Black
Mask (1996)
Chinese Title: 黑俠
Translation: Black Chivalry
Starring: Jet Li, Lau Ching-Wan, Karen Mok, Françoise
Yip, Patrick Lung Kong, Anthony Wong
Director: Daniel Lee
Action Director: Yuen Woo-Ping, Dion Lam, Ku Huen-Chiu
Following the success of Lethal Weapon 4 and Jet Li’s warm reception by critics and audiences alike, it was assumed that he would go the same path as Jackie Chan and have some of his Hong Kong films imported and released to American theaters. In Jet Li’s case, things were a little trickier. Many of his films were period pieces, which might have had limited theatrical appeal, even to action fans. Then there was the extreme use of wire stunts in most of his films, which mainstream audiences were not used to at that point. Moreover, while Jackie Chan represented his own genre of action-comedy, Jet Li’s movies were a little more mired in Hong Kong conventions. Even his modern action films—many of which were produced and/or directed by Wong Jing—had their moments of sheer WTF that might have thrown American audiences for a loop.
For example, My Father is a Hero would have been a good choice, save the Yo-Yo Sequence at the climax. High Risk would have gotten good marks for its blazing pace and over-the-top action, but some of the slapstick and the snake sequence would have confused a number of viewers. Bodyguard from Beijing was conventional enough that it might have worked with mainstream audiences. All of those movies eventually saw stateside release, albeit under new titles with substandard dubbing and generic new musical cues. Fist of Legend would have been the best, especially if they had a good marketing campaign to promote Li as the next Bruce Lee—I’m sure that Dragon: The Bruce Lee Story was still fresh enough in people’s minds that I might have worked.
Beyond that, Black Mask was arguably the best movie to import to test the waters. It has a modern setting, lots of violent action and a visual aesthetic that might have reminded viewers of the successful Blade, plus it lacked some of the goofier moments of comedy that popped up in his other films. It did mediocre business: 12 million dollars during its American theatrical run[1]. By that point, distributors simply opted to release Jet Li’s other films directly to video, so American viewers wishing to see Jet on the big screen would have to wait for his Hollywood films.
The premise of the film is pretty simple. Jet Li plays Tsui Chik, the member of the 701 Squad of super soldiers. Tsui and his team have undergone experimentation that has left them impervious to pain and with enhanced speed, strength and reflexes. Basically, Captain America level stuff here. The Squad decides to betray the government[2] that created them, so Tsui Chik confronts the Army by himself as his compatriots make a run for it. He successful escapes the base and flees to Hong Kong.
Some years later, Tsui is living a solitary life as a librarian. His best friend is Shek “Rock” Wai-Ho (The Executioners’ Lau Ching-Wan), an inspector for the Hong Kong Police. Inspector Shek is assigned to a case in which some organization is systematically slaughtering all of the drug lords in the city. We see one group of drug dealers led by Ricky Tai (Dragon Fight’s Henry Fong Ping) called in for a meeting with the other kingpins, only to stumble upon a mass grave. Tai ends up with a bomb surgically implanted in his chest. When Tsui Chik finds out about this, he begins to suspect that his old comrades are still around.
Shek’s assistance is requested by King Kau (The Heroic Trio’s Anthony Wong), the last surviving drug lord in Hong Kong. The dealer-killers have already massacred his family and are now after him. That evening, the 701 Squad members lay an ambush at the construction site that serves as King Kau’s base of operations. Shek and his team are astonished to learn that the killers are not only armed with high tech gadgetry way beyond the scope of your common drug dealer operations, but that these people shrug off their limbs getting severed as if they were a simple flesh wound. At this moment, Tsui Chik—now dressed to look like Bruce Lee’s Kato—intervenes and kills several 701 killers and stops a honeypot assassin (Françoise Yip of Rumble in the Bronx) from killing King Kau with a razor-sharp garotte. That assassin is Yeuk Lan, who was Tsui Chik’s closest friend and (possibly) love interest when he was still part of the team.
Yeuk Lan figures out that the crusader in black is Tsui Chik and informs the current leader of the 701s, Commander Hung (Superfights’ Patrick Lung Kong). Commander Hung and his men ambush Tsui Chik outside of the library he works at and demand that he join them. Tsui gives them the proverbial finger, so they try to kill him. Complicating things is the fact that his co-worker, Tracy (Karen Mok of Fallen Angels and So Close), is a partial-witness to all of this, so Tsui now has to keep her hostage at his hideout while he takes on the 701 Squad alone.
The plot for Black Mask is serviceable stuff. Bad guys are killing other bad guys in order to monopolize the drug market. Pretty standard stuff. The fact that the former are genetically-enhanced super soldiers is a little novel, but just that. The film mainly stands out for its action sequences and its strong, gory violence. Seriously, how this film did not score a Category III rating in Hong Kong is completely beyond me. Limbs are severed. Throats are slit. Blood is splattered all over the sets. People are doused in acid on multiple occasions. We even see a pair of severed legs allegedly belonging to a character’s daughter. That’s just mean. This is easily one of the most violent Hong Kong action films of the entire 1990s.
The violence of course occurs in the context of some high-octane action sequences brought to you by the legendary Yuen Woo-Ping, with the assistance of Dion Lam (The Storm Riders) and Ku Huen-Chiu (14 Blades and Shadow). Like Bodyguard from Beijing and High Risk, much of the action involves Jet Li using guns, which may disappoint some viewers. But there are some nice moments of hand-to-hand action. Jet Li does some wire-assisted fisticuffs during the construction site set piece, complementing his wushu with razor-sharp CDs. In a later fight, an injured Tsui Chik has to fight Yeuk Lan in a network of pipes atop a building.
The best fights come at the end. First, Jet Li fights a Caucasian 701 soldier who is a kicking dynamo. The two trade lots of great bootwork while simultaneously avoiding lasers being fired form turrets all over the room. The soldier is played by Michael Ian Lambert, who would fight Jet Li again in Danny the Dog several years later. Jet Li then has a final showdown with Commander Hung. This is one of those everything-but-the-kitchen-sink fights, which involves railguns, giant cables with live electricity, poison gas rooms, and a ginormous gauge of hypodermic needle. Some of the actual martial arts moves are copied from Li and Yuen’s work on Fist of Legend, so experienced fans may feel a bit of déjà vu. But the fight is fast and inventive, so it remains enjoyable throughout.
Black Mask did well with American critics, who praised the inventiveness of the fighting and Jet Li’s natural skills—ironically, this is probably in his bottom ten movies to actually showcase said skills. Nonetheless, if you can handle the violence—much like Blade, this is one over-the-top gory film—you’ll have a few good fight sequences to watch and Jet Li’s natural charisma to enjoy. This was on the “Classics” list that a friend of mine and I had put together; its inclusion was due to a combination of the bootage and the dubbed profanity, which we thought was hilarious. Definitely a turn-off-your-brain sort of film.
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