Ji zhan

If you are an MMA or MA fan, you probably already have a list of favourites. Films like Bloodsport, Kiss of the Dragon, Undefeated 2.

Most well-known films in this category feature an escalating series of fights. The fights are usually the backbone of the film, so to speak.

A few entries try to build a solid backstory, and some even go so far as to make the backstory more important than the fight scenes.

In this last category I would include Blood and Bone, one of my all time faves, and highly recommended.

Unbeatable is in this category. It is mainly backstory with only occasional action. However where it differs from top contenders in this genre is that the fighting and the backstory-arc do not seem connected, they seem at odds. So, no matter how interesting the backstory is (and it is) and no matter how simpatico the characters are (and they are), this film never quite decides just where it is going or just how it is going to get there.

It is nonetheless very well written, very well acted and very well directed. And if you stick it through you will get a "feel good" life lesson as good as any in modern cinema.

Recommended.

Well that was the most pleasant surprise I've had watching a movie in a long time.

I had no idea what to expect in this MMA film. The trailer was fairly terrible but the reviews were great. Who to believe? Usually, it's the other way around - great trailer and terrible reviews. But I have a fascination with anything that sniffs of martial arts and bit the bullet.

Charming, funny, real life situations, nail biting fights (no idea if any of this stuff is actually possible but it looked good,) and a super cast.

The first five minutes had me a bit confused and then the movie became solid and was totally enjoyable.

Few actor-director collaborations in recent years have been as rewarding - and certainly none so in Hong Kong - as that between Nick Cheung and Dante Lam. Arguably one of the finest actors in the industry, Cheung's best roles of late have been as a tortured gun-for-hire in Lam's 'Beast Stalker' and as an equally agonised police detective in Lam's 'The Stool Pigeon'. And in Cheung, Lam has found a dexterous actor capable of portraying the kind of complex roles his male character-driven action dramas needed, fuelling a career resurgence that has cemented his status as one of the foremost directors in the territory.

It is with great pride that we proclaim their track record remains - for the lack of a better word - unbeatable with this third collaboration set in the world of competitive Mixed Martial Arts (MMA). On hindsight, the sport does come off as a perfect backdrop for a Dante Lam film - after all, Lam has consistently played with the idea that life in itself is a fatalistic battle, and in 'Unbeatable', he finds a most befitting metaphor in the fighting ring. But to mount a compelling movie, he would have required an actor as convincing in the ring as he would be outside it, neither of which anyone can say otherwise about Cheung, whose strenuous training for the role shows in every bit of his physique and combat skills.

Cheung is without a doubt the very heart and soul of the movie, bringing considerable nuance, complexity and empathy to his portrayal of a flawed, troubled yet determined boxer given his shot at redemption. Through multiple flashbacks in the first half of the movie, Lam paints a sad picture of a broken individual carrying the scars from his past - in particular, as a disgraced fighter who threw his promising career down the drain for taking bribes to rig fights. Nicknamed 'Scumbag', the now middle-aged Ching Fai crosses paths with Si-Qi (Eddie Peng), the son of a now-bankrupt real estate tycoon (Jack Kao) whose lack of academic credentials or work experience means he has no choice but to take up menial jobs to look after his father.

Siqi has enrolled in the Golden Rumble MMA championship despite zero training in a bid to prove to his father, as well as himself, that he can do something well if he sets his mind and heart to it. At a neighbourhood gym, Siqi gets to meet and know Fai's past as a champion boxer, and persuades the latter to be his coach. Whereas Siqi needs Fai to find purpose in life, Fai sees an opportunity to relive his glory days through the raw but promising Siqi, whose willpower Fai recognises as his potential winning edge. They are wounded souls beaten but not defeated, and Lam uses their journey as mentor and protégé to illustrate how both subsequently reclaim their lives.

Besides Siqi, Fai also finds humanity by becoming the de facto guardian of a 10-year-old girl Dani (Crystal Lee) whose mother Gwen (Mei Ting) he rents a room from. In the same prologue that establishes Fai and Siqi's plight, we also glimpse Gwen's tragic circumstance, the drowning of her infant son in the bathtub of their very home while she was passed out drunk on the couch precipitating a bout of mental illness and her current still fragile state. It probably comes as little surprise that Dani turns out to be a precocious kid for her age who ends up looking after her mother, but clichéd though that may be, only the hardest of hearts will not be moved by the tender companionship that develops between Fai, Gwen and Dani through a deft screenplay by Lam, his screen writing muse Jack Ng and first-time writer Fung Chi-fung as well as a sharp, funny and warm performance by Lee.

Indeed, what could easily have been maudlin is in the hands of Lam genuine and affecting, a tearjerker if you will that coaxes rather than wrings its audience's emotions. Lam's emphasis on character is crystal clear from the way he takes his time to develop them as well as their relationships, striving for gritty realism at every turn. Contrary to what some may think, this isn't one of those movies where plot and character are simply afterthoughts; rather, they are here as critical as the action, which we warn will surprise certain audiences looking for blood as soon as the lights dim.

