Reviewed by: Beat TG Date: 03/16/2025 Summary: New WJ-Style Comedy + Great DY Action I'm not a fan of Wong Jing and his brand of comedy filmmaking. He has had a few great exceptions such as GOD OF GAMBLERS and its' 1994 sequel. Other than that, I have never got into his comedy style. It's overly goofy and zany for my tastes. That being said, this movie is nothing like his old comedy movies. It's something different, and quite relatable to any viewer. I think there's a good reason for that, and it's because of Donnie Yen's involvement as the lead actor, action director (the action scenes are credited to his stunt team), and co-producer. Simply put, Wong Jing handled the production's overall finances and let Donnie take total control over the creative process of everything. The result is actually refreshing, for once. At first glance, the movie seems ordinary with the story and the narrative. But I can't think of any recent Hong Kong movie of the same caliber as this one. The plot is basically about a cop (Donnie Yen) being regulated to a desk job and gaining tremendous weight -- hence the movie title -- from digesting too much junk food after a couple of misfortunes, including a failed case of catching a gang of robbers and breaking up with a long-time girlfriend (Niki Chow) who is a famous actress. But a chance from being stuck with the desk surfaces for the cop in form of escorting a Japanese criminal (Hiro Hayama) to Japan, only to fortunately face opposition from yakuza enforcers -- led by the ruthless Shimakura (Joey Tee) -- enabling the cop to go back to crime fighting using his MA prowess and win back the trust of his ex-girlfriend. Sounds cliched, right? Maybe but the movie makes use of creative ideas and approaches in selling the jokes and delivering certain scenes to great effect. All in all, the movie has a good mix of everything other than jokes that is branding it an action comedy. Donnie Yen -- known for playing serious roles -- excels greatly with the comedy, unsurprisingly. Donnie is no stranger to the comedy genre as he actually started out with comedy with his first movie as the lead actor in DRUNKEN TAI CHI. Other of his movies with heavy comedy elements includes the cult classic MISMATCHED COUPLES, TIGER CAGE 2, and the Michelle Yeoh-starrer WING CHUN. From there it took more 15 years before Donnie returned to comedies, especially after the mega success of IP MAN that catapulted his career to new heights unimaginable. Donnie starred in ALL'S WELL ENDS WELL 2011 and ALL'S WELL ENDS WELL 2012, complete without any of his trademark action scenes. Donnie then went on to star in THE MONKEY KING successfully portraying the titular character aka Sun Wukong. This movie further shows what he can do with comedy material if he's willing to try it out again, and if viewers are ready to accept him doing movies out of the comfort zone. Apart from Donnie, the movie is well supported by Wong Jing, Niki Chow, and Teresa Mo. Wong Jing is himself pretty much, apart from not being overly zany with his overall comic performance like his roles of the past. So it's quite different and satisfying seeing Wong do comedy naturally without exaggerating all over the place. Niki Chow, famous for her appearance-lenient roles, also puts a good performance as an actress who dumps Donnie the cop and ends up hooking up with Yakuza boyfriend Joey Tee going back and forth between both with very amusing effect. Then we have Teresa Mo, who is also known for appearing in comedies and can be very funny whenever she wants to be. Teresa Mo starred in 2004's PROTEGE DE LA ROSE NOIRE putting out a good funny performance (in an otherwise terrible movie). That movie happens to be directed by none other than Donnie Yen himself. So this is their second collaboration, with this movie marking the first time both are acting together onscreen. Remaining supporting actors such as Louis Cheung, Naota Takenaka, and Joey Tee also perform well with the overall acting and comedy scenes. As expected with Donnie Yen's movies, there's action scenes. Quite a lot of it, and it's great stuff. There's 4-5 major set-pieces in total, with sprinkles here and there. It's enough to keep viewers invested seeking their action-scene-fixes. There's a bit of wirework -- mainly for assisting certain maneuvers -- and CGI present -- for background and certain objects. Thankfully all of that is minimal and just a safety thing to complement the authentic fight choreography from all performers. Donnie -- despite wearing a suit, heavy make-up, and being doubled quite a bit for acrobatic and intricate moves -- is top-notch here proving that he still has it when it comes to contemporary fight choreography. Most of the time, you'll see Donnie taking on multiple assailants and it's just so much fun to see the ideas and execution behind every movement and technique being done. Which leaves us the grand finale with the main villain -- played by up-and-coming Japanese MA talent Joey Tee -- and his goons, which is the best set-piece in the movie imo. Empty hands, use of objects and objects being destroyed, stunts, weapons. This is variety at its' best, and no one today does it like Donnie does. Overall, I'll say that Donnie Yen's action choreography here outbeats KUNG FU JUNGLE by a large margin, and being slightly better than SPECIAL ID altogether -- thereby coming off more satisfactory. Kudos and applauds to everyone involved for the worthy efforts! Donnie Yen truly shows why he is still wearing the crown and keeping the martial arts action genre, in not only Hong Kong/China but as a whole, alive. Here's hoping that he has more years to keep going before his physicality eventually slows down. Rating: 7.5/10 Reviewer Score: 7

Reviewed by: MrBooth Date: 09/03/2022 A sweet, fun film with a big heart and excellent fight scenes. The film is basically nothing to do with the 1978 Sammo Hung film of the same name, other than showing Bruce Lee some love. Donnie doesn't even start the film fat, he only gains weight after being relegated to a desk job for showing too much enthusiasm as a beat cop. You might be expecting the rest of the film to be about him getting back in shape and regaining his confidence, but in fact the film largely ignores his weight - the message ultimately being that size doesn't matter, it's character that counts. The fight choreography is top tier, the fight that flows through and over the beautiful Tokyo street set in particular makes the film feel more like a classic Golden Harvest action comedy than anything else I can think of in recent years. It would have been nice if the film had paid more direct tribute to Sammo Hung for his role in creating that style. (the14amazons.co.uk/r30386-Enter_the_Fat_Dragon_2020) Reviewer Score: 8

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