Enter the Fat Dragon (2020)

Donnie Yen in a romantic comedy kung fu movie wearing a fat suit truly sounded like a train wreck idea. At times it felt more like a parody of kung fu movies and police movies. Amazingly, it succeeded for the most part.

The story is nonsensical, and started off slow, picking up steam when Donnie's character Fallon, had to transport a prisoner to Japan. I was bracing myself for a lot of fat jokes and fat shaming, thankfully, it didn't happen. Fallon had been demoted after destroying the police station in the process of catching a band of bank robbers. His girlfriend dumped him and at work he was exiled to the basement storage check-out. Like a lot of people might have done, he comforted himself with food and gained weight. When called into action in Japan he was still able to perform his moves, act courageously, and handle the dangerous situations. A lot of movies would have made him feel inadequate after gaining weight, not this movie, regardless of his weight he was still a good cop.

I thought it was funny in places, my husband laughed out loud through the whole thing. Maybe the Y chromosome helps to understand some of the humor.

The martial arts choreographers outdid themselves with creative and entertaining fights, with and without weapons. Donnie and his stunt double(s) made the action thrilling to watch. The choreographers designed fights often using whatever might be lying around, be it meat cleavers, frying pans, large tunas or a forklift. I'm used to seeing Godzilla tear up Tokyo Tower, this time Donnie and the Big Bad fought over Tokyo precariously kicking, fighting, and jumping above the brightly lit city.

Among the side characters I enjoyed the interpreter (Jessica Jann), she moved seamlessly between Japanese, Cantonese, and English with a ditzy flair. Wong Jing played the good-natured Thor, who was in love with a restaurant owner. Donnie had to come to the aid of his ex (Niki Chow) when she ended up in the clutches of the yakuza baddies. Love was definitely in the air!

Enter the Fat Dragon had action, humor, and a little romance. The story and action were fast. Not perfect by any stretch of the imagination, but was easy, breezy, and beautiful even at 250 pounds (113kg).

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kudos to the stunts in this Hong Kong style action comedy

an action comedy film laced with a bit of romance, and humorous dialogues and non-verbal actions. the story tells of a cop who experiences a challenging period in his life and career. this film is suitable for late teen age group to above as there are drugs, violence and murder scenes. this film feels through and through like a Hong Kong production. there are a few parody of older movies present in this film, but because the screen time on these segments are very short, some audience might miss them.

for me, there are five highlights to the film, i) the stunt choreographies; ii) the quality of stunt works perform by the stunt folks; iii) Donnie Yen performing a mix bag of comedy, drama/romance, and action; iv) Teresa Mo's performance; and, v) the stark evidence of Hong Kong style production.

it is a delight for me to watch Yen performs a comedy role, and it is even more of a delight to see Teresa Mo. the last time i watch Mo in a film/series was 15+ years ago. i didn't realize she is still active in the entertainment industry until this film and until i checked Wikipedia.

although, i feel that the quality of entertainment in different segments of the film vary, overall, it is still an entertaining piece.

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