Pros: There's some nice fight choreography from Yuen Woo Ping, and a few good performances from Anthony Wong, Lau Ching Wan, and Lung Kong
Cons: This film has an inane story, a performance from Jet Li that's about as charismatic as cardboard, and the American release of the film has the worst score I've ever heard--and some lame dubbing to boot
Black Mask aka Hak Hap: Artisan Entertainment Rating: USA: Unrated
Somehow, I get the feeling that this review isn’t gonna win me any new friends.
As a serious Hong Kong cinephile, I’ve seen a ton of Hong Kong films—everything from the heroic bloodshed films, John Woo’s movies, Ringo Lam’s stuff, Wong Kar-wai’s artsy films, period kung-fu flicks, etc. I’ve seen films starring just about every major star on the Hong Kong scene—Jackie Chan, Chow Yun-Fat, Anthony Wong, Simon Yam, and so on…and after seeing all of these films, I can’t help but conclude that Jet Li is by far the most overrated Hong Kong star in the world today.
Ok, before you start heading for the NR key, hear me out…Li, as a martial artist, is one of the most talented guys working in film today. There’s little doubt that the man is one of the greatest film martial artists to come along since Bruce Lee. However, the real problem is this—as an actor Jet Li is about as charismatic as a cardboard box. Now, I’ve not seen every Jet Li film ever made (but I’m getting closer to that plateau), but the ones I have seen (including the much lauded Fist of Legend) tend to suffer whenever a scene comes along that requires Li to do something other than fight—and perhaps no film in the entire Li filmography drives this point home more than Black Mask.
Black Mask is essentially a retro-style comic book film—meaning that it’s got a plot that’s barely coherent, acting that is generally non-existent (although, there are a few good performances here—more on that in a bit), and a story that emphasizes wuxia stunts over any kind of story or character development.
Li plays Tsui (Simon in the American version), a man who’s been part of a scientific experiment that’s caused all of his nerve endings to be cut so that he’s impervious to pain. After a daring escape from the research facility in the film’s opening, Simon spends the next year of his life hiding out, working as a pacifist librarian, and hanging out with supercop friend Rock (Lau Ching Wan: Running Out of Time, The Executioners). However, when some of his former experiment-mates (led by the super-cool Lung Kong) get the idea to start killing off drug dealers to demonstrate how powerful they are, Simon has to don his Kato-esque costume and kick some serious butt.
And that, in a nutshell, is the entire plot of the film…pretty flimsy, eh? Oh sure, there’s a romantic triangle subplot between Simon, his old flame (and now enemy) Yuek-lan (Francoise Yip) and goofy librarian Tracy (Karen Mok, who feels the need to shriek each and every one of her lines), but there’s very little story here—other than what’s necessary to get the audience from one action sequence to the next.
As I stated earlier, the performances are fairly bad. Li’s as wooden as he usually is (although, for the record, I really want to like Jet Li…I’m hoping that maybe his performance in Swordsman 2 will be better than what I’ve experienced so far). Karen Mok is around for nothing other than light comedy relief (and it’s very light, indeed), and Francoise Yip doesn’t have enough screen time or lines to really do much of anything with her character.
On the other side of the ledger, Lung Kong is fun to watch as the main villain—it’s been far too long since I’ve seen him in a film—it’s a shame that he had to turn up in this one. Lau Ching Wan totally upstages Li in every non-fighting scene they share—Lau’s just one of those really cool, underappreciated Hong Kong actors who can take almost any role and add an interesting spin to it. It’s embarrassing to have to watch the star of the film, Li, get blown away acting-wise in every scene these two share. Finally, the one other good performance in Black Mask comes from none other than the always entertaining Anthony Wong. Wong has a cameo in this film that is absolutely fantastic. He plays druglord King Kau, a sort of odd, twisted, criminal who walks around half naked (wearing a see-through rain coat) and has a box with his dead daughter’s legs in them. In short, it’s the outrageous kind of character that Wong’s become known for over the years—and he makes this film far more memorable than it has any right to be with his brief presence.
I’d love to tell you that since the fight choreography was done by none other than the legendary Yuen Woo Ping that you could at least look forward to some good fight scenes—but, I can’t really tell you that in good faith. Yes, there are some good fight scenes here, but they’re a bit overshadowed by two things—an over-reliance on wuxia wirework and a hyper-editing style that would annoy even someone with ADD. Anytime a fight breaks out here, the characters either resort to a series of wuxia moves that take almost all of the physical skill factor out of the scenes, or, if we do actually get to see a fight, it’s so choppy and edited that all the magic of Li’s abilities are diluted. It’s a shame, because this is the one area that could have saved this film.
I made the mistake of viewing Black Mask on DVD for the purposes of this review—a mistake that I’d like to warn the rest of you out there about. Black Mask received a wide theatrical release here in the States after the success of Lethal Weapon 4 (which featured Li in a fairly prominent role)—however, it had already been released in Hong Kong prior to this. Artisan obtained the rights to release it here, and before putting it out, decided to tweak it—by adding dubbed voices and a new soundtrack. First off, anyone who watches a Hong Kong film dubbed isn’t really serious about Hong Kong cinema. Whenever these films are dubbed, the voices of every character wind up sounding incredibly British—and it’s quite annoying. Forget about dubbed films—read the subtitles.
However, even worse is the new soundtrack. Someone at Artisan (and I hope that someone has since been fired and banned from working in the film industry) came to the conclusion that for this film to work for an American audience, we needed a score comprised entirely of rap music and bass heavy beats. Now, I’m the first to admit that I’m a fan of hip-hop…but, this film didn’t need this lame soundtrack comprised of marginal songs by marginal acts and weak beat and scratch tracks during the fight sequences—in short, the score is quite possibly the worst I’ve ever heard.
But wait, there’s more! Artisan, in their infinite wisdom, decided that no one in America needed to know who the stars of the film were. There are no cast credits during the end credits of this film—oh, wait, there are credits—for the people who did the voices for the lousy dubbing. I’m sure we all can rest easier tonight knowing just who exactly dubbed the voice of Rock—afterall, who needs to know who actually played the character…he’s just another one of those Asian guys. Truthfully, this kind of xenophobic garbage on the part of an American studio makes me sick. It’s absolutely unforgivable, and anyone who actually buys this crappy disc gets what they deserve. Find a copy of the Hong Kong version, with subtitles and the original score—don’t give your money to a company that doesn’t even care enough to give credit to the actors who made the film.
In the end, Black Mask proves that the merging of a talented producer (Tsui Hark) and a legendary star (Jet Li) doesn’t always result in a successful film. Hark and Li (who had a less than amicable split in the early 90s) reunite here to make a film that’s wholly uninspiring and almost completely devoid of entertainment value. If you’re new to Li’s films, check out the much more impressive Fist of Legend, Bodyguard From Beijing, or the Once Upon a Time in China series—despite their flaws, they’re far more entertaining than this movie.
Before he was the mask, Tsui (Jet Li) was part of the 701 Squad, an elite military force of medically enhanced super-soldiers who were rendered void o...More at Buy.com
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