Fat Buddies
胖子行动队
China, 2018, colour, 2.35:1, 108 mins.
Directors: Bao Bei’er 包贝尔, Qin Xiaozhen 秦小珍 [Janet Chun].
Rating: 8/10.
Fattie action-comedy is slickly tooled and well paced, with impeccable comic timing by its two stars.
STORY
Northern Kanto, north of Tokyo, the present day. Hao Yingjun (Bao Bei’er), a 33-year-old Chinese, weighs 145 kilos and works as a security guard at Northern Kanto General Hospital, where his Japanese workmates make fun of him. One day he meets someone even fatter than himself – a 150-kilo patient who is arrested for trying to leave without paying his ¥2 million hospital bill. The man, who’s also Chinese, claims to be a super-spy and goes under the name “J” (Wen Zhang). Hao Yingjun helps him to escape from the hospital and takes him home to meet his wife, a young Japanese called Kin Shiyurin (Yi Seong-min) who works as a nurse at the same hospital. J is entranced by her and can’t believe Hao Yingjun has such a beautiful wife. Hao Yingjun then accompanies him on a mission – to infiltrate a lavish party thrown by Chinese property magnate-cum-philanthropist Ma Tianyou (Guo Jingfei) who is also a big-time drug-dealer. After finally getting inside the villa – disguised as a man and a woman – they discover Ma Tianyou’s vault stuffed with money and only just manage to escape the clutches of his enforcers led by Chu Xia (Lamuyangzi) and K (Zeng Yijun). After torturing the address out of another of his enforcers, F (Xu Juncong), Hao Yingjun and J penetrate Ma Tianyou’s drug factory in Taito ward, central Tokyo. They are captured by Chu Xia but manage to escape and turn themselves into the police. After ending up in the same cell as some Japanese gangsters they encountered at the hospital, they escape when the wife (Ueda Kana) of the gang leader (Kohata Ryu) demolishes the cell wall. After Hao Yingjun learns that J is not a super-spy but just a parcel courier named Jia Jianjun who arrived in Japan three days ago, J suggests they split up. Hao Yingjun is sad to lose his new friend but has no choice. However, the truth about J is somewhat different.
REVIEW
It would be easy to be sniffy about Fat Buddies 胖子行动队, as just a vanity action-comedy for two Mainland stars in fat suits; but it actually does what it sets out to do rather well. The whole production, set in Japan, is super-slick; the “fat” effects are so seamless that one forgets there are slim men inside, let alone two well-known actors; and the physical jokes are well calibrated without becoming too pantomime-y. Most of all, the two leads, baby-faced Bao Bei’er 包贝尔 (making his directing debut) and Wen Zhang 文章 (already a director, with rom-com When Larry Met Mary 陆垚知马俐, 2016, in which Bao starred), show impeccable chemistry and comic timing. Thanks to their reined-in playing, the film would be almost as funny if the leads weren’t in fat suits – surely the acid test for any goofy comedy. In the Mainland it took a solid but not starry RMB261 million.
Bao has sensibly surrounded himself with proven talent. Though entirely Mainland financed, the film has a strong Hong Kong contingent behind the camera, all with experience in large-scale productions – producers Li Jinwen 李锦文 and Kuang Wenwei 邝文伟 [Abe Kwong], DPs Chen Zhiying 陈志英 (Firestorm 风暴, 2013) and Cao Wanqiang 曹万强 (From Vegas to Macau 赌城风云, 2014), editor Chen Zhiwei 陈志伟 [Andy Chan], costume designer Luo Peisha 罗珮莎 (whose work here, especially on the leads’ ill-fitting suits, is remarkable), stylist Zhang Shijie 张世杰 [Stanley Cheung], and especially co-director Qin Xiaozhen 秦小珍 [Janet Chun], a former assistant director who’s been more successful as a co-director (La Lingerie 内衣少女, 2008; The Four 四大名捕, 2012; the All’s Well, Ends Well series) than on her own (The Jade and the Pearl 翡翠明珠, 2010; Les Aventures d’Anthony 陪安东尼度过漫长岁月, 2015). The result is extremely well-tooled and, though the writers and cast are dominated by Mainlanders, the movie has no dominant cultural identity, partly due to its Japan-set plot, and partly due to the lack of Mainland-specific dialogue.
