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NOTE: This review replaces the Mei Ah (Old Version)
vs. Thundermedia comparison previously on the site.
Nominations
at the Hong Kong Film Awards 1997:
Best Action Choreography (Yuen Woo-Ping)
Best Art Direction (Eddie Ma & Bill Lui)
Best Costume & Make Up Design (William Fung & Mabel Kwan)
Finally Kato gets his own movie in the form of Black Mask!
Ok, Jet Li only resembles the character played by Bruce Lee
in the TV-series Green Hornet and that was the final
Bruce Lee reference in this review. Onto this movie...
Squad 701 consisted of a number of engineered supersoldiers
with no ability to feel pain. In order to achieve that, their
nerves were removed, something which in the long run caused
problems and the project was terminated along with the team
of soldiers. There were a few subjects however who managed
to escape. One of them is Tsui (Jet Li). He keeps a low profile
working as a librarian but is forced into action when it is
discovered that the other remaining members of Squad 701 are
killing off drug dealers in order to conquer that market themselves...
Daniel Lee (director of What Price Survival & Till
Death Do Us Part) takes the live action comic-concept
and manages in more than a few aspects to deliver an entertaining
ride. Firstly we have four credited screenwriters which makes
no sense since one writer easily could've come up with this
thin scenario. It's not very original and verges on the brink
of silly at times but I do feel it's fitting for this comicbook
adaptation that Black Mask is. Lee's direction works
reasonably well most of the time with just a few negative
things worth mentioning. A big plus is that the the running
time fly by quite fast and Yuen Woo-Ping's action directing
gives the film a good energy. Seeing as the movie is rather
amped in its camera language for most of the running time,
Daniel does take parts of the movie down to a calm level.
As we'll discuss, though, he is very much guilty of being
extremely frenetic overall.
The script doesn't give us hugely developed characters but
the little that is there is is serviceable and performed on
par with the genre requirements (no real commitment but no
laziness either). The big flaw and annoyance in Lee's work
is his persistence to employ shaky cam, in particular during
the action. It's a style of his that worked tremendously well
for the drama Till Death Do Us Part because it was
part of one characters chaotic life and mind. In Black
Mask, the result of this direction primarily hurts Yuen
Woo-Ping's action since it becomes way too obscure than it
ought to be. Still, there's enough quality actually visible
and the camera language ultimately doesn't sink the film completely.
Cinematographer Tony Cheung (Drunken Master II) takes
Daniel's ideas and brings them to the screen in a stylish
fashion. The approach leans more towards natural and seems
to feature a surprisingly small amount of strong colours (a
staple of the genre, mostly in a negative way), at least during
the first half. The slight, sometimes subtle production design
does suggest that we're a little bit into a high technological
future even if the film never proclaims it's set in the year
5000 or anything. There's decent atmosphere here and this
world is portrayed as dark and pessimistic even. All this
adds up to a capably lensed film but the MTV influence coming
from director Lee again takes the cinematography down a few
notches also.
Black Mask comes with basically 75-80% action and
that is its main strength as it turns out. Yuen Woo-Ping's
martial arts choreography was nominated but action and gunplay
is more emphasized rather than martial arts itself. When Jet,
in his hero outfit during the credits sequence, begins his
escape, we get a nice taste of what to expect later of this
movie. The stunts are good and the creativity on display is
definitely of acceptable standard. Hong Kong movies have always
given us that little extra in terms of action and I think
Black Mask is a good movie to showcase that. In terms
of martial arts we don't get anything spectacular though.
When ground based we mostly see some basic punching and kicking,
except one sequence with Jet vs. a Westerner that has a brief
skirmish showcasing good timing. The gunplay aspects remain
more true to the frantic approach by the filmmakers but when
applied, works unexpectedly well with the camera. The wirework,
working very much in dark settings (easier to hide the wires
is a big advantage here) are exciting while they last, which
aren't very long. On the other hand, the various action filled
scenes doesn't end after such a fight and all in all are still
fairly lengthy.
Black Mask is not an acting movie per say but it contains
a number of moviestars to elevate the project. Jet Li needs
no presentation but always worth referencing is his terrific
role as Wong Fei-Hung in the Once Upon A Time In China-series.
His character Tsui Chik has the most ''depth'' but not extremely
much so compared to the other lifeless gallery of characters.
Jet seems confident in the role but in reality, it's not much
of a fine acting turn. What matters most because this is a
Jet Li vehicle is his action performing. Jet's mostly aided
by the wires but gets to show off his actual skill and timing
in some instances (including parts of the climax).
Lau Ching Wan (from Big Bullet and most Milkyway productions
ever made) plays the cop Shek and Tsui's only friend. He doesn't
know about his other side though and lectures him all the
time about taking care of himself in these violent times.
