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If you only know Jackie Chan for Police Story or Drunken Master II , City Hunter (1993) might feel like a fever dream. Based on Tsukasa Hōjō’s popular manga, the film casts Jackie as Ryo Saeba, a perverted, wisecracking private detective who’s as lethal with a pistol as he is unlucky in love. On paper, it’s a mismatch: Jackie’s signature stunt-driven, morally upright everyman vs. a chain-smoking, skirt-chasing anime hero. But in practice, City Hunter is one of his most bizarre, gleefully unhinged experiments.

The plot is pure fluff: Ryo is hired to protect a rich heiress on a luxury cruise ship, which is promptly hijacked by a gang of angry former dictators. Yes, really. That setup exists solely to string together fight scenes, slapstick chases, and a parade of cameos (including Richard Norton as the hulking villain). But the film’s true legacy lies in two legendary sequences.

For fans of Jackie’s athletic genius, City Hunter delivers the goods—just with a wink and a Hadouken. It’s the film where Jackie Chan proved he could beat up ten guys, then turn around and out-dance Chun-Li. And somehow, that makes perfect sense.

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