Ji zhan

More solid than I first thought, but also more sentimental than needed be. But the execution saves it all.

This is a story where 3 sets of lives comes together in Macau: a ex-champ boxer, an aimless young man, and a down and out mother-daughter.

So it goes through the 3 acts: the background, the middle struggles, and the triumphant finish. All predictable, all about redemption (again). The sentiments are just full to the brim. The MMA sequence are good enough to behold. And there are the comic reliefs to breakups the mundaneness. However, the execution, the shots, the editing, the color, the settings, holds the atmosphere, tension together into a nice pace.

You can see how the last fight ends miles away. But no complaints here as it was well done.

From the director who brought you Beast Stalker and The Stool Pigeon, Unbeatable is an enjoyable, entertaining, heartfelt character-driven action sports drama film about facing fear and conquering one's hardships in life.

While the film offers nothing new for the genre and there's striking similarities here and there with other films such as 'Rocky', 'Never Back Down', 'A Fighter's Blues', it's the overall great cast performances, the very heart and soul of the film that alleviates it from being a mediocre action film. The film emphasized drama over the fight scenes and the occasional humour managed to provide some relief as the film takes time to provide more character development and fight scenes throughout the film.

Both Eddie Peng and Nick Cheung have shown their utmost dedication from their physical and combat training to fit the roles for the fight scenes in the film. Their mentor-student relationship and camaraderie is also clearly depicted throughout the film as well. The training montage shown throughout the film such as tractor tire lifting, numerous locking, striking and grappling techniques, boxing, weight training were all wonderfully shot.

However, the MMA fight scenes were poorly executed as the director used close-up, quick zoom in-out camera techniques to shot them. Moreover, the portrayal of MMA as a brutal and most likely fatal combat sport is very misleading, and the money gambling shown in the film makes it even worst. The belly-to-back suplex move shown in the film is dangerous and would potentially kill your opponent, normally it's considered as an illegal move and shouldn't be used in a tournament. The MMA rules are not properly shown or explained in the film. Some of the plot points are not further clarified and resolved by the end of the film.

Nevertheless, the action does provide some intense moments, some sense of urgency required in an action film to the audience and keeps the film constantly engaging despite a running time of nearly 2 hours. A recommended watch.

Dont waste your time watching this garbage movie... You will repent watching this. Worst direction... Worst action... No action at all.. amateur hour... These reviews here must be paid... Doesn't even deserve a single... I was bored outta my mind watching this piece of ***t... This review is coming from a guy who loves action movies.. n loves movies like... Rocky series... Undisputed series... Redbelt... Warrior... Raging phoenix... Chocolate.... blood and bone.. never back down..

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.

Watch this latest MMA action film in theater, Hong Kong director Dante Lam has a sturdy reputation in his action-packed thrillers in recent years (THE VIRAL FACTOR 2012, THE STOOL PIGEON 2010, BEAST STALKER 2008), this time around, he opts for another kind of action, the point-blank MMA fighting, summons a pan-Chinese cast (Cheung, On and Keung are from Hong Kong, Peng, Kao and Liu are from Taiwan, Mei, Li and Wang are from mainland China while youngster Lee is from Malaysia), it also imposes a daunting challenge for two leads Nick Cheung and Eddie Peng, especially for Cheung, at the age of 47 he works extremely hard to gain a brawny figure to play the washed-out former boxing champion.

There aren't a glut of hot-blooded hand-to-hand combats (4 is the exact time), instead Lam and his screen writer team manage to consolidate the context of these two fighters' characteristic backdrop stories and furthermore justify their own causes to fight, Peng is to prove himself in front of his life-beaten and alcohol-abusing father and Cheung is to reinitiate his own potentiality and farewell to his squandered youth. Those are the perpetual themes of sport films, they are soul-inspiring and heart-touching at their best, but over-elaborated and shortchanged for its pragmatism at their worst. Other than the white-knuckle combats in the cage, which has been recorded faithfully with swift and precise camera-work to achieve the sensational verisimilitude (and very impressive pre-fighting training sequences). The entanglement between Cheung and a pair of mother-daughter (Mei, a single mother who is mentally unstable due to a past trauma and Lee, her premature daughter whose Pollyannaish nature under an impoverished situation does strike a chord to any soul with a tender spot) occupies the majority of the narrative, the function of main female characters in the male-driven genre always recedes to either a frail victim (Mei) or a redeeming touch of guilelessness (Lee), the shackles need to be innovated, yet it is a long way ahead.

UNBEATABLE is a strong contender in next year's Hong Kong Film Awards (along with Johnnie To's BLIND DETECTIVE 2013, 7/10), they represent the caliber of the technique peak and the liberation of telling a story without pampering audiences' ostensible reactions from an art form's cheap face value, which is far more self-aware and less money-seeking than most of the players in the over-bloating Chinese film market nowadays.