action adaptation of City Hunter, with an excellent film that borders on perfection directed by Yuichii Sato, and starred Ryohei Suzuki and Misato Morita, in an impeccable production that encompasses in a brilliant way, the action, the emotion, the humor and the keys of the manga universe, on the other hand, it would be very unfair and even criminal, not to mention the first excellent adaptation that City Hunter has had for the big screen, the French production, Nicky Larson et la parfum de Cupidon, released in 2019 under the direction of the brilliant Philippe Lacheau, who also made a fantastic incarnation of the character, accompanied by his team of regulars, managing to effectively transfer the story from the streets of Shinjuku to the streets of Paris without losing a bit of its essence, giving us an exciting adventure with an original plotline that could fit perfectly as another episode of the original series.
Certainly the work of Tsukasa Hojo is revered in France, and it will again be passed through the French filter in the next Cat’s Eyes miniseries produced by French channel TF1 channel, even though a release date hasn´t been anounced, it is expected that perhaps it will see the light in fall through its main channel and its streaming platform TF1+, having expected a subsequent release on Amazon Prime. It is known that it will be an eight-episode miniseries that has been created by Michael Catz, under the direction of Alexandre Laurent, with Camille Lou, Constance Labbé and Claire Romain in the leading roles, including in the cast to Elodie Fontan who already participated in Nicky Larson et la parfum de Cupidon, playing the French version of Kaori Makimura.
The story revolves around three sisters who owns a coffee shop named “Cat´s Eye”, while at night they dedicate themselves to art pieces theft with the intention of recovering the valuable collection of art pieces that were stolen from their father.
Just like Lacheau did with Nicky Larson, et la parfum de Cupidon this production seeks to transfer the action from the streets of Japan to the streets of Paris, trying to maintain the essence of the original source. If it succeeds or not, it is only a matter of time to find out, but for now, we can only speculate and enjoy the first official first-look trailer released by TF1.
