1996

Black Mask ( 1996 )
(Chinese, with English subtitles)

A Movie Review by David Sunga

Produced by: Tsui Hark 

Directed by: Daniel Lee Yan-Kong
Action Director: Yuen Woo-Ping

Written by: Tsui Hark, Koan Hui On, Teddy Chan Tak-Sum, Joe Ma Wai-Ho

Starring: Jet Li Lian-Jie, Lau Ching-Wan, Karen Morris (Mok Man-Wai), Francoise Yip Fong-Wah,

Ingredients: sci fi darkness, remorseless cyborg-type bad guys, explosions and flying bullets, Terminator like sequence in a hospital, heartache for a lost love, and a masked guy who wears a costume like Kato of the Green Hornet with kung fu to match.

Synopsis:
This movie is subtitled in English, rather than dubbed.

In the opening sequence beleaguered members of Commando Squad 701 narrowly escape annihilation by government troups. A narrator explains that the members of 701 had undergone brain surgery to make them impervious to pain and emotionally distant. Having lost their humanity, the robotic superhumans were trained to be the best assassins in the world but eventually couldn’t be controlled, so the government ordered them eradicated. Survivors escaped and separated to hide among normal humans. ( An earlier movie depicting the aforementioned supersoldiers was ‘Universal Soldier [ 1992 ],’ starring Jean-Claude Van Damme and Dolph Lundgren ).

A couple years later refugee Black Mask ( Jet Li ), superhuman young former coach of the 701 team, has assumed a lowly new identity in Hong Kong as gentle librarian Tsui Chik. His only good friend is another loner: his chess partner, the hardened straight arrow Police Inspector Shek ( Lau Ching-Wan ).

When Hong Kong’s drug czars are systematically attacked and killed, Inspector Shek takes the case. Unbeknownst to Shek, the remaining superhumans of Squad 701 - - including a beautiful former lover of Black Mask’s ( Francoise Yip ) -- have banded together under psycho Commander Shung to become a criminal gang seeking to take over the Asian drug trade.

Tsui Chik becomes Black Mask again to protect Shek, and soon the police and Black Mask find themselves battling attacks by the superhumans. Smaller battles lead to a final conflict at the criminals' stronghold.

Some comic relief breaks up the action in the antics of Karen Morris (Mok Man-Wai) as a lovestruck pampered love interest from the library who chases both Tsui Chik and Black Mask, not knowing they're the same man.

Stars: Beijing born Jet Li was a member of China’s national wushu demonstration team in his early teens and was invited to perform for President Richard Nixon ( Nixon shocked the world by opening US relations with communist China ). Wushu, means ‘martial arts’ but since 1958, it has come to mean a national ( non-combative ) performance art that combines old fight forms with gymnastics, Peking Opera, acrobatics, choreography, dramatic interpretation and sometimes even music. In movies, the style involves fast thrusts, grabs, counterthrusts, and acrobatic leaps to avoid being thrown.

A prodigy, Li won the Chinese national wushu championships five years in a row. After a few unnoticed minor film roles, Li hit it big in the Asian scene with the movie ‘Once Upon a Time in China ( 1991 ),’ directed and produced by Tsui Hark ( the director of Double Team, with Van Damme and Dennis Rodman ). Among his fans’ favorite movies are ‘Fist of Legend ( 1994 )’ a remake of a Bruce Lee classic.

In Black Mask actor Jet Li is reunited with 'Once Upon a Time in China' director Tsui Hark and ‘Fist of Legend’ fight choreographer Yuen Woo-Ping.

Jackie Chan fans may recognize Black Mask’s lost former lover Yueh-lan from Squad 701 as actress Francoise Yip, who played Jackie Chan’s love interest Nancy, the motorcycle girl from ‘Rumble in the Bronx ( 1995 ).’

Opinion: Like ‘The Terminator,’ this is a neat action movie that goes for mood, action, and style more than anything. It feels like an artsy sci fi piece -- a comic book turned real -- with its mod music and dark costumes, architectural structures, and action camera angles. The fight scenes are a mixture of fast hand to hand combat with shootings, explosions, darkness and flying glass all around -- and are well-choreographed by veteran action director Yuen Woo-Ping. Dramatically Jet Li gets solid acting support from Lau Ching Wan, doing his best to flesh out the character of Tsui Chik’s gruff cop buddy Shek.

The exciting final confrontation between Commander Shung and Black Mask involves using electrical cables as flailing weapons. The character of Commander Shung isn’t explored much, so in my opinion, the most climactic scene isn’t the final confrontation but rather when Black Mask reluctantly battles his former lover Yueh-lan, the super soldier woman of his flashbacks.

Reviewed by David Sunga