Wheels on Meals (快餐車, Mandarin: Kuàicān Chē, Cantonese: Fai2 Chan1 Tse1) is a 1984 Hong Kong action film directed by Sammo Hung, starring Hung, Jackie Chan and Yuen Biao. In some releases, the film was released under alternative titles including Spartan X, Weapon X, Spanish Connection and Million Dollar Heiress. It was filmed in Barcelona, Spain.
Film title
The film's name was actually supposed to be more sensibly titled Meals on Wheels. However, superstitious Golden Harvest executives demanded the name change because their two previous films with titles that began with the letter 'M' - Megaforce and Menage A Trois - were both box office flops.[1][2]
Plot
Thomas (Jackie Chan) and David (Yuen Biao) are cousins who run a fast food van in Barcelona. The food is delivered by Thomas, who rushes around the square on a skateboard. After fending off a biker gang, they meet the beautiful pickpocket Sylvia (Lola Forner), who asks them to hide her in their van to avoid the police. Thomas and David are enamoured by her, but after allowing her to stay in their apartment that night, they wake to find Sylvia and their money gone. The next day, they bump into Moby (Sammo Hung), a bumbling private investigator who is also tracking Sylvia. It is discovered that Sylvia is the heir to a sizeable inheritance that a criminal gang is trying to steal from her. When she is kidnapped, Thomas, David, and Moby team up to save her, infiltrating the villains' castle and defeating them in a martial arts battle.
Cast
The three action star brothers, Chan, Yuen and Hung, are long-time friends and had been Peking Opera School colleagues in their youth.[3] The release of Wheels on Meals came in the midst of their most prolific period working together as a trio. The three men had acted together on Chan's Project A and the first of Hung's original Lucky Stars trilogy, Winners and Sinners in 1983.[4][5] Wheels on Meals was released in 1984, and a year later they were reunited twice more for the Lucky Stars semi-sequels My Lucky Stars and Twinkle, Twinkle Lucky Stars. This was something of a golden period for Hong Kong cinema-goers, as three of the nation's most beloved action stars performed together on screen.
The film also features cameo appearances from fellow Lucky Stars Richard Ng and John Shum as mental patients in the hospital attended by the father of Yuen's character.
Wheels on Meals was the first of two films which paired star Jackie Chan against former professional kickboxing champion Benny Urquidez (the other being the 1988 film Dragons Forever). Their fight in this film is typically regarded as one of the greatest on-screen martial arts fights ever performed. At one point in the final battle between the pair, a spin-kick performed by Urquidez is so quick that the resulting airflow extinguishes a row of candles. This is shown onscreen, with no cuts or trick photography.
Co-star Lola Forner appeared in another Jackie Chan film, Armour of God (1986).
Filming
Audio commentator Bey Logan explains why Sammo Hung decided to shoot the film outside of Hong Kong. By the time it was made in 1984, shooting in Hong Kong had become practically impossible - firstly, because the action stars had become so famous that they could not walk through the streets with impunity, and secondly due to the mounting difficulties in obtaining a permit from the government in order to film in Hong Kong. Bruce Lee had paved the way for Hong Kong filmmakers shooting abroad, with the 1972 film Way of the Dragon. The location filming was done in Italy, whereas the interiors had been shot at Golden Harvest studio.
When Hung took his cast and crew to Barcelona, he wanted to strongly establish the locations in Barcelona as real, and to avoid shooting interiors at Golden Harvest. In comparison to Hong Kong, the Spanish authorities were very cooperative in allowing the use of locations for filming, even for car chases and fight scenes.[6]
Influence on popular culture
- The video game Kung Fu Master was based on this film.[7] The Japanese version of Kung-Fu Master was titled Spartan X and credited to be under license from Paragon Films Ltd. and Towa Promotion.
- Japanese Pro Wrestler Mitsuharu Misawa used the theme song of the Japanese version of Wheels on Meals (named Spartan X) throughout his career wrestling under his real name.
DVD
Unlike the majority of Chan's later films, the standard DVD releases of Wheels on Meals do not contain the usual outtakes over the final credits. However, a VHS release of the film did exist in the mid-1980s under the title Spartan X, which includes the outtakes intact.
Awards and nominations
Box office
Wheels on Meals grossed HK $21,465,013 in its Hong Kong theatrical run.
See also
References
External links
