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If you needed confirmation that director Tsui
Hark had definitely lost his magic touch, then Black Mask 2 is it.
It somehow defies belief what goes through Tsui Hark's mind, especially
when it comes to regarding his recent films. The guy certainly has
lost his marbles.
Tsui first made Black Mask in 1996 with Jet Li
in the lead role, which also included Lau Ching Wan and Karen Mok
in supporting roles. It wasn't a runaway hit, but however, became
something of a cult film in the West. It was Jet Li that made the
film, and Li must have thanked his angels (or agents) that Tsui
didn't hire him for this sequel.
It must be said that this is not a direct sequel
to Jet Li's Black Mask, and despite the same name, it doesn't seem
to be anything similar to the first film. Using an entirely international
cast who speak English, Tsui has intended this film for the international
market. None of the actors, with the sole exception of ex-porn star
Traci Lords, are known to me, including the lead actor Andy On who
steps into Jet Li's shoes (or should we say, dons the black mask).
Andy On does an okay job, but he is no Jet Li,
and as a result pales in comparison. He is good-looking enough,
but lacks the on-screen charisma and character that Jet has in abundance,
and also lacking Li's grace and fight skills. Yuen Woo Ping, who
is the fight choreographer, lends his expertise to the film, and
makes all the actors look as if they've been fighting all their
lives. Sadly, most of the fights are done with shoddy wire-work
and poor special effects. See The Matrix to witness how it should
be done.
The plot is completely meaningless, and shows
no incentive for the audience to follow. The piss-poor dialogue
just adds salt to the wound, not to mention wasting our time and
money. If you want to know, the plot is about a secret lab which
churns out superhuman people. The Black Mask was one of these but
he escaped, and now they are hunting him. Another evil-doer had
injected animal DNA into wrestlers, thus giving them animal strength-induced
qualities. They all need an antidote to rid themselves of the virus,
but Black Mask needs it first, thus a fight to the end. The plot
is so single-minded that no background story was included on the
secret lab or Black Mask. Zilch.
Tsui Hark always believed that CGI and special
effects are the future. In fact, he was the pioneer of using special
effects in Hong Kong cinema, but his over-fondness of it (see The
Legend of Zu) has caused him to over-rely on it, thus forsaking
the most basic necessity of filmmaking - storytelling. Black Mask
2 features plenty of special effects, which takes place mostly at
night, and ends up being completely shite, with a capital S. It
is sooo early nineties stuff.
If the money spent on these crappy effects were
utilised within the script (and on better actors) then Black Mask
2 may have been a better vehicle. As it is, it doesn't even deserve
to have the title "Black Mask", and I would certainly
advise you to rather don cack-stained underwear over your eyes than
see this pile of tripe.
NB: There is a Cantonese dubbed version of
this film which features a ton of top HK stars. Why I haven't a
single clue, but the dubbed version is very funny, and totally different
to the original script. Cast includes: Andy Lau, Lau Ching Wan,
Louis Koo, Cecilia Cheung, Chapman To, Jordan Chan, and Patrick
Tam.
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