Enter the Fat Dragon

肥龙过江

Hong Kong/China, 2020, colour, 2.35:1, 95 mins.

Director: Tanigaki Kenji 谷垣健治.

Associate director: Zhang Min 张敏 [Aman Chang].

Rating: 7/10.

Entertaining slice of retro-pulp tooled as a fat-suit vehicle for action star Zhen Zidan [Donnie Yen].

STORY

Hong Kong, the present day. On his way to having a wedding portrait taken with fiancee Song Ke’er (Zhou Liqi), a TV drama actress, skilled but over-enthusiastic Special Task Force member Zhu Fulong (Zhen Zidan) is caught up by chance in an armed bank robbery. He foils it singlehandedly but ends up crashing the gang’s escape vehicle into police headquarters, to the annoyance of the police commissioner (Chen You). Song Ke’er is furious she had to get leave from work in Shenzhen for nothing, and during an argument with Zhu Fulong injures herself and is taken to hospital. She cuts off their relationship and concentrates on her career. Meanwhile, Zhu Fulong is transferred to a backroom job running the evidence store and, when he injures his leg cycling one day with Special Task Force boss Huang Secheng (Zhang Jicong), he starts putting on weight from eating too much junk food. Six months later Huang Secheng gives the now-podgy Zhu Fulong a second chance by arranging for him to escort Japanese AV director Yuji (Hayama Hiro), who was an injured spectator in the bank robbery, back to Tokyo for questioning by the Japanese police. On the plane Zhu Fulong bumps into Song Ke’er, who’s been hired for a celebrity appearance at an event organised by ambitious yakuza Shimakura (Cheng Wei), also on the same plane. Zhu Fulong and Yuji are met at Tokyo airport by chief inspector Endo (Takenaka Naoto) and interpreter Maggie (Zhan Qiqing), a Chinese student in Japan; but at a rest stop en route to the city Yuji is kidnapped, with the connivance of Endo, who’s in Shimakura’s pocket. Zhu Fulong promises Huang Secheng he’ll find Yuji, and the latter assigns his old pal Xiaosa (Wang Jing), a former Hong Kong cop who’s been in Japan for more than a decade, to help him. In Chinatown that night Xiaosa goes to the rescue of a hotpot restaurateuse (Mao Shunyun) he’s always been fond of when she’s bullied by local gangsters for protection money, and Zhu Fulong, unable to resist a fight, joins in. Yuji is being held captive by Shimakura as he has incriminating evidence of the latter’s drug-dealing recorded on his mobile phone, which has gone missing. When Yuji’s body is later fished out of Tokyo Bay, Endo insists it was suicide; but Zhu Fulong, who is already supicious of Endo, doesn’t think so and sets out to prove it.

REVIEW

Not so much a remake, more a simple title steal, Enter the Fat Dragon 肥龙过江 is a fat-suit outing for martial-arts star Zhen Zidan 甄子丹 [Donnie Yen] whose plot has no connection with the 1978 Hong Jinbao 洪金宝 [Sammo Hung] movie apart from having a hero who takes a trip and likes beating up baddies. In this case, it’s lots and lots of yakuza in Japan, after our tubby hero – a Hong Kong Special Task Force member who’s been dumped by his girlfriend, relegated to a backroom job after a messy operation, and doubled his weight on junk food – is given a second chance by escorting a Japanese whistleblower to Tokyo – where he promptly loses him. It’s a potent re-teaming for Zhen with Hong Kong’s one-man-film-industry Wang Jing 王晶 [Wong Jing] after their terrific retro-pulp exercise Chasing the Dragon 追龙 (2017), and also fits with the 56-year-old star’s very gradual move away from purely action roles.

The film opened theatrically in Hong Kong on 23 Jan as a CNY attraction and was originally due to be released in the Mainland on Valentine’s Day, 14 Feb (see poster, left). However, due to the continuing shutdown of cinemas there due to the coronavirus, it was released directly online on 1 Feb, via video-sharing platforms iQiyi and Tencent QQ, following a similar (and ground-breaking) move by CNY comedy Lost in Russia 囧妈 a week earlier.

Despite the name on the can of Japanese action director Tanigaki Kenji 谷垣健治, it’s clear from the start – as the famous theme by Hong Kong composer Gu Jiahui 顾嘉辉 [Joseph Koo] to Enter the Dragon 猛龙过江 (1973) pounds out over the action titles – that the viewer is in producer Wang Jing territory, an entertaining mish-mash of comic retro nods with half the Hong Kong industry in cameo roles. During the past quarter-century, Tanigaki, 49, has worked on a notable collection of action movies in both Japan (the Rurouni Kenshin るろうに剣心 franchise, 2012-  ) and Greater China (Bodyguards and Assassins 十月围城, 2009; Wu Xia 武侠, 2011; Monster Hunt 2 捉 记2, 2018; Hidden Man 邪不压正, 2018), as well as the Zhen-directed Ballistic Kiss 杀杀人，跳跳舞 (1998). Wang’s favourite “associate director”, veteran Zhang Min 张敏 [Aman Chang], is on hand to steer the ship, and both of Wang’s co-writers, Lv Guannan 吕冠南 and Chen Jianhong 陈健鸿, previously worked on Chasing the Dragon II: Wild Wild Bunch 追龙II 贼王 (2019).

