CITY HUNTER

(director: Yuichi Sato; screenwriters: Tsukasa Hojo, Tatsuro Mishima, based on the manga (comic book) by Tsukasa Hôjô; cinematographer: Motonobu Kiyoku; editor: Takuya Taguchi; music: Yoshihide Otomo; cast: Ryohei Suzuki (Ryo Saeba), Misato Morita (Kaori Makimura), Masanobu Andô (Hideyuki Makimura), Asuka Hanamura (Kurumi), Misato Morita (Kaori), Isao Hashizume (Crime Boss), Fumino (Saeko Nogami); Runtime: 104; MPAA Rating: NR; producers: Kosuke Oshida, Keisuke Sanpei; Netflix; 2024-Japan-in Japanese with English subtitles)

“It’s as silly as crying wolf when thinking you spotted a Brown Bear monster in the film.”

Reviewed by Dennis Schwartz

Japanese director Yuichi Sato (“Kisane”/”We Love”) bases his nutty crime story on the 1985 manga (comic book) by Tsukasa Hôjô. It’s a fluff piece that in the final act turns diabolical and bloody. It’s scripted by Tatsuro Mishima.

Ryo Saeba (Ryohei Suzuki) is the crack marksman whose specialty is finding missing people. But the loopy private detective is a foolish womanizing action hero. He partners with his friend Hideyeki Makimura (Masonobu Ando), a former cop, who does the office work, in their Tokyo private-detective agency.

Ryo gets involved in the mystery story of young homeless people in Japan who without reason suddenly become brutal and kill random bystanders.

Ryo teams up to work the case with Hideyeki’s adopted naive sister Kaori (Misato Morita). The more they probe, the more mysterious things become.


In the third act, however, the true nature of the mystery is revealed (think of a lethal drug as an influencing agent, and someone evil behind it), as dead bodies start piling up in the city.

The violence is cartoonish. The story is sloppily put together. And it’s as silly as crying wolf when thinking you spotted a Brown Bear monster in the film.

REVIEWED ON 5/9/2024  GRADE: C+