It’s really hard to believe that the best live action adaptation of the manga “City Hunter” by Tsukasa Hojo, didn´t come out from the country of the rising sun, but it came out from the land that gave us the nouvelle vague. However, the history of cinema is made by filmmakers not afraid to attempt risky projects and young French filmaker Philip Lacheau (Babysitting, Alibi) was the man crazy enough to make his dream come true of becoming Ryo Saeba (known in France as Nicky Larson) the best sweeper in town, who only has one weakness, pretty girls.
Lacheau not just starred the film, but also was brave enough to sit in the director’s chair, taking the audience through a nostalgic trip to his childhood, in which the streets of Shinjuku were replaced by the streets of France, a huge change from the animation show that surprisingly surprisingly didn’t feel out of place. That journey to the director´s childhood continues with countless references from the 80s popular culture (when the original show became popular), including an hilarios appearance of that woman that once was the sex symbol of a whole generation, Pamela Anderson, who is still gorgeous and appears playing an alter ego of herself.
The film is a thrilling adventure, very faithful to the original animated show, so faithful that it could be easily consider just another episode of the show. The script is completely new and original story that brings back all the keys that made it popular into the big screen, adding a cartoonish sense of humour and exciting action sequences, choreographed by Kefi Abrikh and Marc David.
Besides that, they also included several easter eggs from another popular classic animes from the 80s, such as Ranma or Saint Seiya, that otaku fans around the world will enjoy discovering
Definetely, this is a real “Mokkori” for fans of City Hunter, a love letter to the work that is trying to adapt, so Good that even Tsukasa Hojo agreed to the making of the movie after having read the script.
90 fun minutes that would please all fans and luckily can help new generations to discover the wonderful adventures of Ryo Saeba.
The film premiered in france february 15 of 2019, with an opening weekend gross of €3,111,807 ($3,515,249) and a total of $12,898,742, when it was distributed by Sony Pictures France.
In November 29th , it had its Japanese premiere, where it was distributed by Albatros films, grossing in the box office a total of ¥144,586,600 ($1,321,874)
In total, the film has grossed $14,702,744 worldwide, meanwhile in several countries as Spain, where it can be seeing in stream services such as Movistar plus and Filmin, will have its release on Blu-ray by Selecta Vision in January 20th.