Please don't spend money on this.

Brilliant and touching

Great story, amazing characters, superb action, enthralling cinematography. Yes, this is something I am glad I spent money on.

This film is so real. It treats its characters with so much care and sensitivity.

PEDICAB DRIVER is one of Sammo Hung's most well-developed films of the 1980s and clearly a labour of love for the writer/director/star. It's a shame that few western viewers have seen it given that it has had a very limited release history in the west, which I'm quite surprised about given that it's up there with rival Jackie Chan movies from the same era. This is a film which has everything and plenty of everything at there: there are not one but two romantic sub-plots, there's some slapstick comedy, the usual one-of-a-kind Chinese humour that's difficult to describe or replicate elsewhere, and of course copious action in the form of vehicle chases and incredible fight scenes.Sammo has also assembled a quite incredible all-star cast for his movie. Sure, Jackie and Yuen aren't present, but there are other all-time greats here, including not one but two immortal and near-indestructible fighters, Billy Chow and Dick Wei. The latter only has a one-scene cameo, but Billy Chow has a fantastic henchman role. Mang Hoi has a very good supporting role as an ally as does Lam Ching-Ying, and John Sham hams it up a treat as the chief villain of the piece. Watch out for Corey Yuen, Lau Kar-Leung, and Eric Tsang in various roles too. Sammo's love interest in the film is meanwhile played by Nina Li Chi, aka Jet Li's real-life wife, and makes quite the impression as someone you could readily fall for.Pretty much everyone who sees PEDICAB DRIVER is going to come into it looking for great action and they won't be disappointed. There are only three or four fight scenes in this film but they really make an impact, from mass brawls to one-on-one demonstrations of skill. Inevitably the best part of the movie is by far the powerhouse climax, in which Chow comes into his own and the stunts and hits are out of this world. All in all a fitting close to what has been a superior, well-rounded fight flick.

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.

"...The film is like a battleground. Love. Hate. Action. Violence. Death. In one word...emotion." -Samuel Fuller, "Pierrot Le Fou"Before "Kung-Fu Panda" there was Sammo Hung, who is a burly martial arts action star, and in "Pedicab Driver" a five star director who knows how to throw his weight around without missing a beat. Like Jackie Chan (who he choreographed fight sequences for), Hung combines physical comedy with self propelled stunt work, showcasing both the fury and the funny. In 1930's Macau, China two rival groups of pedicab drivers negotiate how to split up the cities work, half will take passengers, and the other half will take cargo, and civil war is nearly averted until a chef chases a cat into the room and all hell breaks loose. The subsequent battle seamlessly recalls both "Star Wars" and "The Three Stooges", without loosing any of it's frantic energy or becoming a parody.Pedicab Driver is first and foremost a Hong Kong action film, but while watching it you don't get the sense that each scene is designed to introduce a new excuse to fight. Some sequences, like the battle in the gambling den, do seem non-sequitters, as we never return to that set or it's characters, but the execution of this scene is so flawless that you rarely ease back from the edge of your seat long enough to mind let alone gripe. Sammo and his friend "Malted Candy" are passenger drivers, who both fall in love in with different girls at the same time. Sammo has to compete with a lecherous baker to win the heart of his girl in classic slapstick fashion. While Malted Candy's story, which is minimized early on but expanded later, takes the form of a romance, and then a tragedy once it's revealed that his love interest is not all she seems. This does not have the makings of a great tale, but it is very much a great movie, that handles these stories with a poise that genuinely enhances the action sequences, which are almost submerged under the story and characters (a rarity if not a freak, for an action film of this caliber).Yes, the bad guy is ugly, the good guy is handsome which is all very obvious, but Sammo is big ol kung fu teddy bear, whose agility and lightening fast speed belie his Chris Farely physique, and it's his performance which elevates the movie into something amazing. The comedy is funny, the romance is sweet, and the action is one of a kind combining the best of martial arts cinema, with an easily accessible drama that makes us care about the characters and their pains, joys, and inevitable revenge.Pedicab Driver is badass and brutal at times, but never sacrifices the charming lightness that makes the movie so enjoyable and gratifying in a way few of it's exciting peers (then and now) permit themselves to be. It's the type of film that gives the impression that everyone involved was enjoying themselves by effortlessly doing what I do best. This joy pours from the screen, and it's hard not to become immersed in it.I recently watched another HK action film featuring Sammo called "Zu: Warriors Of The Magic Mountain" and though it had similar sizzling combat (though largely artificial; wire or animation driven), it lacked a humane element, like reading a dry translation of an ancient myth. Pedicab Driver has a face, and a heart, and a fist, and watching them collide is a true joy to behold. I challenge anyone to not be entertained by this movie. Go on, I dare you!

One of the better kung fu movies, but not quite as flawless as I had hoped given the glowing reviews. The movie starts out well enough, with the jokes being visual enough that they translate the language barrier (which is rarer than you'd think for this era) and make the non-fight dialogue sequences passable (for a kung fu movie, this is a great compliment). Unlike other Chinese action movies, which were always period pieces or (in the wake of Jackie Chan's Police Story I) cop dramas, Pedicab Driver gives us a look at contemporary rural China. Unfortunately, in the latter 1/3 of the movie it takes a nosedive into dark melodrama tragedy which I thought was unnecessary.The action is overall good, featuring a duel between Sammo and 1/2 of the Shaw Brothers' only 2 stars, Kar-Leung Lau and then a fight at the end with that taller guy who always plays Jet Li's bad guy. There's only 20 minutes of combat here, which is standard, but what annoys me is the obvious speeding up of the camera frames. I get that they have to film half speed to avoid hurting each other, but there are smooth edits and then there's this. It really takes away from the fights when it's this obvious the footage was messed with.That said, if you like kung fu movies, my opinion here won't dissuade you, and if you don't, you just wasted 2 minutes of your life reading this.