The setting for Pedicab Driver was newly within reach for Hong Kong residents. The Sheung Wan ferry terminal opened in 1985, expediting links between Hong Kong and Macau with a bone-janglingly bumpy ride on a one-hour hydrofoil. The film went into production just after the opening of the China Ferry Terminal in Tsim Sha Tsui in November 1988, which brought Macau into commuting range of the very heart of Hong Kong. While Hong Kong was a city-wide building site of new developments, Macau’s old town retained its colonial-era charm, at least for a while, and offered an “overseas” distraction – comparable to Hung’s California-set Paper Marriage (1988), which was actually shot in Edmonton, Alberta, and Millionaires Express (1986), for which Thailand and Canada substituted for Republican-era China.

Macau was also a glimpse of things to come. 1988 was the official commencement of the “Transitional Framework” between Portugal and the People’s Republic of China, under which the colony was due to be handed back eleven years later. That year saw the removal of the Portuguese coat of arms from local banknotes – time were changing for both Hong Kong and Macau, and this movie forms part of an earnest sub-genre of films that attempted to catch the old world before it was gone forever. It also saw a super-charged onrush of productions, as many a creative crammed their schedule with enough money-makers to buy themselves a foreign passport.

From my sleeve-note essay to be found in Arrow Video’s forthcoming Blu-ray release of Sammo Hung’s Pedicab Driver.