Enter the Fat Dragon
Director: Sammo Hung
Year: 1977
Rating: 7.0
By the time Sammo Hung directed his first
film Iron-Fisted Monk in 1977, he had paid his dues in the Hong Kong film
industry. He had been involved since the 1960s in small parts or as a stuntman.
In most of his acting roles he showed up to fight and be killed. But the
roles got larger, the fights longer and he wasn't always dead by the end
of the film. But it was his emergence as an action choreographer that led
to his getting the opportunity to direct. It also helped that Golden Harvest
was looking for talent in front of and behind the camera. Sammo could do
both. During this time, he was also gathering a cadre of martial artists
and stunt men that he would continuously use in his films.
This is his second film as director and
as the title implies, it is a sweet tribute to Bruce Lee. Bruce Lee mania
was still strong in Hong Kong and there were many imitators. Sammo takes
a different tack with this one. He plays a pig farmer who has practiced his
kung-fu on his very large pigs, but he idolizes Lee and fantasizes that he
can fight like him. He copies many of his mannerisms. Sammo was friends with
Lee and the story goes that when Sammo first met him, he challenged Lee to
see how fast he was. Later Sammo said, he was fast, very fast. Then in Enter
the Dragon, he gets to be Lee's first match and gets beat up. Now, in this
generally lighthearted and comedic film, he pays homage to Lee.
It is I suppose a kung fu comedy, a genre
I generally despise, but thankfully this is more situational and character
driven than goofy faces and pratfalls. And the action is plentiful and terrific.
It was made for the Cantonese market with lots of street shooting and working
class characters. It looks very different than the Shaw films being produced
at the same time. Some of the comedy works and some feels a little long in
the tooth as Sammo sticks with certain comic scenes too long such as damaging
the car or the Professor fantasizing about a woman. It is also somewhat episodic
and choppy. Sammo was still learning his craft.
Sammo leaves his pigs in the country to
work for his uncle in Hong Kong. The uncle (famous character actor Fung Fung)
runs a small restaurant, sharing the space with another restaurant run by
Meg Lam. Sammo is a complete yokel, unable to do anything right except fight.
Any reason at all and he will jump into a brawl. Clearly, pig training is
very good because he clobbers everyone. The punks who refuse to pay the bill
get demolished - among them Yuen Biao, Mang Hoi, Chung Fat and Billy Chan.
Then there are the thugs under Roy
Chiao headed by Fung Hak-on and finally the three bodyguards of the Professor
(Peter Yang Kwan) that he fights individually - Lee Hoi-sang (in black face),
a Gweilo and Leung Kar-yan. All three fights are excellent with the one with
Leung really standing out. Almost all these folks would become regulars
in his films. Sammo was still finding his way both in directing and acting.
He was also creating the easy going genial character he was to be in many
of his films. A long way from the villains he had played so many times. He
was only 26- years old and in truth not really fat. Yet.
