Should have been better

Having watched the French and Japanese movies back-to-back, well, what to say. The Japanese film is more faithful, the French more fun.

Suzuki is an up-and-coming actor over there, deservedly so. Also a perfect Ryo: handsome, a natural in actions scenes, and obviously the correct ethnical background.
Morita is a good actress, generally, but fails to fill her character's shoes. More of a casting failure, I guess; Kaori is supposed to be an epitome of tomboyish charm, and well, that's really not easy to pull off.


This movie leans more into the serious, gravitas side of City Hunter. Which is a risky proposition. No giant hammer (sort of), no slow-flying crows.
Also, there's a fun cultural clash, where the French movie is more overtly sexual in a, well, sexual way, whereas the Japanese 'mokkori' (think Wayne World's 'schwing') is a lot tamer in many ways. And again, plays to the deeper, tragic part of the character. In its limited fashion.


The script is straight-up thriller, and nobody does cool OP MC quite like the Japanese. Think Snipes' Blade, but palette-switched. It does help the rather anemic plot.

The final product is not bad by any means, but I did prefer the French cretinous romp.