Pedicab Driver

This was pretty great. I'm a little embarrassed I didn't know this movie existed until yesterday, but it's better late than never. Pedicab Driver begins as a lightweight martial arts movie, but takes a shift toward melodrama in its second half that actually worked pretty well. There's one kind of comedic scene earlier on that I didn't like, but then when contrasted against something more serious that happens later (keeping things as vague as possible), it ends up being justified.

Sammo Hung starred in this and directed it, and the action's largely stellar. There are shots where the camera lurches back and forth, following the impact of a punch or a kick, and those shots work. The effect doesn't look silly or forced, and makes key moments of impact hit harder. I also appreciated how there were a few more close-ups used in some fight scenes, but never in a way that felt like it was disguising poor fight choreography. Those moments largely worked to make certain parts of certain fights more intense, and while lots of close-ups in fight scenes can make a fight harder to follow, that wasn't something I found with the fights here.

There might be some other things that can be nitpicked here, but much more of Pedicab Driver works than doesn't work. It's pretty underrated, and the finale plus a one-on-one fight with poles early on (the one with Lau Kar-Leung... and no, it doesn't matter if that conflict isn't hugely important to the rest of the movie) are all-timer martial arts set pieces, and are reasons enough to watch this one.

"In fact, men are responsible for all the whores. It's a man's responsibility to stop the prostitution. We've got no right to call 'em cheap. In fact, we're worse than they are."

The chubby Sammo Hung is as agile as he is charming, and the fight choreography in this film is consistently something to behold. The light saber bit, his battles with Lau Kar-leung and Billy Chow, and some pretty impressive stunt work involving pedicabs and stairways were all top notch. But it was the shift this film took from meet-cute mixed with marital arts to something more dramatic that really made me love it. Without spoiling it I'll just say it was a little contrived, but damn if it wasn't touching, and Fennie Yuen was fantastic in her emotional scenes. Meanwhile, I must admit that the humor was pretty juvenile early on, but as the film progressed, how it was dropped in to fight sequences and after serious moments was impressive, keeping the film light. Hung's character is given a love interest as well (Nina Li Chi), and I thought this was a rare film that worked across the genres of romance, comedy, and drama, the latter of which included tragedy. The pro-women messages were a nice touch, and while women don't play a big role in the fighting, I chuckled when the wife threw caution to the wind and entered the fray. Hell, the film even has a Three Stooges reference. Very entertaining.

Good movie that combines action with romance.

Tung (Sammo Hung) is a pedicab driver. He has a pretty girl (LI Chi) that he gets attracted to that works at the baker next door. Malted Candy (Siu Ching Mok) who's also a pedicab driver runs into (literally) a girl (Fannie Yuen). Upon seeing her, he's instantly in love with her. He tries to mend the wrong, and his sincerity catches her heart too. There's a gang boss that's running a prostitute ring, and she works for him. Malted Candy's attempt to marry her, and get her out of the influence of the gang boss gets them in deadly harms way.

This is how a kung fu action movie should be. The actresses are good looking, and fight scenes are pretty awesome. There's humor to the side stories, and the supporting casts puts in a good performance. Nina Li Chi (Who's now Jet Li's wife), and Fannie Yuen looks really good in this movie. They were the actual focus of this story.

Bitter Sweet romance between Fannie Yuen, and Siu Ching Mok was nicely written.

This is one of Sammo Hung's best movie and is recommended for viewing.

Pedicab driver effortlessly mixes genres in a way that feels like it uniquely belongs to HK cinema. It has comedy,tragedy, kung fu and it manages to be a period piece while it's at it! I love absolutely everything about this film from its cast, to the choreography and its constantly interesting and genre-bending story.

A legendary film

10 out of 10!

Great stuff! Sammo beats, takes beatings, and falls in love while driving a rickshaw in 1930s Portuguese controlled Macau.

Sammo's got something to say about the plight of women under patriarchal management, be they bakers or prostitutes, and he mostly finds the right tone for it. Which is nice in a 1980's HK feature because it does sometimes feel like the inherent feminine warrior of 1970's wuxia fell away and the 80's kung-fu films became mostly a masculine ordeal (save of course for the GIRLS WITH GUNS subgenre and a few other, rare, examples).

The action is scorching. A fight between Chia-Liang Liu and Sammo in a gambling house is for real. Yet, strangely, this awesome character never gets a callback for the rest of the film. Why couldn't the Gambling House Boss return to knock heads for the super awesome final fight? Surely they could've cast one more white guy to get his butt handed to him. Oh well.

It is the want of many a Sammo film to have the action measured out, decorating the hood and trunk of the movie but letting the the bulky center sag under the weight of romantic comedy and tragedy. The same is true here. So be it. If you're a fan, you won't mind.

But why Macau in the '30's? No idea. It seems to add nothing to the film. Fortunately, it doesn't detract from it either.