Customer Reviews

Enter the Fat Dragon

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(7)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Indeed a guilty pleasure! One of Sammo's greatest(and unjustly forgotten) films, Enter The Fat Dragon stars Hung as a pig farmer obsessed with his "hero" Bruce Lee and who spends most of his time getting into trouble and hamming it up(get it? Pig farmer... ham? Sorry, that's the last one I promise) while doing it. Rarely has Sammo been able to balance action with comedy so flawlessly. Don't get me wrong, I'm an enormous Sammo(get it? Enormous... Sammo? He's fat people, and THAT is the last one... I hope) fan but... we all know that he nearly always brings great action, but his comedy? It doesn't always work so well, I mean there have been moments in his other movies but nothing like this, which plays out ridiculous scenario one right after the other that actually provide laughs... and when all else fails, he resorts to mimicking Bruce Lee in uncanny and amusing fashion(sure to induce smiles EVERYtime). Now obviously my 5 star rating will be more than a little skewed for most. I mean, can the movie really stack up to other so-called cinematic "classics" such as ET, The Godfather, or Citizen Kane? The answer is "hell yes!" Well, for fans of Kung Fu and Sammo Hung at least... Sammo using Jeet Kune Do on a herd of unruly swine, Hoi San Lee(36th Chamber Of Shaolin, Last Hurrah For Chivalry, Twin Warriors) painted black and sporting an afro and puffy purple shirt as an African American fighter(not the most PC thing ever... but bizarre and must-see to be sure), and my personal favorite scene featuring Sammo breaking up the filming of a Bruceploitation film by taking on the main imitator and his entire entourage(in a matchup featuring plenty of Lee's trademark howls and posturing). This film comes highly recommended for fans of classic martial arts mayhem or even those with any passing interest in this films star OR the man he obviously greatly admired. As for the DVD from Crash Masters? It's complete garbage unfortunately, with an awful print of the film and subtitles that are so small and light in color that they become near illegible oftentimes(and even when you can see them, they rarely read right... like the word "is" whenever "have" should be used), also no dubbed track is available here either. An extremely poor, bare-bones release for a film worthy of far more... hopefully someday it will get the release, and viewing public, that it rightly deserves.

Good gracious! A 70's Hong Kong martial arts film available in widescreen?! Let's hope it's a trend! While the movie is probably worth three stars, I have to tack on one more for the widescreen presentation.

A loving parody of Bruce Lee and his fans, this 1978 film follows the trivails of a young man who idolizes Bruce, and comes to the city in order to help his uncle run his food stand. Bad guys try to muscle their way to a free lunch, and Sammo makes them pay the check.

Then his girlfriend is kidnapped because she reminds a clownish rich bad guy of the only woman to turn him down. Enter three more bad dudes on the rich guy's payroll. One is a karate expert, and another is a redneck kickboxer. Most laughable is the "black" fighter, who's really an Asian gentleman with really bad make-up (complete with an afro that looks like a beehive hairdoo wig from the 50's, 70's sideburns, and blazing red bellbottoms). Obviously a parody of Jim Kelly in "Enter the Dragon, the guy is sheer rediculousness incarnate.

Sammo is amazing, transforming from overweight buffoon to kung fu king with just a few quick motions. The idea, as far as I can tell, was to recreate some of the actual fights from Bruce Lee's films. If so, they appear seamless. Best fight scene other than the climax would have to be Sammo taking on a Bruce Lee impersonator and his movie stunt crew. Then, in the climax, Sammo uses found-objects in a warehouse to combat the three enforcers, much like Jackie Chan does in his films. Overall, this 1978 effort is most easily described as Jackie Chan-lite, and as such, gives the viewer an hour and a half of light martial arts comedy.

For those like myself, not really steeped in Bruce Lee lore, the movie is at the very least a fun time with a young Sammo battling bad guys. Despite all the kung fu action, the film is totally harmless if you want to give a copy to the kids. Nobody really gets hurt all that much, and they'll find the slapstick and kung-fu comedy enjoyable.

As the title suggests, Sammo once again shows the self-mockery that he's well known for. Naturally, this is part of his enormous charm. Unlike Hollywood's representation of the hero - who more often than not is handsome and nearly always gets the girl - , 80's Hong Kong cinema usually featured a hero with not much going for him and that wonderful innocence that has sadly gone. In 'Enter The Fat Dragon', Sammo is naivity personified, but is also blessed with extraordinary skill; his scene with the nunchukas is worth the price on it's own. The poor quality of the Dvd and the lack of remastered subtitles hinder the marks for this film, but if you want to see the real Sammo (not the watered-down Martial Law one), check this excellent cult-classic out

I went in to this movie in a Bad mood, but within five minutes into the movie he had me rolling with laughter! It is absolutely hilarious. however, you should be a Bruce Lee Fan to enjoy it to the fullest.

This movie is simultaneously a tribute to Bruce Lee, and a scathing indictment of "Bruceploitation" flicks. Director Sammo Hung plays a pig farmer, obsessed with Bruce Lee, who goes to the big city to help his uncle run a tiny outdoor restaurant. He immediately gets into trouble, helping out a co-worker with some thugs. Things pretty much just escalate from there. The more Sammo tries to lend a hand to the folks around him, the more things go crazy. I'm reminded of the irony in the mid-90's cartoon "Eek the Cat", whose main character's slogan, "it never hurts to help" always did.

