Jeanskynebu
the audience applauded
Moustroll
Good movie but grossly overrated
Fairaher
The film makes a home in your brain and the only cure is to see it again.
HawkHerald
Tsui Chik/Simon, a quiet librarian, is actually an ex-Special Forces super soldier. He is friends with Inspector Shek Wai-ho/Rock, a detective with Hong Kong Police, with whom Tsui Chik frequently shares conversation over chess. Tsui Chik learns his old commando unit, called 701, is still active, murdering gangsters and police in a grasp for power. Tsui Chik dons a black domino mask and bowler hat like Bruce Lee's Kato from The Green Hornet, becoming a masked vigilante to stop his old unit, inadvertently coming into conflict Shek Wai-ho/Rock and the police.Black Mask isn't something you watch for the story, there's a minimum of it. There's just enough to let you know who the good guys and the bad guys are. There's also a tiny amount of romantic subplot thrown with a co-worker and a former squad member of Tsui Chik's introduced to give him a more personal reason to fight the good fight. Jet Li is at his best, his jaw-dropping on screen fights are like no one else, including the legendary Bruce Lee and contemporary peer Jackie Chan.
mikelcat
Very good martial arts film and Jet Li is the best since the master himself Bruce Lee .Li is excellent as the low key librarian/cop who saves all time and time again . He has a presence and a look that is riveting and believable as the kung fu king that you don't mess with .Francoise Yip is simply beautiful in that mixed race original way that is unique because of her mixed heritage , she has an innocence and an allure all at the same time that I found unforgettable .The villain , the man with the sunglasses and long hair was very good as well but I can't find his name in the credits , can some one help me out with that ? Thanks ! Enjoy Hak hap or Black Mask , in any language its good entertainment !
Dan Gould
I love this movie, simply put. The problem with martial arts and action movies is they're usually quite formulaic, they kinda need to be I suppose, but they're not always interesting. Black Mask is on times a little bit silly (the usual suspension of disbelief is required when the hero dons a strip of ribbed plastic that covers only his eyes, and suddenly nobody recognises him), but it is in my opinion a bold attempt.Jet Li plays a member of the 701 squad, a group of people with their nervous systems removed so they don't feel pain. He gets separated from the rest of his squad and assumes them dead, so goes about his own life trying to make himself feel human again. But when he hears from a policeman friend about big drug dealers being killed he suspects the 701 squad is behind it and goes against his former allies.It sounds standard but the fact none of them can feel pain makes it feel quite different, and the fight scenes involving full power crotch shots, falls from height, electric shocks, punches to the throat, and many other things that would end a fight immediately don't even faze our pain-free heroes and villains and makes the fights more bonecrunching and wince-inspiring than a lot of other martial arts movies. It helps that the two leading ladies are the cutesy girl-next-door Karen Mok and the mouthwateringly gorgeous Francoise Yip (of Rumble in the Bronx fame).The fights are excellently coordinated, the dubbing is sometimes laughable but adds to the campy feel of the film which I personally find highly enjoyable, the story is reasonably engaging, and the score has a cheesy spy-thriller classic sound to it.If you like your action movies to be a little bit silly and just a touch camp, while occasionally delving into dark subject matter, with brutal action scenes and top notch eye candy of both genders (there are some FINE looking people in this movie lol) then this film can't come more highly recommended by me.
Batkid1
This film looks like a mix between both Batman, X-MEN and "The Matrix" all combined and I'm proud to say that if you like either film series and/or are a fan of that genre, then you'll probably dig this one!Jet Li plays a super human soldier created by the HK government and escapes after an opening gun battle and explosive opening ( which in the U.S. version has this and every other fight scene be accompanied by rap music! ). He then becomes a librarian and lives a quiet life with a police officer friend ( played by the under-rated Ching Wan Lau ). But when mysterious happenings occur, our main protagonist becomes a super-hero by night and ends up fighting a team of other super-human experiments, who have formed a clan that is devoted to black-mailing the HK government into giving them a cure by stealing the main information files. It's non-stop and an entertaining adrenaline rush! See now, but don't watch if you get way too annoyed by dubbing.
