Black Mask (1996)

Rated R for strong violence including martial arts combat, some sexual content and language. Quebec Rating:16+(should be 13+) Canadian Home Video Rating:18A

I used to have Black Mask on VHS but I gave it to my cousin a long time ago.It was on TV a few days ago however and I decided to watch it.Black Mask is in my opinion Jet Li's best film.The storyline is pretty good and the fight/action scenes are amazing.Seriously if you like martial-arts film then you will love this movie! The film is about a quiet and nice librarian who before was a test subject for this project to create supersoldiers.While he leads a humble life, all the other people who were test subjects have turned to a life of crime.The cops cant do anything about it so he puts on a black mask and basically becomes a superhero who stops these criminals.Black Mask is an entertaining martial-arts/sci-fi film.

Fmovies: What more could I say? The Americans totally hated it because the U.S. cut was so bad, although you could detect the underlying goodwill in it.

Talking about the U.S. theatrical release(along with the newly released Blu-ray Disc version), it's faster and tighter than HK cut, the background musics were all changed from the dark, grim HK musics to Hip-hop musics; and there were a lot of gruesome scenes cut out. Though, the dubbing was a notable job given that they tried to capture the original actor's voice and tone. But, the problem is Hak Hap(Black Mask) the movie was designed and meant to be dark, grim, super-disturbing and totally gruesome. Very unfortunately the U.S. release just skimmed the cream they wanted, which in return completely changed the movie's undertone(HK release was rated 18+) to be even more comical and amateurish.

Now let's talk about the original HK release. This movie is like a hidden gem, a prototype for the whole "matrix" tide and era. The fighting scenes are totally awesome even the camera works were a bit "old-school" among HK movies. However the style the movie created was a unique blend of Kungfu and pop culture. With all the leather, black costumes and decorations, this movie features a batman-like superhero in a black mask against a run-of-the-mill gang of multinational super-soldiers lead by a punk heavy metal rock star boss. Yes it sounds like imaginations of a retarded child, but it works. It's so impressive that the whole movie's gonna give you nightmares featuring foreigners fighting a bloodbath battle in leather coats. In year 2002 they made a sequel which had a PG-13 rating, but without Jet Li and Liu Qing Yun. And you know how bad that was because Li and Liu were the core characters in the movie and had strong personalities and an interesting friendship. And, did I happen to mention Francois Yip? Her roundhouse kick was totally cool, even cooler than the villain boss because she didn't use a stuntman for all the fighting. Did I mention she was also smoking hot? Anyway, there are a lot of things to like about the movie.

However, the movie also suffered from a lot of problems. First off, it's a mediocre script made at its best potential, which means this production team deserved a better screen-writer. There are a lot climaxes in the entire 100 minutes but they often felt like far-fetched and don't totally make senses to the audiences(US version was even worse because all the character developments were cut). Anyway, you can't ask too much out of a comic-inspired action movie. Also, this movie is entirely improper for children. I won't recommend it to you if you are less than 20 years old. It's saturated with disturbing contents including blood, gore, sado-maso costumes, extreme brutal violence and so on. Along with the style of the movie, it can be called a wet dream for heavy-metal rock music fans and action fans. (the U.S. cut was milder, but if you want to see it, see the HK release for what it is.) 7/10. Status: inspiring, hidden, undervalued, adult.

Black Mask is one of my personal favorites in Jet Li's filmography. This is easily , in my opinion his best gun fu film. Black Mask is very much in a sci fi /comic book style , but not in a PG13 Spider Man style . Black Mask is a brutal , ultraviolent wall to wall action classic that should please both fans of shoot em' up, detonation maximum bullet ballets as well as kung fu / martial arts fans. With Yuen Woo Ping choreographing the action and Jet Li as the lead , the fights /action are as good as it gets. There is enough blood and gore to satisfy the most bloodthirsty of action fans as well as some of the finest choreographed wire fu insanity of the period . Black Mask is for me a perfect blend of both styles of HK action . Also, a good job from the cast which has Lau Ching Wan and a cameo from Anthony Wong. The subtitled HK version don't look as good as the US version , but plays much better as a film without lousy English overdubbing and record scratching.

Black Mask fmovies. Horrible dubbing. Cheesy overworked plot. Story that's been done and done and done. Implausabilities abound. Plot holes large enough to drive a cliche through. But MAN those fight scenes were incredible! If you go in looking for a serious piece of cinema, you'll leave unhappy. If you can't laugh at how horribly some of the humor flops, you'll be disappointed. If you go in to see Jet Li kicking butt -- something he is incredible at -- you WILL be happy. Scale: 1 to 10. I give it a 7, simply because I said, "WOW!" so many times.

Once a part of 701 squad, an elite group of super-soldiers/assassins surgically altered to feel no pain, Tsui Chik (Jet Li) now works as a librarian; but when the remaining members of 701 squad (whose number include the rather gorgeous Francoise Yip) turn to crime, bumping off drug lords to corner the narcotics market and stealing police files to sell to other criminals, Tsui Chik takes on the guise of superhero 'Black Mask' to fight his former comrades.

Black Mask is a frenetic comic-book martial-arts actioner from director Tsui Hark, a rather chaotic film with a plot that makes very little sense but which still succeeds in being highly entertaining thanks to a huge helping of silliness, loads of insane wire-enhanced fighting (choreographed by Yuen Woo Ping), and a fair amount of gore.

Amongst the craziness on offer: characters are blown to pieces, crushed under vehicles, killed by razor edged CDs, and hack off their own limbs to escape capture; Jet Li has a brief but very impressive battle in a graveyard and also performs an jaw-dropping kung fu routine using a high voltage cable as a weapon; and crime-lord King Kau (the brilliant Anthony Wong) is sent his daughter's severed legs in the post!!!

One more thing... if possible, try to find a subtitled version of the film—the dubbing is atrocious.

Jet Li behind a black mask? Does that work? I think it does. It's not the greatest movie ever made, but it's a fun little action b-movie that you get here.

The emphasis is clearly on the word "b-movie"! You can't watch this movie expecting a Hollywood Blockbuster. Or anything that would resemble a logical story. It is quite literally a "no-brainer". I have criticized movies for being no-brainers before. Why did I rate this one higher? Because I see it in the context. For example, Black Mask 2 is a "no-brainer" ... but there is nothing there that is entertaining. Here you have some jokes that work, but more importantly you have good choreographed action scenes. All of that is missing in the sequel (if you can call it that ...)