After starring in Wen Zhang’s directing debut, the passable romantic comedy When Larry met Mary, Bao Bei’er co-stars with Wen in his own directing debut, Fat Buddies, which – much like the former film – did solid but unremarkable business at the Chinese box-office. Coincidentally, it is one of two Japan-set fatsuit action comedies produced the same year in China, the other being Donnie Yen and Wong Jing’s Enter the Fat Dragon. Bao plays Hao Jingyun (an amusing game on words that sounds like he’s saying “Hello, handsome” every time he states his name to someone), a security guard at a Tokyo hospital who, having been obese most of his life, has learned to roll with the constant jokes about his weight, and at least has the love of his unfathomably attractive wife (Clara Lee). One day, Hao meets someone even fatter: J (Wen Zhang), a 150 kg reluctant patient of the hospital who says he’s on a mission to stop a drug kingpin masquerading as a philanthropist (Guo Jingfei). Sensing a kinship, Hao decides to follow J on his mission, despite the latter’s insistence on going it alone.
Asian Film Strike 