YMMV / City Hunter: The Cupid's Perfume

• Adaptation Displacement: The inconsistent, bowdlerised, atrocious and hilarious French dub (the villains especially) of the City Hunter anime in the late 1980s/early 1990s TV show Club Dorothée has remained memorable for a whole generation of French people who grew up in those years (as demonstrated by the likes of Joueur du Grenier, who has reviewed the film, and was rather pleasantly surprised by it) the director and main star included, hence the French production and cast, and the multiple nods to it in the film along with the Dub Name Changes, the icing on the cake being the cameo of Dorothée herself. Though there are plenty of elements that are actually Truer to the Text in the film as well.
• And You Thought It Would Fail: As it is often the case with French Live-Action Adaptations of comic books or cartoons (manga/anime here), which are rarely considered as coming even close to "good", fans didn't even give it a chance, especially fans of the manga and/or non-dubbed anime. Then the press critical consensus proved better than the average film of that kind, and the core audience targets (30-something of age French viewers) reacted surprisingly well to Philippe Lacheau's blending of elements that are faithful to the manga and references to the So Bad, It's Good Club Dorothée era dub. An example:
  [...] I did a murderous review of the first trailer. Because what I saw in it really scared me.
  (Flashback to said review:) Huge disappointment! I'm not even gonna bother to go and see the movie! This trailer is an absolute disaster! Horrendous!
  (Back to present:) Well, I did see the movie. And I have only one thing to say to you, mister Lacheau. I'm sorry. I'm sorry, because you actually did it. Yeah, I spoke too soon, mea culpa.
• Critical Dissonance: If the film has been described by most of the press as So Okay, It's Average, audiences have been more enthusiastic towards the movie, especially (and surprisingly) fans of the original material as well as the French dub for being a very faithful adaptation, while non-fans found it just as funny as most of Lacheau's filmography. It's most notable on the French website AlloCiné (the closest thing France has to Rotten Tomatoes) where the movie has 2.8/5 for the press review score and 4.3/5 for the audience's one.
• Crosses the Line Twice: The sex jokes are overly 1980s. They're funny because of it (but can be seen as offensive for some).
• Fandom Rivalry: With Alita: Battle Angel in France, for it came out at the same time and has the same kind of Critical Dissonance and approval by the manga's creator.
• Fridge Horror: At the end of the movie, Ryo and Kaori spray the (now in prison) Big Bad with the last dose of perfume, making two burly inmates, a prison guard, and a dog fall in love with him. Laser-Guided Karma at its finest, until you realize some things:
  • The inmates and/or the guard could already be in relationship with someone, meaning that our heroes potentially destroyed up to three relationships and forced three people (and a dog) to have romantic feelings toward someone they don't love for the sake of their revenge.
  • The prison guard now in love with the Big Bad might help him escape.
• Narm: Dramatic moments are sometimes wasted by gags. The biggest example is the scene in which Kaori remembers with Ryo a memory of her late brother. A sad, quiet moment, brutally hit with Mood Whiplash when Poncho interrupts them... and tells that it reminds him of the "sad" story of the death of his hamster, which he accidentally killed when he tried to dry it in the microwave, while the same sad music plays again. It completely kills the mood of the scene.
• Narm Charm: The movie's concept. Its tone is overly 1980s, and as cheesy as one would expect, but yet manages to be funny, suspenseful, and even sometimes dramatic; with neat action scenes (especially compared to your usual run-of-the-mill French comedy with low-brow humor).
• Older Than They Think:
  • It is not the first time that a French filmmaker directs the live-action adaptation of a manga (see The Rose of Versailles, Crying Freeman and A Distant Neighborhood for examples).
  • In addition, there was many sex jokes and Crosses the Line Twice in the manga already.
• The Scrappy: Both Mr. Skippy and Poncho for being Canon Foreigners that have nothing to do with City Hunter. Fans accused Philippe Lacheau of creating those characters to give screentime to his friends.
  • Poncho is also responsible of several Mood Whiplashs, including one that ruins a sad moment of Kaori reminiscing Hideyuki, and his main characterization is to be dumb which can get old very fast.
  • Mr. Skippy's subplot takes a lot of screentime away from the main characters and story, earning him the ire of some fans. The fact that he's shown abusing the perfume's powers during several scenes also doesn't help him gain sympathy.
• Signature Scene: The interrogation/fight scene in the scrapyard. Two P.O.V. Cams from Ryo's viewpoint, and the first lasts pretty long while including plenty of interactions with other characters and the setting, including a fistfight. The scene features both comedy and action. At several points we even see Ryo's shadow, perfectly matching the scene, with no trace of the camera's shadow in sight. The sequence ends in a second P.O.V. Cam with Ryo deactivating the magnet, grabbing a falling gun and shooting at a fleeing car to make it crash. Also, the entire fight is highlighted by "FOOTSTEPS".
• Tainted by the Preview: The trailers are infamous for focusing on the low-brow comedy and the side characters, instead of the City Hunter license, which left a very bad taste in the mouths of fans.
• Visual Effects of Awesome: The interrogation/fight scene in the scrapyard is extremely well done. Not only it's The Oner, and a fairly long one at that, but it's entirely in P.O.V. Cam from Ryo's viewpoint. At several points we even see Ryo's shadow, perfectly matching the scene, with no trace of the camera's shadow in sight.

---