Like CTDII, Fat Dragon is entertaining but largely formulaic, coming alive in the whiplash action sequences (the bank-robbery chase, Chinatown punch-up, and terrific Tokyo Tower finale) as well as the comic chemistry between Zhen and Wang himself, the latter as a slobby Overseas Chinese). Unlike Mainland action-comedy Fat Buddies 胖子行动队 (2018), also largely set in Japan, the film doesn’t derive a lot of its comedy from the sheer size of the main character, a martial arts whizz who’s recently drowned his sorrows in junk food. For a start, he’s not that fat compared with the characters of Bao Bei’er 包贝尔 and Wen Zhang 文章 in Buddies, and second, his weight isn’t an impediment once the action starts. With subtle rather than gross facial prosthetics, plus geeky glasses, Zhen consistently underplays the fattie jokes in favour of a more believable character.

It’s when there’s no action, or typically lowbrow humour – everything from fart jokes to Zhen and Wang wrestling with a stuffed dog – that the film drags a little, especially in the relationship between Zhen’s cop and his high-maintenance actress girlfriend, played by Zhou Liqi 周丽淇 [Niki Chow], 40, at full throttle. It’s okay when the pair are spatting but the writers can’t seem to make their quieter moments equally interesting, and the same could almost be said for the role of veteran Mao Shunyun 毛舜筠 [Teresa Mo], 60 but looking 40, as an expat restaurateuse, rescued only by the veteran actress’ sheer experience. Most consistent playing on the female side comes from a relative newcomer, US-born Zhan Qiqing 湛琪清 [Jessica Jann], 30, as a perky interpreter whose role could profitably have been expanded. Among the rest of the cast, Hong Kong character actor Zhang Jicong 张继聪 (so good as the light relief in P Storm P风暴, 2019) is solid as the Special Task Force boss back home; US-born martial artist/dancer Joey Iwanaga 丞威, 25, tautly evil as the young yakuza villain; and 15-year-old Mainland taikwondo star Lin Qiunan 林秋楠 (from Zhen’s action vehicle Big Brother 大师兄, 2018) has some agile and likeable moments.

Key crew are quality all the way, from the costume design and styling, through the punchy editing by Li Jiarong 李嘉荣 (CTDII), to the widescreen photography by Japan’s Ishizaka Takuro 石坂拓郎 (Rurouni Kenshin; God of War 荡寇风云, 2017; ManHunt 追捕, 2017) and Hong Kong’s versatile Feng Yuanwen 冯远文 [Edmond Fung] (The Captain 中国机长, 2019). Of especial note is the huge Chinatown set by Li Jianwei 李健威 (Monster Hunt 2), which brings its own retro flavour to the sequences set there.

CREDITS

Presented by Shanghai Bona Culture & Media (CN), Mega-Vision Project Workshop (HK), Bona Film Group (CN). Produced by Super Bullet Pictures (HK), Mega-Vision Project Production (HK).

Script: Wang Jing [Wong Jing], Lv Guannan, Chen Jianhong. Photography: Ishizaka Takuro, Feng Yuanwen [Edmond Fung]. Editing: Li Jiarong. Music: Chen Guangrong [Comfort Chan], Chen Yongjian. Main theme: Gu Jiahui [Joseph Koo]. Art direction: Li Jianwei. Costume design: Li Bijun [Lee Pik-kwan], Ouyang Xia [Connie Auyeung]. Styling: Xi Zhongwen [Yee Chung-man]. Sound: Li Yaoqiang. Action: Ouchi Takahito, Yan Hua, Yu Kang. Visual effects: Li Hongfeng, Xu Debiao (Free-D Workshop).

Cast: Zhen Zidan [Donnie Yen] (Zhu Fulong/Fallon), Mao Shunyun [Teresa Mo] (hotpot restaurateuse), Zhou Liqi [Niki Chow] (Song Ke’er/Chloe), Wang Jing [Wong Jing] (Xiaosa/Thor), Zhan Qiqing [Jessica Jann] (Maggie), Lin Qiunan (Xiaohu), Zhang Jicong (Huang Secheng, Zhu Fulong’s boss), Takenaka Naoto (Endo, Tokyo police chief inspector), Cheng Wei [Joey Iwanaga/Joey Tee] (Shimakura), Watanabe Tetsu (Grandfather, yakuza clan boss), Wang Zulan (Huang Yangnao, traffic warden), Zhan Ruiwen [Jim Chim] (bank manager), Chen You [Anthony Chan] (Hong Kong police commissioner), Wu Yunlong [Philip Ng] (Jack), Lin Xiaofeng [Jerry Lamb], Zhou Junwei [Lawrence Chou] (police officers), Lin Shengbin, Tai Chen [Zhai Kaitai] (reporters), Hayama Hiro (Yuji, film director), Yan Hua, Yu Kang, Feng Mianheng.

Release: Hong Kong, 23 Jan 2020; China, 1 Feb 2020 (online).