Rating: 4 out of 5
Director: Kenji Tanigaki and Aman Chang
Year: 2020
Plot:
I was drawn to this movie for the cover. The cover features
a fat Donnie Yen dressed like Bruce Lee. The classic yellow suit is what he is
dawning, and the movie is supposed to be a reboot or remake of “Enter the Fat
Dragon” which was previously released in 1978 and starred Sammo Hung.
The plot of the movie isn’t half bad. It flows easily, and
it features Donnie Yen’s character, Fallon, a good cop that tends to go
extreme. Think of Jackie Chan’s characters in “Police Story” and you get a
little bit of what you would expect from Fallon. Fallon chases the bad guys and
beats them to a pulp. We get an opening sequence that features a great deal of
fighting, chasing, cars, and some action that is definitely on par with
anything modern you are watching.
Now, the plot moves forward with our main hero being placed
in the evidence room instead of the streets. He sits a lot more, and ends up
getting fat, losing his fiancé, and no longer getting into the action that he
was used to. When his friend gets him to join a case, he has a second chance to
get into the streets. He goes to Japan and he is supposed to bring back a felon
which should be relatively easy.
The plot moves fast, and the felon gets away, only to have
Fallon chase him and a secondary plot comes through. The secondary element is
that the felon is really someone that saw the Yakuza putting drugs into fish.
The Yakuza is now after him, Fallon is also chasing, and the felon is trying to
hide out. Through this movie however, a great deal more happens, and we get a
lot of set pieces that are intriguing, lit up greatly, and features fighting,
chases, gun fights, and more. It’s impressive. All done with Donnie Yen in a
fat suit!
Thoughts:
First of all, this whole movie is subtitled, so if that
turns you off, you’re going to dislike this. There is some English spoken
throughout, but it is not enough to carry the plot or the movie at all. You
won’t have to read a novel, but you will need to read quite a bit overall. It’s
subtitled in English, so that’s a plus for sure.
The overall movie is fast paced, and comedic. There are
plenty of fat jokes and fat puns, as well as moments that are specifically made
to make fun of Fallon’s weight gain. However, despite his size, he still fights
like crazy and it is interesting to see that contrast between fat and skinny.
There are a few moments where he seems tired, as he should be because he’s
fatter, but it doesn’t get in the way a lot of times. In fact there’s a lot of
times that he looks amazing, and he indeed fights back hard. The fighting is
great, there is even callbacks to Bruce Lee and Jackie Chan.
Overall, “Enter the Fat Dragon” is a solid modern kung fu
movie. It features a great deal of action, gun play, and comedy. I want to
compare it to Jackie Chan a lot, but that’s not fair, because Donnie Yen does
great work here and this is a great movie. I give it a 4 out of 5 and highly
recommend it.
