The Movies That Moved Me: Sammo Hung’s WHEELS ON MEALS
Without a doubt, Jackie Chan‘s turn-of-the-century career sprout with Rumble In The Bronx bolstered the interest of Western audiences to take notice of Hong Kong cinema. Little did we know that it would be a crucial time for the home video market as well as the birth of the DVD conquering its consumer hold against VHS tapes. Luckily for me, it was a time of discovery as someone who took keen interest in Hong Kong cinema, and as someone who lived vicariously through stimulating martial arts action films growing up… even during my first major relationship in high school – but that’s another story for another time, maybe.
His Spain-set 1984 action comedy, Wheels On Meals was definitely a rare and blind find on my end. Looking past all the common English action titles I’d seen a thousand times, I was craving these titles by the handfuls. This was after a friend of my dad’s loaned us a couple of tapes including another Jackie Chan classic I’ll discuss in another post one day, but rest assured, it made me confident that there were other films like it, and upon renting Wheels On Meals, this thing did not disappoint. I was mesmerised by the caliber of the action and stunts on which the silly story of two mobile fast food restauranteurs who find themselves joined by a detective to protect a beautiful heiress from a local crime syndicate and his hard hitting henchmen.
This film was a peak moment for Chan, co-stars Yuen Biao, and Sammo Hung who served as director and action director, in my view. I rented it more times than I cared to count – a fact backed by the film’s core fight scene between Chan and Benny “The Jet” Urquidez which was so addictive to me that I rewatched the fight scene on multiple occassions when I had the tape. It was spontaneous, explosive, and shaprly performed by two players at the top of their game, and Kirth Morrison’s backing track on the flipside of that fight scene just SLAPS.
I even bought a copy of the film on Region 3 DVD from HKFlix at the time. It was a high quality release too, and sadly, another in the losses I suffered over the years when my DVD suitcase got either lost or stolen. To add, I don’t have a Blu-Ray player suitable for anything but region A/free discs, so there’s no way I’d be able to play Eureka’s own re-release issued in 2019 even if I could afford it. Alas, I’m hoping this changes at some point. In this market and in these times, I’m not sure if that’s possible, but I’d be more than happy at the possibilities of they were there.
At any rate, I was compelled to put this tribute piece together in light of Chan’s 71st birthday on Monday. The man has had an incredible career, and I look forward to the ongoing ceremony as I partake in looking back at his work on my own time, or for assignments for this platform. I also look forward to Urquidez’s documentary at some point as well. That’d be a sight to see. For now, feast your ears on this joint!
