Pedicab Driver

Classifying Pedicab Driver is nearly impossible. Nominally an action comedy, Pedicab Driver exemplifies the type of popular cinema loved by Hong Kong moviegoers during the 1980s, meaning it’s a multigenre affair containing slapstick pratfalls, non sequitur visual gags, innocent romance, sudden tragedy and incredible fight scenes.

Sammo Hung was at the wheel of this truly Hong Kong confection, and the film is as much a confirmation of his filmmaking versatility as it is of his fighting skills. Many will be puzzled by the dramatic ground covered, but Pedicab Driver is an undeniably entertaining movie.

Hung and Max Mok play Fat Tung and Malted Candy, a pair of  Macau pedicab drivers who fall in love with Bing (Nina Li) and Siu Chui (Fennie Yuen), respectively. While Fat Tung competes with lecherous baker Fong (Suen Yuet) for Bing’s hand, Malted Candy endearingly romances the sweet and innocent-seeming Siu Chui. The romantic comedy alternates with action; the pedicab drivers occasionally run afoul of local gangsters, leading to rousing chases and fight sequences interspersed with obvious, occasionally anachronistic gags (one moment is a clear reference to Star Wars). The fighting is as funny as it is hard-hitting, with the highlight being a duel between Hung and the legendary Lau Kar-leung. For the most part, the tone here is light, fun and very comfortable.

But the tone shifts. Events seem to peak in the presumed crowd-pleasing manner, and then it all falls off a cliff. In fact, the tonal change is so extreme in Pedicab Driver that by the film’s end the audience might wonder if they’re even watching the same movie. The romantic subplots are rather common for multiple genres —– a dreadful secret may prevent Malted Candy and Siu Chui from finding true happiness —– and for a time they’re handled in a satisfying and predictable manner. Yet that all changes.

Everything goes to hell and revenge becomes the motivation for a brutal climactic knockabout that ranks with Hung’s best work. It’s an exhilarating and exhausting blowout, but also puzzling. How did a movie that started so funny and enjoyable end so darkly?

But that’s the trick with Hong Kong’s once proud mastery of the multigenre film. In starting the film light and funny, and then dropping it all straight into tragedy, Hung hooks the audience powerfully. The characters are endearing but not particularly unique, yet when the worst happens, audience empathy is all but assured.

Pedicab Driver doesn’t present reality, but like real life, it runs the gamut. Love, death, laughter, hope, anger, tears, injustice, tragedy and, hopefully, justice are all present, and they’re all wrapped up in martial arts action comedy about regular Joes. It’s easy to respond to the cartoonish characters because in the end they’re really just like us, flawed and subject to the vagaries of unseen fate, and the myriad emotions and easy identification make this a sterling example of how popular cinema can work.

Pedicab Driver is as successful an example of Hong Kong cinema as you'll find. Hollywood could probably never release a film like this, and it's debatable whether Hong Kong can anymore either.