That part is basically the only trait out of the ordinary
hard boiled cop role. Lau Ching Wan's character is a tough
cop, that's it, but even the most cliché filled character
can be made watchable when it's played by someone like Lau
Ching Wan. He actually performs in the action choreography
and Yuen Woo-Ping does what he can with the actor but obviously
gets someone to double him for the more difficult stuff. The
result isn't seamless but I have to give kudos to Lau Ching
Wan for showing dedication to this aspect of the film.
The female part of the casting consists of Karen Mok (God
Of Cookery, So Close) and Francoise Yip (Rumble
In The Bronx). Karen plays the typical happy and joyful
and completely unnecessary female sidekick but since she has
a smattering of comic talent, the performance doesn't become
as irritating as it could've been. She could've easily been
written out of the film though but then the makers wouldn't
have had enough material for a feature film.
Francoise Yip however fares better as the former student
of Tsui Chik's, now turned baaaaad. There's both evil and
goodness inside of her, which result in some entertaining,
over the top, acting by Yip, but also some very, very little
warmth creeping through when confronted with the past. Not
a classic performance but Francoise takes this role and runs
with it, which is a good compliment. Finally I must mention
Anthony Wong's supporting role and let's just say that nothing
surprises me nowadays regarding Tony. He's game for anything
and it's funny too see his 'I don't give a crap how sleazy
this role is'-attidtude projected on screen.
Daniel Lee, even today, can't seem to make his particular
visual style work for him on a constant basis. Despite that
misstep once again, Black Mask still proves to be good
entertainment, Hong Kong style.
The DVD:
A 1.78:1 framed print with anamorphic enhancement has been
newly struck by Mei Ah and it's an impressive view. Obviously
it doesn't take much to beat their old letterboxed dvd but
the detail, colours and sharpness all register high. The print
is near spotless also. One of the best Mei Ah remasters I've
seen so far.
Note that this print is censored, although it's an edit that
should match what played in Hong Kong cinemas. There are various
snippets of gory violence removed from most action scenes,
such as impact hits and general bloodflow, that perhaps would've
propelled this Jet Li vehicle up to the Cat III rating. In
all we're talking about 40-50 seconds ''missing'' but the
censored parts remain present in the Taiwan version and the
various International versions, all working from an uncensored
print. The cuts are not very noticeable overall if you don't
know of them but the scene involving the severed hand is a
jarring cut if I ever saw one.
I never looked through the old Mei Ah dvd but that did not
have the neck bloodspurt during the beginning. That is now
reinstated here along with the text crawl from the Taiwanese
print that goes more into detail why the experiments went
wrong. The Taiwan edit also adds a few more moments of gore
plus slight extended dialogue, primarily with the men at the
library. Thundermedia released that edit and the transfer
is average, subtitles are burned onto the print and only a
Mandarin dub is available. If you're like me, you'd want that
version also, just to know what's supposed to be in there
when watching the Mei Ah remaster.
Mei Ah offers a rich selection of sound and with me only
on a Pro Logic setup, the Cantonese Dolby Digital 2.0 option
was choosen here. It's a lively mix mainly in the front channels,
dialogue seems well balanced with music and effects but it
does come off as a bit manufactured. With that I mean that
it's a bit noticeable where effects have been foleyed in during
post-production. This I don't believe is a remix issue, I
think it's the original surround mix that came out like this.
There's two brief sound dropouts on this track. First occurring
at 48 minutes and 23 seconds, the other at the 64 minute,
26 second mark. They're especially noticeable since, in both
cases, we're in the middle of an action scene. This dropout
is only present on the Cantonese 2.0 track. Other audio options
are Cantonese Dolby Digital 5.1 (this track seemed to be mixed
higher in volume, even if it's downconverted for my setup),
Cantonese DTS 5.1 and Mandarin Dolby Digital 2.0.
Mei Ah upgrades the subtitle situation by providing optional
English ones as opposed to their old release that had the
burned in English/Chinese subtitles. Looking at the scene
where Tsui Chik and Shek are playing chess, the optional subs
offer a straight copy of the original burned in subtitles
but I can't say if same is true for the rest of the film.
That doesn't present much of a problem though in terms of
errors in grammar and structure though as the subs are pretty
consistent throughout.. Whether or not they offer a good translation
I can't say. Traditional and simplified Chinese subtitles
are also available.
Under Special Features we find the theatrical trailer (with
the black & white segments from the movie now in colour),
a trailer for the much maligned Black Mask 2 (dubbed
into Cantonese), Jet Li's filmography and the usual worthless
Mei Ah Databank with plot synopsis plus cast & crew listing.
reviewed by Kenneth
Brorsson
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