Unbeatable - 激戰:勇者不敗

Unbeatable (激戰:勇者不敗) is an 2013 film out of Hong Kong. The movie stars Eddie Peng and Nick Cheung. The supporting cast include Mei Ting, Crystal Lee, Li Fei-Er , Andy On, and Jack Kao. Vivian Leung and Wang Bao-Qiang make cameo appearances.



Cheung plays Fai, a former 2 time Asian boxing champion from 1988. Fai throws some matches for money and does jail time. Now 48 and a taxi driver in Hong Kong, he's owes 20K of money to some loan sharks. Fai escapes to Macao to dodge the loan sharks. Once there, he resides in a room with a mom and daughter pair. The mom lost a son recently and was left by her former husband. Fai works at a local gym teaching aerobatics and does janitorial duties. Li is a young buck that travels the country (Zhong Guo) on his bike refusing to use his fathers money. Li's father is a big shot real estate mogul. In Beijing, Li find out through a newspaper article that his father is now bankrupt. Li finds him in Macao and tries to straighten him out. Li takes on a construction job and takes on MMA in order to enter the Golden Rumble tournament. Li and Fai find a special connection. Fai coaches Li to enter the MMA tourney. Fai takes to his host family he rents from. However, things go south when the loan sharks find Fai and the mom goes a little crazy again. Li strives to show his father that if he can do MMA, his father can start over. You don't always have to win all your fights, but the journey there and the reasons for the fight are emphasized.



So far, this could be my favorite movie of 2013, US or Asian. I loved it. Maybe because I am also an MMA fan, this movie speaks to me a little more. The story of the two leads is easy but also complex. You have both male leads trying to find their way in life having to start over in Macao. Both have a love story at play away from the gym. Both have a family element in play. Throw in the stuff in the gym and the goal to achieve something in life. The human element of a kid always gets to me. Maybe because I am a father with young daughters, those types of story lines get me all emotional. The love interest both have similar looks and in the beginning of the film, I had a little bit of a hard telling them apart. But you figure it out real quick.



So, if I were to pick the best of 2013, this would be on that list and very high if not #1. I have to look back at all the films I watched in 2013 to figure this out. This is up there. Don't miss it and get watch it.