The plot, too, is pure knockabout: a happy Chinese fattie (Bao) who lives in Japan meets an even bigger Chinese fattie (Wen) who may or may not be a super-agent, and the pair become entangled in a drug-busting operation that keeps on going wrong. The running jokes, mostly centred on Wen’s character, are nicely deployed: he’s always getting stuck (in windows, cars, tunnels) and, because of his weight, keeps falling asleep on the job. Bao, who’s much less of a leading man than Wen, happily yields his co-star the limelight; but both under- rather than over-play their roles, with much of the comedy coming from looks and dialogue rather than pratfalls. Wen is especially good at making the most from the least.
The pacing dips a little in the middle, with a soft 10-minute section which skirts sogginess, but even this is used to explain the background of Wen’s character as well as the (unlikely) relationship between Bao’s podgy security guard and his beautiful Japanese wife (Swiss-born Korean actress-model Yi Seong-min 이성민 | 李成敏 [Clara Lee], the dream woman in rom-com Some Like It Hot 情圣, 2016, and female lead in The Jade Pendant 唐人街1871, 2017). Yi’s role could have done with more development but at least it makes some kind of sense by the end.
Other supporting roles are fine: veteran Kurata Yasuaki 仓田保昭 (surely the busiest Japanese actor in Chinese cinema) as a ranting hospital head, an unrecognisable Guo Jingfei 郭京飞 as the villain who’s so paranoid about being overheard that he doesn’t even finish his sentences, Inner Mongolian comedienne Lamuyangzi 辣目洋子 (aka Li Jiaqi 李嘉琦), as a poker-faced enemy agent, and character actor Xu Juncong 许君聪 as an incompetent enforcer. True to the genre being spoofed, actress Song Jia 宋佳 (aka Xiao Song Jia 小宋佳), is held back till the finale as the villain’s deadly female enforcer.
Both Qin and Bao get separate “director” cards in the main titles, with Bao’s the final one. The film’s Chinese title (“Fattie Action Team”) plays up the action side rather than the buddy one. For the record, the last Mainland “fattie” film, modest comedy-drama The Light 减法人生 (2016), with TV actress Xu Lu 徐璐 in a fat suit, grossed almost zero at the Mainland box office.
CREDITS
Presented by Beijing Magilm Media Share Holding (CN), Haining Hippo Film (CN), Horgos United Entertainment Partners Culture and Media (CN), Er Dong Pictures (CN), Huayi Brothers Film (CN), Shanghai Bao Bei’er Film & TV Culture Workshop (CN), Wanda Media (CN), Yung Park Evergreen Investment Management (Tianjin) (CN). Produced by Beijing Magilm Media Share Holding (CN), Haining Hippo Film (CN).
Script: Haining Hippo Film Creative Research & Development Centre, Zhang Peng, Liu Zhilin. Photography: Chen Zhiying, Cao Wanqiang. Editing: Chen Zhiwei [Andy Chan]. Music: Hwang Sang-jun. Art direction: Li Jieyu. Costume design: Luo Peisha. Styling: Zhang Shijie [Stanley Cheung]. Sound: Feng Jun, Nopawat Likitwong. Action: Qin Pengfei. Special make-up: Xiao Jin. Visual effects: Xu Jian (More VFX).
Cast: Wen Zhang (Jia Jianjun/J), Bao Bei’er (Hao Yingjun), Yi Seong-min [Clara Lee] (Kin Shiyurin), Xu Juncong (F), Zeng Yijun (K), Zhang Menglu (C), Kurata Yasuaki (hospital head), Kohata Ryu (gang leader), Qi Yuwu (Qin, policeman from Singapore), Ueda Kana (Kumiko, gang leader’s wife), Wen Jun [Manfred Wong] (short man at party), Song Jia (Mai Tianyou’s swordswoman), Lamuyangzi [Li Jiaqi] (Chu Xia), Guo Jingfei (Mai Tianyou), Chen Zuoshen (gang member), Jia Ling (beach beauty, J’s first love), Wu Guodai (drugs gang boss).
Release: China, 30 Sep 2018.