The Rickshaw Boy

Dir: Peter Yung
Prod Co.: Associated Television (ATV)
1981 | Colour | D Beta | English voiceover & Mandarin | Chi & Eng Subtitles | 47min

Cinematographer James Wong Howe went to China in 1948 to prepare his adaptation of Lao She’s novel Rickshaw Boy, capturing footage of China to use as reference. However, the plan was scrapped when civil war broke out in China, and Peter Yung inherited the footage after Howe’s death. To fulfill Howe’s wish, Yung went to Beijing in 1980 and spent a year capturing the life of old time rickshaw drivers to serve as a contrast to those in Howe’s footage. The two sets of footage were eventually combined into one film to serve as the filmmaker’s tribute to his late mentor and close friend. Showing together with Opium: The White Powder Opera.

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