Not to say that the latter instead becomes auxiliary; if there is one thing that Lam has done consistently well throughout his career, it is to deliver intense action when the time comes. Saving the bouts for the latter half of the film, Lam unleashes some truly exhilarating sequences as the MMA championship gets underway. Working with action director Ling Chi-wah and consultants Henry Chan and Dave Lam, he aims for the highest level of authenticity in the filmed bouts, even if it means pushing his actors Cheung, Peng as well as supporting Andy On to punishing limits. Not only are they well-choreographed, they are also beautifully shot, with Kenny Tse's combination of close-ups, quick zooms and medium shots ensuring that we are always in the thick and heat of the action.

Yes, for a film that might be tempted to pummel its audience with numbing action or overwhelm us with melodrama, this does neither. Lam modulates the rhythm of his movie with heartfelt drama, thrilling action and unaffected humour - and unlikely as the last may sound, that is exactly what comes out of the relationship between Cheung and Peng as they cheekily poke fun at the close contact that the sport brings two men together. By once again placing character before action, Lam crafts a captivating portrait of fallen individuals rising to the challenge of life, that is itself brimming with heart and hope.

Unbeatable sells itself as a mixed martial arts film, but it's actually a drama that splits its story between three downtrodden characters: the old boxer seeking redemption from bad life choices, a suffering single mother with a plucky daughter and a rich kid trying to take care of his father. In a typical movie, the latter two story lines would be subplots that would feed into the main story, but instead director Dante Lam spreads them evenly throughout the story. This turns two supporting characters into two main characters, which unfortunately compromises the impact of the A story, namely Nick Cheung's redemption story as the old boxer. The mother and daughter subplot, while well-acted, ends up hogging a lot of the screen time away from Nick Cheung. There were many scenes where Cheung's character wasn't developing because it was focused on the mother and daughter.

Eddie Peng is serviceable as the young rich kid-turned-boxer Siqi. I don't find his character interesting, it's like when Daniel Wu played the villain in New Police Story - a spoiled trust fund baby. Siqi is so naive it is head scratching. It's hard to buy a novice thinking they can learn mixed martial arts within two-and-a-half months to enter a professional competition. Amateur boxing tournaments exist for a reason. To play devil's advocate against myself, one can say that the film's point is his character has an unbeatable spirit (pun intended), and that he's competing to go the distance as a statement to his rich father. I see that's what the film is telegraphing but it's not interesting or compelling. It's almost downright disrespectful to the integrity of the sport itself. On the contrary, I enjoyed watching this would-be trust fund baby being pummeled by truly unbeatable fighters that were level-headed and took the proper time to train. It's depressing that Peng is playing Wong Fei Hong in an upcoming remake.

Nick Cheung is the heart of the film and gives a great performance. Fai is a character with a lot depth and emotional range, but the script keeps cutting him short by having Cheung do comedy. The comedy is funny, but the problem is it's funny to the point of being detrimental to the drama. An emotional scene is quickly followed by a funny scene. The audience is shifted to laughing and immediately relieved from contemplating Fai's emotional struggle. I found it taxing to follow because the Fai character was the only character I cared about. Nick Cheung's media-hyped muscled body is hidden for a huge majority of the film. I remember reading an interview with Christian Bale for American Psycho in which he indicated that the Patrick Bateman's muscled body were intentionally sculpted to be 'narcissistic muscles', not functional muscles. There is a case of that going on here with Nick Cheung's body, because most mixed martial artist aren't sculpted like Greek statues. When Cheung fights, I was pumped. But there was too little of it.

The fight choreography is tough and brutal but it's ruined by odd camera placements and choppy editing. The glossy arena didn't help either. If the actors really did train for the film, they should theoretically be able to do 1-3 moves before a editorial cut. Andy On shows up to play what he plays best, a cocky video game boss. When On arrived, the fights started to feel more choreographed. Overall I've seen MMA action done better in other films and ended up enjoying the training montages more.

Huang Bao Qiang shows up in a cameo role because he's popular from the success of Lost in Thailand. How is his presence relevant to the story? Nothing, and here's my point. There is a lot of box ticking going on in this film, like an investor trying to craft the perfect combination of an award-winning drama and a box-office hit. You have the award-winning body-transformation lead performance, the pretty boy to secure the young crowd and the single mother storyline to make sure everybody squeezes a tear. Unbeatable has already won 2 acting awards at the Shanghai International Film Festival, and good for it. For the rest of us who are not looking to win, I refer you to Gavin O'Connor's Warrior, a MMA film that had a better story and bigger heart. Lastly, Unbeatable could have been a great film. But by a lack of balance of its multiple story strands, a great film was only telegraphed, not delivered. It could have used more punch.

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It really makes me wonder if the Chinese think you can train to be an MMA fighter in two months, but this is the same country that thinks kung fu fighters can fly, so maybe that's the logic behind it. The surrounding stories were interesting and maybe if the guy was training to play competitive Solitaire, it would have been believable. But the whole time I was watching it, I was distracted by the thought of real MMA fighters who train their entire lives for what this movie makes a mockery of.