Sammo Hung possesses a little cinematic party trick. Every now and again (see “Millionaire's Express” and “Skinny Tiger, Fatty Dragon”), he throws in his Bruce Lee impression. Appearing in “Enter the Dragon” and “Game of Death” saw him in both the legitimate and exploitation sides of the little master canon. With “Enter the Fat Dragon”, we get a whole vehicle based on it. Not to be confused with the Donnie Yen version, this is very much in Bruceploitation territory.
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Lung (Sammo Hung) is a pig farmer and a devoted Bruce Lee fan. He is sent to the city to earn a living working at his uncle's (Fung Fung) restaurant, but when he arrives, he finds a gang of thugs causing trouble in the restaurant. He takes the chance to prove himself and attacks the thugs, defeating them and saving the restaurant. Soon, he becomes a waiter, and discovers a plot by the same thugs to kidnap a woman he works with, headed by Professor Bai (Peter Yang).
Playing on the “Way of the Dragon” story, the opening scenes set Lung as a naive country pig farmer traveling to Hong Kong. The fish out of water comedy is broadly played and like many of the comedy kung fu genre, subtlety is not its strong point. Regular comedy actors of the time such as Fung Fung appear alongside the usual support crew of martial artists and early appearances from soon to be bigger names. Keep your eyes peeled for Eric Tsang, Mang Hoi, Yuen Biao and Lam Ching-yin in virtually blink-and-you'll-miss-them parts.
It might be surprising to read but Sammo Hung is probably one of the best if not the best Bruce Lee imitators. Disregard his build and focus instead on the facial mannerisms, that unlike the other “clones” he doesn't have to hide behind camera angles as is not trying to pretend to be Bruce Lee and instead homaging the legendary figure. As a martial artist, Sammo's incredible talent also allows him to capture the style too.
Let's get the elephant in the room out of the way now. One of Professor Bai's henchmen is a parody of Blaxpoitation cinema. Unfortunately this is played by an individual blacked up and playing the role far beyond stereotype. Nowadays this would never happen and am aware this will prove offensive. This element is a feature of its time and is a weakness in Hong Kong comedy that still occured into the 80's.
The rest of the humour is standard low brow. Bai is the usual letch that appears to have been stolen performance wise from the Dean Shek school of over acting in a comedy! The sequences stand and fall on your comedy taste pallette. For me, they were a bit grating but there is always an action scene several minutes later to rescue it from sliding into boredom.
As always any work of Sammo Hung will feature top notch choreography when he is overseeing it. When others are trying to impersonate Bruce Lee's style, it stifles them and doesn't look fluid in the movement, despite having genuine skill. The constraints imposed result in them appearing a cheap knock off. Sammo Hung gets to show his whole range with weapons as well as various martial styles. The scene with Lung destroying the Bruce Lee impersonator and stunt crew is perhaps one of the most meta sequences in Hong Kong cinema. The star of a Bruce Lee exploitation movie being beat up by a man impersonating Bruce Lee in what is to all purposes a Bruce Lee exploitation movie!
Yet watch the scene closely as it's deconstructing the whole nature of this sub genre. The “clone” is a poor imitation. Clearly shown as unworthy of his place as a star. The exaggerated mannerisms are almost laughable and Sammo proceeds to wipe them out whist the filmmakers record the action. There is a sense that these pictures are disrespectful to the memory of Bruce Lee and put in their place. Throughout, we get riffs on the original Bruce Lee features, with the choreography closely matching certain moments in the fight scenes.
The final reel facinatingly sees Lung use the Bruce Lee stylings to defeat the two Gwaillo before reverting to a more traditional style to take on Leung Kar Yan . It is rather surprising but makes for an interesting conclusion as it gives a bit more variety after 90 minutes of impersonation.
“Enter the Fat Dragon” is one of the best Bruceploitation movies, even though that is not exactly a high bar. Sammo Hung elevates proceedings with his comical and action skills. Unfortunately, the rather dull comedy and awkward racism dilute the overall impact. Worth watching as a product of its time, but not the classic it could have been.
