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Live-Action Korean City Hunter's N. American DVD Slated
posted on by Andrew Osmond
The distributor YA Entertainment plans to release the Korean live-action series adaptation of Tsukasa Hōjō's City Hunter detective action comedy manga on DVD in the United States and Canada this November.
Actor Lee Min-Ho stars as Ryo Saeba, a private eye ("sweeper") with unrivaled marksmanship and an over-the-top obsession for the opposite sex. Instead of Tokyo in the late 1980s, the new SBS series re-imagines manga's setting as Seoul in 2011. Lee plays a former CIA operative who now works as a gun-for-hire. Park Min Young plays Ryo's love interest.
In May, the Korean television broadcaster SBS announced that the live-action series woud be licensed for distribution in the United States, Hong Kong, Thailand, and Vietnam. In particular, SBS said that people in America can watch the series on the video-streaming website Hulu. SBS also reported that there is interest in licensing the series for Japan, Taiwan, Bulgaria, the Philippines, Kazakhstan, and other countries.
The original City Hunter manga had already been adapted into four television anime series, one anime movie, and several video and television specials. ADV Films released most of these anime projects in North America. Hojo has since drawn an Angel Heart spinoff to his City Hunter manga, and that manga has also been adapted into anime for television. Hong Kong martial artist Jackie Chan played Saeba in a loose 1992 live-action Hong Kong adaptation of City Hunter.
[Via Asian Pop Shock, AICN Anime]
