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Korean City Hunter Show Licensed for U.S. Hulu Streaming
posted on by Egan Loo
The Korean television broadcaster SBS annnounced on Wednesday that it licensed its live-action series adaptation of Tsukasa Hōjō's City Hunter detective action comedy manga for distribution in the United States, Hong Kong, Thailand, and Vietnam. In particular, SBS said that people in America will be able to watch the series on the video-streaming website Hulu.
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 Minyoung plays Ryo's love interest.
SBS also reported that there is interest in licensing the series for Japan, Taiwan, Bulgaria, the Philippines, Kazakhstan, and other countries.
The series premiered on Wednesday in South Korea, and it is running every Wednesday and Thursday at 9:55 p.m. The original 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.
Source: Infoseek
Image © SBS
