I have seen this movie in the upcoming section of Netflix for quite some time and was looking forward to watch it. So once it was finally released two days ago, I immediately gave it a try. Without further ado, let's get right on it.

Brief Story Line

Ryo Saeba (Ryohei Suzuki - Tokyo MER: The Movie, The Emperor's Cook TV series etc) and his partner Makimura (Masanobu Ando - The Fable: The Killer Who Doesn't Kill, Sukiyaki Western Django etc) were asked to find a missing person named Kurumi (Asuka Hanamura). While pursuing a lead, they found that Kurumi was involved in drugs that made people do erratic behavior. The case was also being investigated by the police, led by Detective Saeko (Fumino Kimura - Seven Secretaries: The Movie etc).

Makimura also had a younger adoptive sister named Kaori (Misato Morita - The Naked Director TV series etc) who was very close with him. After an incident, Kaori decided to be part of the investigation despite Ryo's disapproval. Things gotten complicated as the people behind the drugs were using any means to get to their target.

So how would the story conclude? You could find out in this movie.

End of Brief Story Line

If you have read my previous post on City Hunter: Shinjuku Private Eyes, you would know that I am fan of the very popular 1980s manga this film was based on which have been adapted into various anime series and live adaptation movies & series in the past. This time the movie maker chose to appoint Ryohei Suzuki whom I had only seen in the Tokyo Mer series and film. Got to admit that it raised my eyebrow a bit cause his character was serious in those and I was a bit doubtful if he could perform this role. But apparently he did quite well and pretty convincing. Though his attributes might not be exactly like in the manga/anime (hair a bit too short like my wife commented when she caught a glimpse, or not as tall as I would have pictured), but his body language and behavior was quite similar to Ryo Saeba.

One thing that I thought was a bit surprising here was the fast story pace, especially in the early part where we were suddenly thrown into action and must grasp everything quickly. It's fine with me cause I already saw them before and knew the function of the whiteboard in the station but I think it might be more challenging for new audience. Maybe providing a bit of context in the beginning would make it easier to understand (or maybe I was just not concentrating enough?). 

Anyway the action to me was awesome. I was pretty surprised to see Suzuki's agility in performing the fight sequence. And with the support of some good special effects, made them much better. Amazingly the actions still look realistic enough, except for few over the top sequence in the climax. But overall it was really great and I was totally entertained especially by the use of his favorite gun the .357 Magnum. And Saeba's pervert behavior were still shown here (though not as much as I had hoped for) in addition to his remarkable marksmanship.

One thing that I was not totally satisfied was the appearance of Misato Morita. Not sure why but I personally felt her not really perfect in the role of Kaori. She did not seem fierce or cartoonish enough like the character in the anime. Although, towards the end there was one scene that was smartly inserted and make it more convincing. Btw there was only a brief post end credit scene. At the moment, it is unclear if they plan to make more of the movies in the future. If they do, maybe they need to add even more perversion that make City Hunter so popular and perhaps Morita to be more identical to the character Kaori. 

In addition to those names I mentioned, there were few additional support characters like Sasori (Moemi Katayama - Fukimo's Feet etc) the person who enlisted Saeba & Makimura's help, Detective Saeko's partner Ito Akitaka (Tetta Sugimoto - Pending Train TV series etc), Mr. Akutsu (Isao Hashizume - Juliet Game etc) and few others. The main star was obviously Ryohei Suzuki, although I was quite impressed by Masanobu Ando who looked exactly like in the anime with his large glasses. 

Overall this was an enjoyable movie which should be fun for fans of the manga/anime. The story was set in the early stage where Kaori start to be more involved with the City Hunter so the additional important characters have not appeared yet. The tone of the movie was more action while the humor was there but somehow Saeba's pervertion did not feel exposed enough (maybe to avoid shock by new audience). But it's a pretty good start and hopefully there would be more in the future. So if you want to see the latest adaptation of this hugely popular character, you could definitely give it a try.

Mike's movie moments rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars