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It felt like a little bit of a copout when the time came to pick this year’s martial arts film and I returned to the Jackie Chan well yet again, but I’m justifying it because this isn’t just a Jackie Chan movie, but a Samo Hung movie as well. Most people in the United States probably aren’t familiar with the name, but Hung has been an important part of the development of the Hong Kong kung fu film as a worldwide phenomenon, not only as an actor but as a stuntman, action director, producer and film director. If you’ve ever watched Enter the Dragon or some of those old Shaw Brothers films, then chances are good that you’ve either seen him on screen or seen fight scenes that he’s choreographed, because they’d release like six of those movies a year back in the day. Although he never had the star power of Bruce Lee or Jackie Chan, his rotund physique combined with his impressive acrobatic skills and choreography experience made him a unique figure in the kung fu flick scene, and he was eventually able to transition that into his own successful movie career, appearing in films as recently as 2019. Pretty sure a 58 year career in the movie business qualifies as a ‘good run’.
Originally I wanted to cover a movie where Sammo Hung was the solo lead, but the film I was going to use for that, 1980’s Encounters of the Spooky Kind, was being oddly elusive at the time. So it’s Sammo playing alongside his old buddy Jackie Chan, but he is directing the movie, which I think is a suitable compromise. Maybe next year I’ll just avoid Hong Kong entirely and cover The Last Dragon or something.
Released in 1984, Wheels on Meals was written by Edward Tang and Johnny Lee, directed by Sammo Hung and produced by Raymond Chow (the founder of Golden Harvest, the studio which either produced or distributed pretty much every kung fu movie you ever liked). Jackie Chan and Yuen Biao star as Thomas and David, two Chinese immigrants running a food truck in what I assume is Barcelona Spain, because what other Spanish city do they set movies in? While visiting Dave’s father at the local mental hospital, the cousins come across Sylvia (Lola Forner), a woman as beautiful as she is thievish, but luckily for her Dave is into that shit. After conning the two several times, it seems like Sylvia and the cousins actually form a kinship, but things take a turn for the serious when a group of mysterious thugs enter the picture, intent on nabbing Sylvia for undisclosed but undoubtedly nefarious purposes. David and Tom must team up with their friend Moby (Sammo), a bumbling private detective who as fate would have it has been hired by someone to track down Sylvia as well, in order to keep Sylvia safe and save the day. Most of which involves kicking people’s asses.
The Hong Kong film scene was no stranger to action packed movies back in the day, but I don’t think it was until the 1980s that the action film began to crystallize. Wheels on Meals for example has plenty of those fight scenes that made Golden Harvest such hitmakers, but a significant portion of the run time is dedicated to action set pieces such as automobile stunts. Pretty good car stunts too while we’re at it; They’ve got cars flipping over and smashing into each other, cars driving on their sides, it’s very frenetic. That might not seem all that remarkable in these modern times of perpetual Fast & Furious movies, but similar to the case in Once Upon a Time in the West with Cheyenne on top of the train, diversifying the ways in which you excite the audience makes for a more engaging film overall.
Comedy wasn’t a stranger either to these films either, and Wheels on Meals is principally a comedy. In a similar situation to before, there’s plenty of the physical comedy that you loved in films like Drunken Master, but just as much of the humor is built around cartoonish gags and dialogue. Chan, Biao and Hung had been collaborating since their days in the Peking Opera so they’re completely at ease with one another, and that chemistry lends itself to gag-writing which feels quite fluid which comes through even in spite of the dub. With Samo directing I think there’s the assumption that his character Moby would get the best bits and while Moby is definitely the clown of the film each of the three stars get their own chance to shine.
As I wrote earlier, while Wheels on Meals is more of an action movie than strictly a martial arts movie, this is still a film starring kung fu actors distributed by a kung fu movie studio, so there’s still plenty of fight scenes to scratch that itch. The greatest of these fights is naturally in the climax, where our protagonists are engaged in three separate fights, which manage to be not only masterful displays of choreography and the stars’ speed and skill in acrobatics but great examples of slapstick comedy as well. If the 3 Stooges were living weapons, basically. We also get some non-fight stunts as well (in case you ever wanted to see Jackie Chan ride a skateboard), nothing as complex and potentially deadly as what we would see in Jackie Chan’s later films, although there is a running gag involving leaping out of a first floor balcony onto the street that probably didn’t feel too good on Biao and Hung’s hips when they busted their ass.
If there’s a problem with the film, it’s the same one shared with a lot of these kinds of movies, in that the story is secondary to the action. The movie begins, then we kind of meander around a bit doing whatever, until the characters finally learn what the plot is in time to stop it and save the day. I can’t even say this film has a main antagonist; Yeah there’s a guy that we see boss the thugs around who means to harm our good guys, but he gets so little focus it’s as if he barely exists at all, and when we reach the climax of the film he’s barely an afterthought. Sylvia isn’t all that memorable either; She spends most of the film not as a femme fatale con artist but as the love interest/macguffin for the characters to fight over, and her dubbed voice only serves to further increase her blandness. There’s also a number of scenes set in the mental hospital where the jokes are based on how wacky people suffering from mental illness can be, which may or may not be a dealbreaker depending on your view but is in any case a tired trope.
In a decade that saw dozens of amazing action films come out of Hong Kong, Wheels on Meals doesn’t stand at the head of the pack. However it’s a film that knows who its audience is, knows its stars and knows how to craft an action scene, and that is what it delivers, and I can respect that. Wheels on Meals gets the recommendation, if you’re looking to relax and want something fun and uncomplicated to watch in the 80’s style, throw this on and see how you like it.
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