Pedicab Driver aka Kwan Lung Hei Fung
1989
Cast: Sammo Hung, Lau Kar-leung, Max Mok, Billy Chow, Fennie Yuen, Nina Li Chi
Genre: Martial Arts Comedy Drama
Hong Kong Box Office Gross: over $14 million
Plot: Two men find themselves in trouble when one falls in love with a bun maker and the other with a woman he doesn't know is a prostitute
Set in the 1930s, Pedicab Driver follows the trials and tribulations of a set of pedicab drivers in Macau: two of them have set their hearts on two attractive ladies, one a baker, and the other a prostitute. So, it is a part-romantic comedy, part drama and part action.
This is not what I personally consider to be a favourite of mine from Sammo Hung's. Viewed purely as a film with a beginning, middle, and end, Pedicab Driver's journey from A to B isn't sloppy; instead, it is unequivocally brazen and veering all over the place, with no coherency. It was difficult to keep track of the plot throughout. Scenes oscillated between comical and silly at the start to serious and violent, to dreary melodrama which meanders on and is overemotional, in typical Hong Kong drama fashion.
Additionally, the female characters are not written very well; here they are objectified and once, or twice, they get slapped around or are hit by a male character. That, and it doesn't look pretty. Again, in many of these 1980s Hong Kong action films, unless they are the main characters i.e., Cynthia Rothrock, or Michelle Yeoh oozing a strong onscreen presence, the women are generally portrayed as physically weak and overly emotive/emotional to the extent to which their sensitive nature is taken advantage of and mocked. I had to look away twice when one of them got kicked and punched by the bad guys (she ended up dying I think).
It could have all gone straight to pot, but the film is just about saved by the performances and the impressive and over-the-top looking martial arts action sequences (one involving Sammo's character, Lo and Casino played by Lau Kar-Leung in a weapons duel), in the face of the melodramatics, the topsy-turvy tonal shifts and dull romance plots involving the two main characters, Max & Lo. Instead of counterpointing the heaviness of the drama with light relief in a smooth, nuanced way- something which can be detected in say, some of Robin Williams' earlier movie works that incorporate drama and comedy-, Pedicab Driver slaps the two styles together without any degree of thought as to how they could coincide with one another.
Besides the fact that he was a right prick, I found John Shum's bad guy character so annoying. Though he fought well against Sammo, he came across as being so OTT and wicked, he was an annoying twerp throughout. Shum's characters are often silly, goofy, and playful with that snarky tone in his comedy films, - and so it was a surprise to see him play a person, whom I hated so much.
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Final Verdict:
I really wanted to love this one, given that it is highly regarded, but because of the tonal whiplash Sammo took with it, it just never quite worked out for me. It is a film that makes little to no sense and makes little to no attempt in presenting a coherent narrative for us to follow - it just so happens that it excels in the action - yet manages to be jarring. It is never a love-it or hate-it movie for me; it just falls in the middle. Had it followed on, right through from the first fight scene, by not losing sight of its direction when it came to the story and not confusing viewers by mish-mashing subplots, then Pedicab Driver would have turned out to be a terrific film.
If you are not too bothered by the (muddled) story and are more interested in the action, that's fine.
Overall:
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