Enter the Fat Dragon
4/18/2001
Review
Format: Subtitled VHS
Stars: Sammo Hung, a ton of other well known guys

Sammo is a great Bruce Lee impersonator and has to deal with the hardships of city life in Hong Kong after he moves there.

Honestly, I've never seen a Bruce Lee movie that I enjoyed. I've never seen a Bruce impersonation that I enjoyed either, except this. Sammo seems to have it right. Every single facial gesture he makes, all the footwork, the hand movements, choreographing style, hairdos, dumb villians, and ugly shoes. It's all here, just like a Bruce Lee movie. Sad thing is that if it weren't Sammo, I probably wouldn't like it, since Sammo exerts the charm he has. He's funny, witty (Sammo style of course), heroic, and faster than any Bruce wannabe out there.

It starts out with the classic hero-against-the-red-background, with all kinds of HK greats coming to challenge the master. We see Mars, Biu, Meng Hoi, Chung Fa, and a host of others who I can't name but can spot in other Sammo films like Dirty Tiger Crazy Frog, The Victim, Knockabout, and The Incredible Kung Fu Master. A warning to faithful Sammo fans, keep in mind this is supposed to be a Bruce Lee-style movie and you won't see long choreographed scenes. They're all just small 1-2's with the opponent getting laid out by the man of economics himself. No nunchaku here though.



Sammo runs after two thieves who just stole a purse from a woman and beats them up. Something worth noting is the part before this of Sammo walking on the street, which looks so dirty thanks to the color of the picture, and the people all have terrible style, OTHER things you see in Bruce films. Tiny part, 4 hits, but it screams Bruce. Sammo does some Bruce-like hand gestures in the beginning, which makes this scene worth watching. The guy just IS Bruce Lee in this.



The next fight is longer, over a minute, where Sammo takes out the whole crew. They come to his uncle's restaurant and he does some nice kicks, punches, and nunchaku work on them all. Again, everyone's ugly, except Sammo and Biu, who are nicely dressed and groomed. This isn't a choreography showcase really, it's just about Sammo looking like Bruce and doing nice looking single moves.



A hilarious scene has some Brits in a restaurant who are saying "Chinese Kung Fu... no damn good." Sammo gets pissed off and nails them, nothing else though. Just comedy.



Sammo goes to a party and gets drunk. Eric Tsang makes a surprise appearance and looks like a complete fool. Sammo shows off some styles like Dragon, Tiger, and Snake, which turns into Cobra and then Rattlesnake. Some good choreography here, Sammo takes advantage of a small amount of time using these traditional styles. He goes against Fong Hak On at first, then a crowd of goons with his Bruce impersonation, and finally gets beat around by Leung Ka Yan's 3-man gang. More of them later. Still not a whole lot of good fighting, just some flashes of MA and good humor.



Perhaps the most Bruce-like of all the fights in this film is the one on the film set. Sure enough, there's another Bruce lookalike making a movie and Sammo is supposed to be in the supporting cast and has to get knocked out. The other Bruce is weak and makes Sammo angry (don't insult his idol like that), so he does some leg blocking and then some group fighting with the same kind of fighting you'd see at the end of Enter the Dragon, except Sammo does more interesting kicking, which is great looking. You'll see more familiar faces here, Meng Hoi pops up again and Lam Ching Ying makes an appearance.



The finale is pretty big, around 8 or 9 minutes long. Sammo fights against three men. The first, who looks like Lee Hoi Sang, is painted black to make us think he's actually a black guy. Nice try. Some ok choreography, whoever the other person is isn't especially fast, even his shoulder takeover was slow. Some ok kicks, but nothing overly impressive. Sammo does more Bruce stuff and it's over within a minute and a half.



The next opponent is a white guy and at first I said "You gotta be kidding me" but he put some effort into it and made a formidable opponent. He does boxing mainly and is a bit slow at times during his longer shots of punches, and really any regular joe could do this stuff. Most of the scene is actually squaring off. Some small kicking at the end and the guy gets nailed.



Leung Kar Yan surprised me. I expected more Bruce stuff, tough guy material, but instead he said "You know Chinese kung fu?" and they started in on a totally 2 beat hand to hand fest. An excellent turn of focus, just at the right time too. This goes on for over three minutes, some slow spots but overall the choreography is very interesting. Leung is his normal self with his distinct movements, though a bit more sloppy here than in his other films, his arms tend to go in odd places. He ends up with a staff and Sammo with a Ring, which is some good choreography. Leung has no chance against Sammo though, the ring always seems to be a winner with the guy. I consider this the best scene in the movie and had this been a Bruce type ending, I wouldn't have liked this movie half as much as I do now.



This is an oddball film really. Nothing is really like it. We start off with a complete Bruce movie, only to end with something comparable to the end of Encounter of the Spooky Kind. I'm glad to own it just because it's one of Sammo's earlier works and it shows a lot of character on his part. I think I actually like Sammo's impersonation of Bruce more than Bruce's character itself in movies, he was too much of a hard head. Sammo lets in quite a bit of humor (those of you who know Sammo humor know this) that made me buckle over laughing like usual, and he's just more charismatic. And I like his action more too, a better variety of kicks and punches. Of course I can't blame Bruce for these discrepencies, the choreographers had him do this stuff I'm sure, but since Sammo is in control of what HE does, he can make the best of things and, as always, manages to do just that. I wish though that there had been a bit more action, or made the fights longer. Longer choreography would be neat too, since I don't really enjoy Bruce style fights, but Sammo still does it all to perfection. The guy is admirable for putting himself so low and yet performing far better on screen than Bruce himself. Deserves something.

4/5 - But a 5/5 for Sammo ^_^.

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