Pedicab Driver
Review
Stars: Sammo Hung, Lau Kar Leung, Billy Chow Bei Lee, Dick Wei
I've seen Sammo in action. I've noticed he's amazing. I understand that there are people half the size of Sammo who can't move like him. And I know that Sammo puts on one hell of a show when it comes to both acrobatics and martial arts. But, alas, before I saw this film, I had no clue. I was absolutely dumb about what he could do. Sure, he could move in "Magnificent Butcher", but that was 10 years previous. "Pedicab Driver", to put it short, is like a small pill that knocks you out, unlike "Magnificent Butcher." Read on to find out why.
PD's story is actually interesting to an extent. Sammo plays a pedicab driver, someone who basically takes a rickshaw and acts as a cab driver. There is almost like a union of these drivers, so we get introduced to numerous characters. There is also a whorehouse going into the town, known as a brothel in the film (new word to me), the owner being one of the lucky stars from Winners and Sinners, Curley. He's a creep too, and we get a good feeling for that, so the character development is definitely there. Also, Sammo's friend Malted Candy falls in love with a women he drives to work (pedicab drives) every day. He soon finds out that she has been hiding a secret, and things come together pretty nicely.
Curley's (known as Yu #5) henchmen are truly vicious. Billy Chow is nasty looking and, of course, doesn't play a good guy. The viewer ends up hating him too for having absolutely no sense of humanity. There is a part where he and the others viciously kill a man (played by Dick Wei, Hey he plays a good guy!!), which actually got me really angry because I wanted to see Wei play a good guy role FOR ONCE IN HIS LIFETIME. Jeez, he gets waxed within a minute, but we do get a little fight with him against 3 others in a cramped house. Pretty cool nonetheless.
I thought that the film work in PD was great. They used a camera that tends to favor green and brown, and even if by accident, it adds to the overall mood of the movie really well. The scenes are fairly modern, more like 1940's, and the dress looks custom of that era, especially Billy Chow's blue and black striped outfit. Frankly I can't find any faults with the quality of film.
Now, this movie should go down in history because of Sammo, Lau Kar Leung, and Chow. Sammo and Leung have a 5 minute battle, half of it being open handed, the other half is a staff duel. I think that the staff duel is the first weapons fight I've ever enjoyed as much as an open hand fight. It lasts for 2 minutes straight without more than 2 seconds of conversation. You'll have to see it to believe it. Leung and Sammo demonstrate excellent acrobatics and Leung plays some crusty old casino owner who pockets a cigerette right before the fight. Good stuff. He has a cool tone too, plus he wears some semi-traditional clothing. And I can't get over his style. It looks almost like T'ai Chi. Old guys can get around, watch yourself Sammo.
At the end of the film, Sammo enters the so we should call headquarters of the brothel. Here, he battles a few goons, which looks great as we should expect, and then fights a guy on the stairs who looks amazingly fake for some reason. It's as though they made his face on a computer, like he's Kazuya from Tekken almost. I'd kinda like to look like that personally ^_^. He's good too, featuring quick kickboxing. I made a clip that has him in entirety. The scene builds up when we see Chow still finishing his meal of rice that Sammo so rudely interrupted, and man, he looks so mean, almost frightening. Then, Sammo fights him. I found this fight to be a landmark in martial arts choreography. The camera work and sounds are almost too perfect. It's too real. It's too violent yet too good, and too fast yet too NORMAL!! For a fight that lasts a mere minute twenty, it's pretty amazing what's accomplished. Multiple cuts, I would usually think, ruin a fight. But they only make things look absolutely furious in this scene. The bruises stay, and Chow seems like a wall that's too fast for the eye. He kicks 4 times repeatedly, high kicks, going through the full motions. His punches look like they could take out crowds. Sammo, as is expected, puts on a great show as well. He exhibits great ability, but seems to get beaten unreasonably badly before he takes out Chow with one bike kick and then a knee drop to Chow. Oh well, the bad guy's gotta die somehow. Chow, as some of you know, is a relatively large person, and still moves as well as the brothers thanks to his Muay Thai Boxing style, which he features here. Because of this, I'm a Billy Chow fan now. First Jackie, then Biao, then Sammo, Guang, Dick Wei, Ken Lo, and now this guy. Lots of movies to snatch up now. But you absolutely must own this movie if you consider yourself a fan of ANY kung fu movie, or at least rent the thing. You'll be doing yourself a favor.
I rate it 9/10, the extra point would have gone to a little more action.
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