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. 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. 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. 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. 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.
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. 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. 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. 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. 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. 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). 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. 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'.
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.
0 kommentar(er)
