Enter the Fat Dragon is the best martial art movie of 2020! The result of the past New Year’s Poll is clear and Donnie Yen is confirmed as the best movie martial artist of the year. Let’s review then the new masterpiece of the winning team Donnie Yen and the funny director Wong Jing.
Donnie and 2020
Donnie Yen has always been very open to new approaches, his martial art background and his different movie participation are proof of this. 2020 in fact was an important year for Donnie Yen, who fought the pandemic donating HK$1 million to the medical worker in Wuhan, while continuing working on his movies. Do not forget that the past year despite Enter the Fat Dragon, Donnie participates to the Disney big production Mulan as the Commander Tung and in Raging Fire, now in post-production.
The best martial art movie of 2020
As I introduce to you in the last New Year’s Poll post, Enter the Fat Dragon is more a reboot than a remake of the homonym Sammo Hung’s film of 1978, which parodied the famous Bruce Lee’s movie Enter the Dragon. Donnie Yen’s Enter the Fat Dragon is a completely new story that involves Hong Kong Police Force officer Fallon Zhu, an expert martial artist that becomes overweight after being posted to evidence room and struggling with emotional issues. Sent to Japan on a mission, Fallon Zhu (Donnie Yen) will deal with the Yakuza and redeem himself.
A young Donnie with 20 kg more
Donnie Yen as Fallon Zhu is more similar to his roles played in the milestones Kill Zone, Flash Point and Special ID, than in the internationally acclaimed role of Ip Man. A witness to that is the return of the character Jack, the main villain of Kill Zone, played however by the star Philip Ng and not by Wu Jing like in the movie of 2005. A pleasing treat that connects the movies in the same universe… Could be it a hint for the fourth chapter of Kill Zone series?
Donnie Yen fighting style in Enter the Fat Dragon recalls me a lot the movie Legend of the Fist: The Return of Chen Zhen, where the mixed martial artist tributes Bruce Lee playing his famous character. In Enter the Fat Dragon, the Bruce Lee tribute is less evident and the recall is not obvious, but it still has some references… Even if all is taken with much more frivolity and comedy, like in the old Jackie Chan’s movies, or better, more like the old Sammo Hung’s film.
The most catching element of the entire movie is in any case the protagonist, Fallon Zhu, that under that fat hides a true legend, Donnie Yen in every way. The funny character born in 2015 thanks to a TV commercial and becoming in the end not only the protagonist of the martial art movie of the year. Hoping to see a second part of the film in the future, congratulation to all the cast and the directors Kenji Tanigaki and Wong Jing then, Enter the Fat Dragon is the best martial art movie of 2020 deservedly.
Are you happy with the winner? If not which movie would you had picked?