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Released by: Eastern Star/Discotek
Released on: 2/23/2010
Director: Herman Yau
Cast: Anthony Wong, Man Tat Ng, Athena Chu, Yu Rong Guang
Year: 1993
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The Movie:
Obviously there are exceptions to this generalization but let's face it, a lot of taxi drivers are dicks. If you live in a big city you're used to them. They'll cut you off to get to a fare, they'll zip through traffic and run stop signs and red lights and they pretty much tend to drive around like there's no one else on the road. Keep this in mind as you watch Taxi Hunter, just one of a few movies that director Herman Yau made with the king of Hong Kong's nineties era CAT III scene, Anthony Wong (a pair of their better known titles being The Untold Story and Ebola Syndrome), and you can see how the film is actually fairly therapeutic.
Wong plays a meek insurance worker name Ah-Kin who, on the way home from work to see his pregnant wife, gets into a small fender bender with a cab driver. Rather than settle the problem honestly, the cabbie calls over a pair of his friends and they milk the poor guy out of five grand. He gets home late and spends some time with his wife, marveling over how they'll be parents soon enough. This brief moment of bliss is soon spoiled when Ah-kin's wife goes into labor. They don't have a car and so he calls a cab. The first one shows up but is soon co-opted by someone willing to pay more, and when a second one shows up, he refuses to let them in because his wife is bleeding. As he takes off, her dress gets caught in the door and she's dragged down the street to her death.
Shattered by the loss of his wife and his unborn child, Ah-kin sets to drinking a fair bit and hanging out with his cop pal. He also finds he has no patience left for the cab drivers of Hong Kong. This first manifests when he smacks a cabbie in the face for taking advantage of a woman but before you know it, he's bought himself a .45 and is roaming the streets and murdering cab drivers left, right and center. Unfortunately, the aforementioned cop buddies are assigned to the case and as righteous as Ah-kin may feel his work is, he's breaking the law…
Taxi Hunter does take a little while to get going and it does suffer from some groan-inducingly bad comic relief that comes courtesy of Yu Rong Guang as one of the bumbling police officers but once it gets moving it delivers. While not as shocking as the aforementioned Ebola Syndrome or the notorious The Untold Story, the film still provides some quality shock value - how often do you get to see a pregnant woman dragged to her death through the dingy streets of Hong Kong? The picture also provides Wong, one of the finest actors to ever work in the Hong Kong film industry period, some interesting material to work with. It's interesting to see his character transform from a meek white collar worker to a gun toting lunatic but he makes the transition smoothly and effectively in that way that only he can.
Yau's direction makes good use of the stunt driving and violence that the story entails. There are some pretty solid car chases and some reasonably strong action set pieces here but the real reason you're going to want to check this one out is for Wong's excellent performance. The guy really just suits the role perfectly and as fans of his output know, he's got no problem getting dirty if the part calls for it. The film is a bit rough around the edges and not as polished as some of their other collaborations but it works in the context of the film. All in all, there's definitely enough here to satiate fans.
Video/Audio/Extras:
Eastern Star presents Taxi Hunter in a 1.85.1 anamorphic transfer that isn't really all that impressive. The image is properly flagged for progressive scan but print damage is frequent and there's some odd color fading going on where a lot of the film has a strange greenish tint to it. Much of this appears to have to do with whatever elements were available to work with, as the disc is well authored in that there are no problems with mpeg compression artifacts or edge enhancement, but a little bit of restoration could have certainly helped. Given the limited market for this release it's understandable that t his didn't happen, but don't go into this one expecting it to look amazing, as it appears to have been taken from a marginally ragged looking source.
The only audio track on this disc is a Cantonese language Dolby Digital 2.0 mix that comes with optional subtitles available in English only. Aside from a couple of typos in the subtitles (your and you're are often mixed up), the audio is more or less problem free. Dialogue is easy enough to understand and the synth heavy soundtrack sounds quite good. Levels are well balanced and while there is the occasional pop in the mix, it's never all too distracting.
The disc includes a trailer for the feature and trailers for a few other Discotek/Eastern Star DVD releases as well as static menus and chapter selection. Sadly, there are no interviews nor is there a commentary - it would have been great to hear from Anthony Wong or Herman Yau but that didn't happen.
The Final Word:
Not nearly as over the top as some of their better known collaborations, Taxi Hunter is still pretty strong stuff. Herman Yau and Anthony Wong always deliver and this film is no exception. The presentation won't floor you but it's nice to have a decent domestic version available. Cat III fans already know they need this one.