Unbeatable

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.