Black Mask (4 Stars)

A Chinese super-hero film? Why not? China can do everything America can, and often better.

Tsui Chik was a participant in a Chinese supersoldier project. After intense training in martial arts, the subjects were treated to numb their nerve endings. They became unable to feel anything, including pain, making them the perfect soldiers. After one of them went crazy and killed a group of soldiers, the project was abandoned. It was decided to kill all of the team, but Tsui found out about it and encouraged everyone to flee.

Two years later, Tsui is living as a timid librarian in Hong Kong. He tries to forget his past. He's reminded when there are police reports of the deaths of hundreds of drug lords. The police have mixed opinions. They were doubtlessly people who deserved to die, but does it mean a new, more dangerous gang wants to take over? Tsui recognises a former member of the supersoldier team taking part in an attack, and the past catches up with him.

It turns out that the whole of his squadron is together as a team, calling themselves the 701's. Don't ask me why. Their goal is to make money. They've killed the Hong Kong drug lords to set themselves up as the exclusive suppliers of drugs from Colombia. They're also hacking into the Hong Kong police computers to find out the names of undercover police informants in the Colombian cartel. Hmmm. Would this information be stored in Hong Kong?

The 701's want Tsui to join them, but he has no interest in a life of crime. He puts on a black mask and a chauffeur's uniform to fight against them. He's deliberately modelling himself on Kato from the Green Hornet TV series.

The disguise is so effective that not even his fellow librarian Tracy can recognise him. That's nothing unusual. In DC comics, all that Clark Kent needed to do to disguise himself was take his glasses off. Tracy has a crush on Tsui, but she finds Black Mask annoying and arrogant.

Tsui's motivation isn't to become a superhero. It's a task that's thrust upon him. What he wants most is to reverse the operation performed on him and become able to feel again. He considers it a curse that he can never feel the touch of a woman or feel her kisses on his lips. He's right. That's a terrible curse. I would do anything to be able to taste Karen Mok's kisses. She's the actress who plays Tracy, and she also sings the film's theme song. In China it's common for actors to be singers as well. Even Jackie Chan sings the theme songs for his Chinese movies.

The film was released in 1996. In 1999 a censored version was released in American cinemas. Too much blood for American audiences. Finally, after 28 years, an uncensored version has been released in Britain and America. Is there really too much blood? I don't find it excessive.

The film suffers from one of the illnesses of American action films. The night-time scenes are often too dark. It's realistic, but unnecessary. It should always be easy to see who's fighting who.

Success Rate:  + 1.3

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