Undefeatable (1993)

Undefeatable (1993)
Aka: Bloody Mary Killer

Starring: Cynthia Rothrock, John Miller, Don Niam, Donna Jason, Sunny David, Emille Davazac, Hang Yip Kim, Richard Yuen, Gerald Klein
Director: Godfrey Ho
Action Directors: Douglas Kung, Tai Yim

 

Cynthia Rothrock has stated in interviews[1] that once she started making movies in the West, her agent discouraged her from going back to Hong Kong. To him, such movies were beneath her and would only hurt her chances of mainstream Hollywood fame. He ultimately was wrong, and her career floundered as the years passed, victim to ever-decreasing budgets and brief shooting schedules. During this period, however, Cut n’ Paste schlockmeister Godfrey Ho managed work around that, directing Rothrock in a handful of hybrid productions. These movies were English-language productions filmed in the United States, often with additional scenes added featuring Chinese actors for their Hong Kong release.

In some ways, this approach was the inverse of what Godfrey Ho had done for IFD Films and Filmark back in the 1980s, when he filmed footage of Caucasian actors—often dressed as ninja--and added them to Asian films of varying genres primarily for Western consumption. This time, the American film, like Undefeatable, was the original production, while the Hong Kong release, Bloody Mary Killer, was the composite production.

Cynthia Rothrock plays Kristi Jones, a waitress and kung fu expert who puts her younger sister, Karen (singer Sunny David) through college. Obviously, waitressing is barely enough to pay the rent and bills, let alone college tuition (even in 1993), so she supplements her income through gang activity. Yup, Cynthia Rothrock plays a gangbanger of sorts in this little film. However, instead of drugs and prostitution, Rothrock makes her money participating in illegal street fights. This eventually brings her to the attention of the cops, especially Detective Nick Di Marko (who was also in the Godfrey Ho/Cynthia Rothrock film Honor and Glory).

Meanwhile, there’s another person involved in illegal fighting, although he works on the high stakes circuit. That would be Paul Taylor, also known as Stingray (Don Niam). Stingray has some serious Mommy Issues™ and takes them out on his long-suffering wife, Anna (Emille Davazac). After getting raped one day, Anna takes the advice of her psychologist, Dr. Jennifer Simmons (Donna Jason, another Honor and Glory alumni), and leaves her husband. This pushes Stingray over the edge. He starts kidnapping women who remind of his wife, after which he tortures, rapes and kills them, removing their eyes as a keepsake. Detective DiMarko is assigned to the case, and once Karen becomes a target, Kristi will find herself involved as well.

Undefeatable is generally seen as an American movie—it was filmed in Maryland, has a mostly American crew, and was undoubtedly made for English-speaking audiences. However, being written, produced, directed and choreographed by Hong Kong veterans, it feels like a Hong Kong action movie in the details. This is the sort of movie where everybody is a trained martial artist: the policemen, the waitress, the gangbangers, the college student, the psychologist and even the random victims of the serial killer! There is about a 75% chance that any character who appears will throw a kick at some point. That sort of thing would be laughed at by most Americans, who tend to value “realism” above all else in their films. What this means to fans is that the film is chock-full of fights.

That said, this is indeed a very stupid movie. The serial killer sequences skirt the border between “unpleasant” and “nasty”. Even seasoned fight fans will find the random fight scenes that break out at regular intervals to be goofy in context, if not in execution. Then there is the final fight, which has become something of a Youtube legend. Uploaded to Youtube during its initial year and dubbed “the Best Fight Scene of All Time,” the video has garnered more than 11 million views in its 15 years of existence. And this is a fight scene where two men rip off their shirts for no reason than to show off their curiously well-oiled muscles, and then spend the next five minutes chewing the scenery with their overdone growls and screams, ending with the single worst one-liner of all time. It is absolutely surreal.

The fight sequences were choreographed by Hong Kong veteran Douglas Kung (Princess Madam and Wushu: The Next Generation), with assistance by Hung Fut master Tai Yim. Tai Yim was the sifu of both John Miller and Don Niam. Douglas Kung, on the other hand, had already worked with Cynthia Rothrock on City Cops (1989), one of her last Hong Kong productions. The fights vary in quality, from “pretty good” by Hong Kong standards to “okay” by American standards. There are a lot of fights, mainly thanks to the subplot involving the illegal street fights. Moreover, once Rothrock’s sister is killed, she starts stalking the Asian gangs, thinking that they were responsible. There is one completely random fight where Rothrock and Miller go to a kung fu school that teaches the Dragon Style. For absolutely no reason, the sifu tries to flee and has his students attack the policeman. We never find out what that was all about: was the instructor involved in some illegal activity? Did he hate cops on general principle? I dunno But it gave us another fight sequence!

Cynthia uses the kicks and punches that she would have picked up in her original tang soo do training. On the same token, she does perform a traditional weapons form with the hook swords and even briefly uses the Praying Mantis style in one of her fights. Her experience with the top action directors in Hong Kong mean that she gets both the best moves and the most creative fights. An early fight with a gang member (Shelton Lee) also has the distinct Hong Kong flavor to it. Later on, she takes on an Eagle Claw Master (Linh Thai) atop a series of oil drums. In a later fight with the dragon claw instructor, she performs a neat move where she jumps and pushes herself off a wall to her left with her left foot, and, flying past her opponent, swings her right leg in a horizontal arc and kicks him in the back of the head. While Don Niam looks good in his initial ring fight, he tends to play his role as the Unstoppable Brute a lá Bolo Yeung, so he is stiffer in his fights than his kung fu background would have you believe. John Miller looks okay in his fights. We get to see him performing a traditional hung fut form, but in practice, he mainly does basic punches and backfists.

Undefeatable is not a good movie by any measure, but it has enough fun action to make it worth a view for the more die-hard fight fans, and for Cynthia Rothrock’s fanbase. Despite it occupying a lower rung on Rothrock’s filmography, it has guaranteed itself Internet Longevity thanks to the numerous Youtube videos—including the the aforementioned “Best Fight” one—of the climax circulating around.

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[1] - Adkins, Scott. “The Art of Action – Cynthia Rothrock.” Youtube, uploaded by Scott Adkins, 1 Sep 2020, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DsMFdrOQTsYk.