The original City Hunter manga/anime is set in Shinjuku, so for the live-action film, the cast and crew shot on-location in Kabukicho, as shared by Ryohei Suzuki.
While the film is set in the modern day instead of the 80s like the original City Hunter, the film is still faithful to the original regarding its setting. That’s because the film is still set primarily in Shinjuku, specifically in the Kabukicho district which is known as a (somewhat seedy) entertainment district.
Regarding filming in Shinjuku, Suzuki shared:
“It was really hard to get permission to shoot in Shinjuku. We were so lucky. We were lucky enough to shoot even in the most complicated area called Kabukicho. We might be the very first crew that was allowed to shoot there.
The reason why is because it’s City Hunter. People know it is, and it is iconic in the series, Shinjuku. So, they allowed us to shoot and come to Kabukicho, but it was we were really nervous about shooting. In Kabukicho, there are so many kinds of people, and the crime rate is really high.”
It might not have been easy to get permits to shoot in Shinjuku, but the results are worth it as the City Hunter movie looks great, especially in the dazzling set pieces in Kabukicho. These scenes are sure to delight long-time City Hunter fans, as well as Japanophiles who have visited Kabukicho in real life.
Of course, shooting wasn’t smooth sailing as it was quite challenging given that the entire district can’t be closed down to film. Because of this, there was even a rather funny encounter with a drunk guy enjoying the Kabukicho nightlife as Suzuki shared:
“We got permission but still, we couldn’t block the whole street. So, we had to run through the crowds. Of course, we had, like 200 background actors in the streets, but there were like 400 pedestrians walking on the street, and most of them were drunk because it was the middle of the night.
When we started running in the filming, we started running along the street and I noticed that there was one guy chasing after us from behind. He was so drunk he was screaming. “Let me run too, oh, where are you going?” That was a crazy shooting [night].”
The new City Hunter live-action film is now streaming worldwide exclusively on Netflix.