Undefeatable (1993)

Kung fu starlet Cynthia Rothrock is Kristi Jones, a petty gang leader hustling organized street fights to pay for her sister’s college education. When a mentally unstable underground fighter named Stingray (Don Niam) begins ritually killing women and targets her sister, Kristi teams up with Detective Nick DiMarco (John Miller) to track down and stop the serial killer. UNDEFEATABLE is an unusual contemporary kung fu thriller, also one of two Rothrock films directed by infamous C-grade Hong Kong filmmaker Godfrey Ho, best known for helming a string of no-budget ninja flicks throughout the 1980s under the IFD Films and Arts banner. This is one of his more polished and entertaining efforts but for all the wrong reasons. Of note, the end fight is a masterpiece of unintended action comedy that has become a viral video sensation on the internet. The sequence has been christened the “Best fight scene of all time,” with over four million views on Youtube alone, suggesting that while it may not actually be the best it is one of the most popular.

Just knowing that this is a Godfrey Ho movie speaks volumes for veteran martial arts film fans familiar with the filmmaker’s steady output over the years. Ho is the Ed Wood of Asia. Some of his lesser works make Uwe Boll’s films look like Oscar-winning material. At his worst, Ho was a dumpster-diving opportunist who would take reels of discarded footage from old martial arts movies, shoot new scenes with different actors and attempt to splice them into a single movie. His reputation for making bad movies might explain why he chose to go by the name of Godfrey Hall for this film. He could change his name but he couldn’t change his style.

There is a reason that Godfrey Ho has fans, while his movies continue to be watched and discussed. He consistently makes bad movies entertaining which suggests to me that he knows exactly what he’s doing. The man released over 100 films in 20 years.

UNDEFEATABLE has technically proficient production standards for a B-movie yet from the standpoint of scripting, acting and fight choreography, it’s mind-bendingly horrendous for a multitude of reasons. This is especially true when one considers the genuine martial arts talents involved.

The film was one of two productions executive produced by Hung Fut kung fu Grandmaster Tai Yim, an associate of Godfrey Ho and a Hong Kong native who emigrated to the U.S. in 1977 to teach kung fu on the East Coast. The other film was HONOR AND GLORY, also directed by Ho and starring Cynthia Rothrock and John Miller. While Rothrock, a kung fu forms champion, was a leading B-movie star at the time, having established her fame internationally in Corey Yuen’s RIGHTING WRONGS and THE BLONDE FURY, her male co-stars were unknowns. Miller was a senior Hung Fut student of Tai Yim. In the film he briefly displays his skills in traditional kung fu with a solid-looking forms set. Don Niam was also a kung fu-trained student of Tai Yim and was picked for the role of Stingray by Ho, based on his distinctive looks. Niam’s only previous experience in Hollywood was two walk-on roles, one of them in the Don Wilson actioner OUT FOR BLOOD.

While Tai Yim was involved in the film’s early development the main action director was Douglas Hung, a Hong Kong movie veteran who previously performed stunts in Wong Jing’s kung fu comedy LAST HERO IN CHINA. More recently, he choreographed stunts in Antony Szeto’s low-budget martial arts drama WUSHU.

Despite all of the authentic kung fu talent involved, the film fails miserably at merging it with what becomes a laughable thriller story. Problems begin with bad casting and underdeveloped characters. While Niam was a great choice for a creepy guy, Rothrock doesn’t fit at all. At times, she tries to act like a rebellious, street-smart 18-year-old kid while wearing a leather jacket while other times looking and acting like a sharp-dressed professional woman in her mid-30s which is how old she really was. With her three happy-go-lucky Asian gang followers, she wouldn’t have lasted a day on America’s real mean streets. It’s understandable. Ho has never been concerned with reality. One of the early fights in the film is staged like a non-musical scene out of GREASE or WEST SIDE STORY with gang members clapping, pounding their feet and cheering wildly as their representatives clash in a bloodless duel officiated with strict rules by a couple of suited money handlers. It’s ridiculously far removed from the drug dealing, violence and general thug culture that existed in 1993.

As this is a kung fu movie with action designed and performed by kung fu stylists, most of Rothrock’s opponents use kung fu which is little odd when you consider that this movie is set in a contemporary urban city in America. One silly exception is where Rothrock takes on a bruiser wearing football shoulder pads on the outside of his clothes like armor. One of her main opponents during these street fights is an Eagle Claw exponent. To spice up the scene, he wears gloves with metal claws on each fingertip. Like a scene out of FONG SAI YUK, the two end up battling on top of barrels.

Much of the action involving Rothrock is relatively benign but not so with Niam. This is where the film gets interesting and weird. His character, Stingray, likes to come home from a busy day of beating people up in underground fights to rape his wife before dinner and call her “mommy.” When she understandably leaves him, he goes berserk and begins attacking any woman he sees that looks like her. What’s funny about this is that not only can he find a lot of women who dress and look similar to his wife but each of them are either in the company of a martial arts-trained fighter or can fight themselves. So good old Stingray has to kill their male friends and subdue the women in a fight before dragging them back to his red-lit hideout to whip them with chains, cut their eyeballs out and stuff the bodies in dumpsters.

While definitely possessing mature themes, the film isn’t explicit at any point and generally shies away from showing gratuitous gore, nudity, sex, or extreme violence but there is a measure of each that may seem quaint by modern standards. The old hook in the eye socket gag still works, at least if you try not to look at the harness in plain view that is holding up the actor supposedly hanging in mid-air.

Even if the movie isn’t as outrageous as it could be, Stingray has got to be one of the more memorable martial arts villains that I have seen in film. It’s a great idea to have a martial arts-trained serial killer with severe mental problems. It’s like PSYCHO meets BLOODSPORT. Okay, that’s not fair to either Alfred Hitchcock or Newt Arnold. It’s more like SILENT RAGE, Michael Miller’s 1982 film starring Chuck Norris as a martial arts-trained sheriff out to stop an unstoppable killer. That’s kind of like Godfrey Ho. He butchers films like no other and is just as unstoppable, or was until he retired.

UNDEFEATABLE is a bad movie but it’s so much fun to watch which arguably makes it a good movie depending on personal tastes. Although not as well integrated with the plot as they could have been, there are real kung fu forms performed by skilled practitioners on display for the martial arts buffs. The rest of the action on display is silly but moderately well executed. Cynthia Rothrock gets to kick some ass which is always fun to watch, although she unfortunately gets side-lined for the end fight. The film has something for everyone; cheesy one-liners, campy acting, flashes of extreme content, oily bare-chested he-men, and dated fashions. It’s hard to say what’s more extreme, a guy who keeps human eyeballs in a fish tank or his power mullet. If you’re game enough to start watching this B-grade gem, it’s definitely a movie you have to watch right up to the end to bask in all of its maniacal glory.