The fights are a lot of fun and occur frequently. Sammo does his best to imitate the movements, noises, and facial expressions of Lee rather humorously, and without insulting his memory. This flick is full of comedy, and while most of it's not hilarious, it's not painful either. You likely won't crack-up, but you may just crack a smile. Lee Hoi San, doing his best "Al Jolson" in a giant afro, should produce a chuckle if you're not offended by it. You certainly shouldn't be.

Crash Cinema's DVD is nicely widescreened with decent picture quality, but has no dub, and subtitles that blend in with the background about 30% of the time. Honestly, it's not really that big of a deal. This movie is easy enough to follow. Some extras would've been nice, but I'm just happy to have finally seen it. The rating is up for debate. It's probably more along the lines of a 3.5, but this is one that I'd likely watch repeatedly, so "4" it is. I may even go so far as to say that Sammo Hung does a better Bruce Lee than anyone else, right down to the nunchaku. Recommended.

1978

Sammo Hung is amazing in this movie. The way he combines Bruce Lee's acting and fighting style with his own style is such a joy to watch. There's not much of a story here. Peter Yang plays a really weird guy who kidnaps a girl and Sammo has to save her. But Peter Yang has 3 tough fighters who Sammo needs to defeat in order to save th girl. Doesn't sound like much of a movie does it? Well, it's not. But the fighting is great and I don't ask for much more than that. Sammo uses a modern type fighting style the whole movie, and I love how he saves the only classic kung fu type fight for the finale. The comedy is decent at times, but the fights are what make this movie worth watching. It's a must see for Sammo fans. And not only is there Bruce Lee imitating going on, but also Jim Kelly. But couldn't they have found a black actor to play the Jim Kelly clone? What was Sammo thinking?

3.5/5

The picture quality on the Crash DVD is decent. Widescreen with subtitles that are readable about 80% of the time.

Terribly charming, that is. Sammo Hung portrays a starstruck Bruce Lee fan, imitating him down to the haircut and monkey-like shrieks. Otherwise a simple-minded man, he displays throughout the movie Bruce Lee-like fighting prowess which, coming from a man his size, is hilarious to behold. The storyline is crap, there's no two ways about it, but the content is what makes it great. The various stupid moments (Sammo trying to buy sunglasses that look like a Bruce Lee picture, the millionaire's "revenge" daydreams, any time Sammo goes into Bruce Lee mode, the terrible english, the Black-faced Asian) are incredibly corny and fun to watch.

Not only that, but the action scenes are actually decent. Normally I hate watching Bruce Lee's fight scenes, finding them FAR too contrived and silly, but Sammo manages to pull it off quite well. Maybe it's his funny and intense charisma, I don't know. Not only that, but Sammo even chooses to integrate some traditional Kung Fu fight scenes in the movie, bringing its worth in my eyes way up.

The movie harkens back to the days when heros were idealized and worshipped, something severely lacking in today's society, with the dirt sheets and Hollywood scandals appearing everywhere. Chuck Norris did a similar theme with Sidekicks, and ideal heros, unfortunately, has become a dying breed of people. Something that endears the movie to me is that there's little swearing and the violence is surprisingly non-violent. Sure there are kung fu punches and kicks and the like, but the reactions are always almost Loony Toon-ish in their reaction, the victims having huge and goofy-looking sores where they were hit. And other than a single sex joke at the beginning of the movie, it's surprisingly clean, resorting to slapstick and farce for it's humor.

So why am I giving it only three stars? Firstly, the movie quality is terrible in every aspect. It's easily seen that there was no budget for the movie (blackfaced Asian? What the hell?), although that definitely added to the campy silliness. Secondly, the video quality is horrible. The DVD claims to have it remastered, but it's incredibly grainy and looks antiquated, with even some marker markings showing up in some stills. The subtitles, as well, are pale and fuzzy white, making them really hard to see a lot of the time. Thank god the movie's plot is unimportant.

I bought the movie and was not dissapointed. There is a lot of good humor if you are into these HK movies. I was kind of dissapointed by Sammo's constant imitation of Bruce Lee. I felt that Sammo wasn't really expressing himself, which doesn't really give you any indication of Sammo's true character.

a classic film that makes fun of all the Brucexploitation in Chinese Cinema in the 70's and early 80's. The movie is very funny and is a well done spoof. The plot is very similar to Bruces Return of the Dragon - a young country boy traveling to the city to help out a restaurant and running into trouble with local gangster types. Sammos hero in the movie is Bruce Lee and he does a great job copying all of the moves(occasionally throwing in some of his own)and can pretty much whip everybody until he runs into three bodyguards - one white dude(an expert in boxing), one chinese dude(an expert in kung fu), and one black/chinese dude(an expert in karate) this is when the movie
steps up the martial arts - the final fight scenes are very well
done as well. A great addition to any kung fu movie collection and a must for any Sammo Hung fan.

Sammo may not look like Bruce Lee, but he sure does the best impression I've ever seen. Sammo holds his own with a few of Bruce Lee's famous moves mixed in with his own style of martial arts. At first this movie seems aged and low budget, but you soon forget that as the story develops and you see Sammo's skills come to life. It's a martial arts classic, a homage to Bruce and a must have for any fan of the genre.