TAXI HUNTER
Hong Kong, 1993, Herman Yau

Herman Yau, who directed such classic nasties as The Untold Story (1993) and Ebola Syndrome (1996) teams up with the star of both aforementioned movies, Anthony Wong, in the nasty, yet not quite as nasty, little film Taxi Hunter. In Taxi Hunter, Wong stars as Kin, a man whose life is ravaged by taxi drivers who repeatedly bully him. His distaste for taxi drivers comes to a boil when one night his pregnant wife is killed by a reckless taxi driver. From this moment on, Kin becomes a vigilante patrolling the streets for unscrupulous taxi drivers, whether they be rapists, bullies or just trying to run up their meters by driving rubbish routes.

While Kin is going about his taxi driver killing spree, unbeknownst to him his best pal, who happens to be a policeman, is on the case to track him down. Obviously neither knows what the other is up to and of course this leads to a dramatic finale with lots of fun and action along the way and a healthy dose of Hong Kong cinema morality.

Most of us have experienced crappy taxi drivers and have been driven to irritation by their over-charging, lewd behaviour or mind numbing rantings and ravings. That is not to say that all taxi drivers are rubbish. I’m sure the vast majority of taxi drivers, like most people in most occupations, are quite good at their jobs or at the very least efficient. And I’m sure that they just get a bad reputation from the odd bad egg in the bunch. Like in most groups of people I guess. It’s the old, do a good job and nobody will say anything, do a crap job and they’ll tell a thousand people thing. Or however that saying goes. With that in mind, the reason this movie is a lot of fun is that we can all think of a crap time we had with a taxi driver and get a bit of catharsis as we watch Wong dish out his brand of madcap justice. This isn’t like the loftier villains in your usual action films where they’re millionaire drug/gun runners with world domination plans. These are just taxi drivers. This is something your average Joe (who has spent 60 dollars to get across three suburbs, only to get to the other end of the journey to catch the driver ogling your girlfriend’s cleavage in the rear-view instead of watching for the cyclist he almost hit) can get behind. So thanks, Hong Kong.

It got me thinking, what are some other ideas for action movies based on service industry irritants we could make?? Hmmm…

Inefficient Bureaucrat Hunter?

Trendy Cafe Waiter Hunter?

Late Train Driver Hunter?

Rip-off Mechanic Hunter?

Night Club Bouncer Hunter?

Stuck-up Video Store Clerk Hunter?

The Girl at the Clothing Shop Who Laughed at Me When I Hit My Head on Their Low Hanging Light Fitting Hunter?

Anyhow here’s the trailer for Taxi Hunter. Enjoy, kids!