Enter the Fat Dragon (2020) [Blu Ray Review]

At one point, in early 2020, the new version of Enter the Fat Dragon looked to be one of the more exciting and intriguing releases of the year. Now that most of the theatrical system has been completely stripped of life, it may be one of the few releases that the US sees from the normally booming Chinese market. Still, it’s always a welcome addition to the collection when a Donnie Yen film hits Blu Ray and any fan of the actor will want to add this one to theirs.

While you can read my full review for the film HERE, the gist of it remains the same: Enter the Fat Dragon is a highly entertaining action comedy that blends modern effects with old school slapstick martial arts set-pieces. Granted, it’s a film that’s not for everyone as the comedy is very broad with plenty of pop culture references and outlandishly convoluted set ups, but the action is so blissfully fun that it powers through the more tentative narrative and character elements that can bog down the plot. It’s hardly a perfect film, but there is a lot of heart, humor, and high-flying kicks to keep most martial arts fans amused.

The latest Blu Ray release for the film, courtesy of our friends over at Well Go USA is a slick a fantastic addition to the collection. The film doesn’t have any special features outside of some trailers, but the fantastic picture and sound quality on the Blu – for a film with plenty of big visuals like its finale, it’s the best way to experience the film. If you don’t have a Blu Ray player, there is a DVD version available too.

Enter the Fat Dragon is out now from Well Go USA.

Written By Matt Reifschneider

Ne Zha (2019) [Blu Ray]

One of the big surprises of the last year in theaters was Ne Zha, China’s big blockbuster animated film, which came out to some serious money in theaters. Not only did it make a massive splash overseas, but it ended up garnering quite the theatrical run in the US too. The main reason for its success is how confident and well-executed it is as a film. Ne Zha is a wild, colorful, and full immersive animated experience, brimming with family-style humor and yet slathered in traditional Chinese fantasy and littered with incredibly well-executed action set pieces. If you want more, please feel free to read through my full review of the film from last here HERE.

The purpose of this update is not to necessarily rehash the quality of the film, but to let our readers know that it’s now available to own. Ne Zha is available on multiple formats via Well Go USA. Each of the releases is focused solely on the film itself and it features both dubbed and subbed versions of the film for those who want the choice (subbed is my preferred method, but people love them dubs). For those looking for a slew of special features, then this isn’t necessarily the release for that – but the film itself is easily worth the purchase. Considering the visual style of the film, the higher the resolution than the higher the recommendation. The visual and audio focused cinephile will not complain about the quality that is on display here. This is one that is getting the UHD 4K quality release too – which includes the superior artwork anyway in my opinion.

Although Ne Zha doesn’t feature a lot of extras, the quality of the releases are fantastic. The film is worth checking out just to see the beginning of an obvious new age of Chinese animation (and its own franchise) so it comes highly recommended.

Written By Matt Reifschneider

The Swindlers (2017) and The Island (2018) - BLU RAY REVIEW

THE SWINDLERS (2017)

The Swindlers was a film that took a little while to finally drop on Blu Ray. Blood Brothers originally ran a review for its theatrical release back in 2017. This is rather unfortunate because The Swindlers is a fun movie. It’s out there. It’s silly. It’s a popcorn flick that South Korea loves to make about charming characters doing outrageous things in a plot that is more inspired by Hollywood than anything else. Its charms do tend to wear off when the plot relentlessly pummels its audience with twists and turns that rarely make sense. The Swindlers hopes that its viewers are willing to take things with a grain of salt as the story unravels and that they not worry too much about the detailing or potential plot holes that arise. It does have a lot of fun set pieces and characters though which makes it entertaining enough for people who enjoy films like Mission: Impossible. For a more in-depth analysis of the film, please see our full review HERE.

Unfortunately, the latest Blu Ray release of The Swindlers doesn’t have any special features on it to speak of to entice viewers. The film itself, like most releases from Well Go USA, is presented impressively with great audio and visual aspects that will keep Korean movie fans happy. There is a slick Hollywood flair to it that is helped by the Blu Ray high definition which is how I would suggest watching the film, but overall the release itself isn’t spectacular. For those Korean movie fans though, it’s nice that The Swindlers did finally get that home video release and if you enjoy entertaining con man/heist mystery action flicks, it comes recommended. Plus, the release itself gets some brownie points for featuring a pull quote from our review on the cover artwork.

You can order your copy of The Swindlers at Amazon atthis link.

BLU RAY DISC RATING:

THE ISLAND (2018)

Of many of the recent films that Well Go USA has licensed for distribution in the United States, The Island was one that I was perhaps most excited to add to my collection. Although all of the writers here at BB tend to be franchise fools, The Island not only garnered some great word of mouth from critics, but the film looked like it was going to have tons of re-watchability. I can now verify this. The Island is a fantastic genre spinning film. It’s a wild mix of drama, comedy, adventure, romance, and whatever else director Huang Bo wanted to throw into the stew is just a strange and impressive concoction. It has strong visuals, great performances, varieties of style, and – like our previous review of the film for its theatrical release said (which you can read HERE) it deserves the love.

Despite some fantastic new artwork to grace the recently released Blu Ray of the film which does weirdly embrace the somewhat fantastical adventure tones of the film, the Blu Ray itself is not nearly as adventurous. Like the other portion of this review, this latest release is a movie only kind of release. That’s okay though. It might have been fun to have something to dig into the behind-the-scenes or conception of The Island, but the film itself is layered enough that it deserves a purchase to watch and tease out all of the great material here.

You can order your copy of The Island at Amazon at this link.

BLU RAY DISC RATING:

Mojin: The Worm Valley (2019) - BLU RAY REVIEW

The first Mojin film was a surprise to me. It was fun, it was a dynamic mixture of genres, and the chemistry of its cast carried it through some of the rough patches of the script. The sequel, Mojin: The Worm Valley, was less than impressive. Although I will not spend nearly as much time digging into the film for this brief update (you can read my thoughts on it in full HERE) it should be mentioned that I went in with high hopes, only to find some disappointment in the resulting film.

Now that Mojin: The Worm Valley has dropped on Blu Ray; it was worth taking another gander at it. Fortunately, with tempered expectations, it’s easier to enjoy what The Worm Valley has to offer is popcorn fantasy-driven adventure entertainment. The blend of genres isn’t quite as smooth and re-casting the film strips it of much of its chemistry, but some of the unintentional humor makes for a fun watch that I was willing to give the benefit of the doubt on a second viewing. The Blu Ray release itself is a barebones one in terms of features. It just features the film itself, presented in Mandarin with English subtitles, and no special features. In a distribution world where foreign films rarely get US releases, thanks to a general audience that refuses to support films that are not in English, it’s nice for fans of the source material or those with an open mind to be able to add this to their collection. In particular, I'm a franchise guy and having this side by side with the original gives me joy, even fi the film isn't one of my favorites. The picture, sound, and execution of the film on Blu is worthy of seeing it on Blu instead of DVD (The Worm Valley is special effects and spectacle heavy – even if the CGI itself in the film is spotty) and for that, it gets a recommendation.

You can order your copy of Mojin: The Worm Valley at Amazon. 

BLU RAY DISC RATING: