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WHEELS ON MEALS (HK)

 ABOUT THE MOVIE


Genre:
Action/Comedy
Starring: Jackie Chan, Sammo Hung, Yuen Biao, Lola Forner, Richard Ng, John Sham, Wu Ma, Benny Urquidez
Director: Sammo Hung
Rating: PG
Year Made: 1984

 

 


 SPECIAL FEATURES


- New and Original Movie Trailers
- Movie Stills/Photo Slide Show
-
An Interview with Sammo Hung
- An Interview with Yuen Biao
- NG Shots

 

 


 TECHNICAL SPECIFICATIONS


Languages:
Cantonese
Subtitles: English/Simplified Chinese/
Traditional Chinese
Aspect Ratio: Anamorphic Widescreen 1.85:1
Sound: Dolby Digital 5.1/DTS
Running Time: 1 hr 48 mins
Region Code: NTSC 3

 

 

SYNOPSIS:

Thomas and David are two quick-witted vendors hawking Chinese fast food from their truck in the busy squares of Barcelona. Their acquaintance with beautiful pickpocket, Sylvia brings them in contact with novice detective Moby who is trying to track her whereabouts. Sylvia is actually a wealthy heiress kidnapped by the evil count who is trying to siphon off her inheritance. The trio puts a spanner in the count's plans and rescue Sylvia.

MOVIE REVIEW:
  

You got to admit they don’t make movies liked “Wheels On Meals” anymore. The HK movie industry on the whole and also the famous trio, Jackie Chan, Sammo Hung and Yuen Biao. Ironically not even the trio can out beat themselves.

Filmed entirely in Spain for duration of 4 months, “Wheels On Meals” marks the first official collaboration between the 3 opera troupe brothers after Jackie Chan’s “Project A”. Directed by Sammo, “Wheels On Meals” brings the usual HK slapstick humour and their trademark action stunts to the faraway European region.

JC and Yuen Biao plays two mobile vendors who operate their food business from a slick, custom-fitted Mitsubishi van on the streets of Barcelona. Sammo on the other hand is a fumbling wannabe private detective who is hired to find the missing heir of a rich Count. These 3 friends coincidentally are being dragged to protect the heir from her treacherous uncle who is after the family’s fortune.

Of course, there’s seldom a case of too many storylines to follow. In a Sammo and JC’s fronted movie, the fans are more concerned about the action bits to worry about the former. The action is less hardcore, more leisurely choreographed and acrobatically fun this time round. Yuen’s scene of jumping from the balcony and landing on his butt in one take is a classic achievement.

With such a nice, eye-catching Mitsubishi van in a movie, it will be a waste to let it off without a car chase. Looking at the enemies’ blockish-looking cars (this is the 80’s mind you) flipping and tossing on the roads is like watching a live-cartoon show. Our fave van has her share of glory moment as well, flying itself across a highway into a truckload of fruits.

The late Blackie Ko has a rather funny cameo as a motorcyclist thug and Richard Ng, John Sham and Wu Ma hammed it up as a couple of lunatics. After so many years of repeated viewing, Beauty Queen Lola Forner who plays the missing heiress still looks out-of-place with that cheesy Cantonese dubbing in fact the entire Western cast had a Canto dub-over that deprived the actual spontaneous fun. Fortunately, the storyline and comic timing is well controlled and Sammo did a great job blending the jokes and action into a tight 108 minutes.

The moment you have been waiting for is the finale fight which took place in a castle-like environment. Sammo has his hands occupied fencing (which Yuen in the interview admits it's a mix of Chinese swordplay) with the treacherous uncle, due to Yuen’s character being slightly goofy, he has a great time showing off his acrobatic abilities jumping and somersaulting all around trying to escape his opponent. The meat of the pie as usual goes to JC. Strenuous and physically more demanding than the rest, he has to face off Benny Urquidez (a real martial-arts expert) in a brutal hand-to-hand combat.

With great chemistry the cast ignited, action sets and exotic location shoot, “Wheels On Meals” sets the standard so high that no other HK movies (till now) have managed to topple. And that was in 1984. Almost 23 years later, we are still hoping to see another “Wheels On Meals”.

SPECIAL FEATURES:

Far more interesting of course are the interviews. First up is “Sammo Interview”, in his halting English; he talks about his working relationships with Jackie and Yuen Biao and also the current state of HK cinema.

It’s surprisingly to hear lots of informative snippets from the low-profile Yuen Biao. He laments the lack of tatami to soften the impact when they land on grounds in those days of filming. And he was also the stand-in for the fencer in the finale of the movie. Amazingly, none of them had any knowledge of fencing, they have to use self-taught videos as a guide prior to the shoot!

Some NG shots, trailers and photo gallery round up the DVD.

AUDIO/VISUAL:

Consider the age of the source, this remastered version scores in the visual department. Colours are bright and there are no visible specks of dirt to distract you.

The only sequences that make full use of the surround track are the fight with the motorcyclist thugs and the car chase that happened in the middle of the movie. I guess a good surround track is secondary when you can watch the trio fight in their best form.

MOVIE RATING:  

DVD RATING:

Review by Linus Tee

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Other HK Classics on DVD:

. Dragons Forever DVD

. Wheels On Meals DVD

. Swordsman DVD

 


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