Verdict
Summary
Hong Kong’s response to Joel Schumacher’s Falling Down, Taxi Hunter has a deeply cynical view of cab drivers, and a downbeat approach to a middle class guy’s downward spiral into madness as a result of the wrong done to him.
Plot:
A middle class businessman’s wife is killed by a careless taxi driver, throwing him into a funk that turns into a rage when he starts killing taxi drivers across the city.
Review:
Friends for years, humble businessman Ah Kin (Anthony Wong) and hotshot detective Yu kai-Chung (Rongguang Yu) don’t have much in common, but their friendship is real. Kin’s wife is just days away from giving birth, and the future looks bright, especially since Kin’s boss has all but promised him a promotion for doing an amazing job at the office. Tragedy strikes hard and fast when Kin orders a cab to take them to the hospital on a windy, rainy night, but the cabbie takes another fare moments before he’s set to pick up Kin and his wife, forcing Kin to flag down another taxi. The next cab to screech to a halt in front of their apartment is incensed that he’ll have to drive his fares to the hospital, so he takes off in an inconsiderate huff, not realizing (or caring) that Kin’s wife’s nightgown is still caught in the door, dragging her half a block down the rainy road, throwing her to the gutter in a devastating – but obviously very avoidable – crash to her death. Kin’s unborn baby dies as well, throwing him into a deep funk that he can’t recover from. Expected to perform at work at the level he was at before the accident, his boss forces him to take more time off to deal with his inconvenient grief, but Kin has a revelation when he randomly steps into a conflict between a greedy cabbie and a befuddled fare – Kin smacks the cabbie in the face, prompting an unexpected jubilant reaction from the crowd. Kin suddenly embraces his newfound purpose: He will spend his nights hopping into cabs, and if the cabbie turns out to be a total scumbag (like most of them seem to be by spiking prices, taking longer routes, and just being complete self-centered bullies), then he’ll execute them with either his newly acquired black market handgun or with a garrote, or by any other method he can think of. By the third or fourth night, Kin has racked up a body count and his friend Yu is assigned the case. Yu and another detective named Gao (Man-tat Ng) get the idea to have Gao go undercover as a cabbie to see if he can ensnare the killer, and by pure dumb luck Kin hops into his cab, setting the stage for a bloody and unexpected climax.
Hong Kong’s response to Joel Schumacher’s Falling Down, Taxi Hunter has a deeply cynical view of cab drivers, and a downbeat approach to a middle class guy’s downward spiral into madness as a result of the wrong done to him. It’s not society that has let him down, but a particular group of hustlers, which makes the movie a little more singular in its cynicism. In any case, Wong’s performance is really convincing, but the simplistic script (credited to four writers) and direction by Herman Yao might’ve benefitted by a closer examination of the cabbie lifestyle in Hong Kong, but perhaps the film might’ve ended up feeling like Taxi Driver instead. Who knows? The film is slick, and might appeal to fans of Hong Kong dramas with some ugly violence in it. All others may not quite “get” it.
88 Films has just brought Taxi Hunter to a premium Blu-ray format with a fully loaded special edition release. The film looks and sounds great, with a limited edition slipcase, plus a whole slew of bonus features, including a new audio commentary, interviews with the action director, one of the producers and co-writers, and an interview with star Anthony Wong, plus more.
