Product Description

Before he was the mask tsui was part of the 701 squad an elite military force of medically enchanced super-soldiers who wer rendered void of physical and emotional pain. Demoralized tsui escapes from their headquarters in maniland china and attempts to live a normal life in hong kong. Studio: Lions Gate Home Ent. Release Date: 03/15/2005 Starring: Jet Li Francoise Yip Run time: 102 minutes Rating: R Director: Daniel Lee

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #40832 in DVD
• Brand: Lions Gate
• Released on: 2001-08-14
• Rating: R (Restricted)
• Aspect ratio: 1.85:1
• Formats: Anamorphic, Color, Dolby, DVD, Widescreen, NTSC
• Original language: English
• Subtitled in: English
• Dubbed in: English
• Number of discs: 1
• Running time: 102 minutes

Amazon.com
Take the art direction and set design from The Crow and Batman. Add a male-bonding element reminiscent of The Killer or Hard-Boiled. Stir in a plot line about some top-secret near-invincible bionic-man superwarriors taking over the drug trade in Hong Kong, with only one man who can stop them. Season with a high body count, lots of explosions and running gun battles, and spectacular hand-to-hand fight sequences. Top off with a soupçon of cheesy comic relief and a generous helping of atrocious dubbing. Bake for too long, then remove from oven and allow to cool until thoroughly stale. The result: Black Mask. Sure, it's a preposterous recipe (bet you didn't know that LED readouts will show up on an X-ray), but it's stylishly prepared and presented, with high-octane editing, wild camera angles, and a neo-Goth feel all around. Of course it's all about the remarkable Jet Li, the fight scenes, and the postindustrial art direction. Those who come expecting a high-concept, intelligent thriller will be left with indigestion, but Hong Kong action fans who live and die for insane stunts and head-spinning martial arts scenes will have their appetites sated by this dish. It's very interesting to see the influence that John Woo's hand continues to have on American and HK action thrillers, years after his seminal films with Chow Yun-fat. It'll be even more interesting to see how films like Black Mask hold up in the future. Just don't take it too seriously and this movie works just fine. Oh, and the title? It comes from when Jet Li switches from his mild-mannered librarian persona to butt-kicking superhero, complete with mask and hat à la The Green Hornet's Cato. --Jerry Renshaw

Customer Reviews

Great fights!
This movie is incomparable. I saw it three times in theaters and each time converted a new, previously sceptical friend. Jet is as endearing as ever, but more importantly, the fight scenes cannot be matched. They had to write Jet's character's superhuman background into the story simply to justify how fast he moves. You won't be disappointed.

This movie blows~
I'm a great fan of Jet Li, and I've seen most of his movies since I love his action scenes and his acting: whether it's serious, hillarious, good, or evil. I own some of his movies, and I recently purchased this movie thinking it would be somewhat like "Batman." Well, my expectation was completely off, but in a negative way. Since I bought a Chinese version, which did not contain the "rap" other people were talking about, the sound effect was ok. It was the plot and action scenes that blew. Jet Li had few fighting scenes throughout the film and those were quite disappointing knowing his abilities from previous movies. The director, Tsui Hark, who also teamed up with Li in OUTIC series, "High Risk," and so on, was able to display great fighting scenes and good plot. This film, which was particularly aimed at American viewers, was a disappointing one. It's not worth buying, but it would not hurt to watch it to see if you want to see Jet Li getting beaten up :) If you want to see Jet Li's good movies, watch "Fong Sai Yuk I & II," "Fist of Legend," "My Father is a Hero," "Bodyguard from Beijing," and the movies mentioned above. Thank you for taking your time viewing my review^^

One of the best movies with Jet Li!
The effects are really great. However, I don't like the rap-like music. Jet Li plays Tsui Chik (Michael in the American version), an ex-member of the 701 Squad, who has his nervous system removed through surgery, along with the other 701 members. Tsui had excaped from mainland China and moved to Hong Kong under another identity (this movie was filmed in 1996, at that time, Hong Kong still belonged to the UK). That's when he realizes that the 701 Squad has caused devastating crimes there. He realizes that he must do something to stop them, or the whole world is doomed.

My favorite scenery is the one near the end, when Tsui Chik battles the leader of the 701 Squad, the guy with the long hair and dark glasses. As stated earlier, both of their nervous systems were removed, so they fought without pain. Pretty awesome, huh?

If you haven't seen this movie, please see it (despite the fact that it's rated R).