City Hunter Chinese Poster

For over 40 years, Asian action cinema has been dominated by one man, and Reel East is proud to celebrate that  most famous name in Hong Kong martial arts movies with The Jackie Chan Collection.

After he became a kung fu comedy star, Jackie Chan seemed like a live-action cartoon character, so the role of Ryo Saeba, AKA ‘City Hunter’, seemed like a role he was born to play. ‘City Hunter’ was originally a Japanese manga comic book series written and illustrated by Tsukasa Hojo. Hugely popular across Asia, it inspired Japanese anime/animation series and films. To this day, the most famous film adaptation is the 1993 Hong Kong movie version starring Jackie Chan.

Directed by the prolific populist Hong Kong film-maker Wong Jing, ‘City Hunter’ dropped Jackie into a day-glo cartoon universe of larger-than-life characters, extravagant action scenes and outrageous costumes. Chan’s wacky, skirt-chasing private detective  finds himself on-board a cruise ship that’s taken over by a criminal gang. It plays like an acid trip version of Steven Seagal’s ‘Under Siege’.

The rogue’s gallery includes Australian martial arts actor Richard Norton and British super-kicker Gary Daniels, and the movie manages to throw in extended references to the Streetfighter videogame and Bruce Lee’s ‘Game of Death’. There’s also a lengthy Cantopop song-and-dance number.

Reel East and The Jackie Chan Collection are proud to celebrate ‘City Hunter’ by making this original Chinese sales poster, printed for the 1993 theatrical distribution of the film, available to Chan’s worldwide fan base.