| Black Mask | |||||||||||
| Native Name: |
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| Director: | Daniel Lee | ||||||||||
| Screenplay: |
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| Story: |
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| Producer: | Tsui Hark | ||||||||||
| Starring: | |||||||||||
| Cinematography: | Tony Cheung | ||||||||||
| Editing: | Cheung Ka-fai | ||||||||||
| Music: | Teddy Robin | ||||||||||
| Studio: | |||||||||||
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| Runtime: | 99 minutes | ||||||||||
| Country: | Hong Kong | ||||||||||
| Language: | Cantonese | ||||||||||
| Budget: | [1] | ||||||||||
| Gross: | |||||||||||
Black Mask is a 1996 Hong Kong superhero comedy film directed by Daniel Lee, and produced by Tsui Hark, who also wrote with Koan Hui, Teddy Chan, and Joe Ma.[2] The action director was Yuen Woo-ping.[3] The film stars Jet Li, Lau Ching-wan, Karen Mok, Françoise Yip, Patrick Lung, and Anthony Wong. The film was released theatrically in Hong Kong on 9 November 1996.[4] In 1999, the film was dubbed in English and released in the United States by Artisan Entertainment.[5]
The film is an adaptation of the 1992 manhua Black Mask by Li Chi-Tak.[6] In 2002, it was followed by a sequel, , starring Andy On and directed by Tsui Hark.
In homage to The Green Hornet, Black Mask wears a domino mask and chauffeur's cap in the same style as Kato (played by Bruce Lee) from the television series.[7] The Black Mask is even compared to Kato in a news reporter scene.
Tsui Chik (or Simon in the US version) tries to lead a quiet life as a librarian. However, he is really a former test subject for a highly secretive supersoldier project and the instructor of a special commando unit dubbed "701". The 701 squad is used for many government missions, but after one of the agents kills a team of policemen in an uncontrollable rage, the government decides to abort the project and eliminate all the subjects. Tsui Chik helped the surviving 701 agents flee the extermination attempt. Having escaped, Tsui Chik went separate ways from his team and lived in Hong Kong. Later at night he discovers that the rest of the team were responsible for a violent crime spree that was beyond the capability of the local police. He sets out to get rid of them, donning a mask and hat using the superhero alias of The Black Mask. Having lost the ability to feel pain due to the surgery performed on the super-soldiers by the military, Black Mask is almost invulnerable.
Black Mask grossed over at the worldwide box office, including in Asia.[1] Released on 9 November 1996, Black Mask grossed a moderate HK$13,286,788 during its Hong Kong box office run.[8]
In May 1999, home video distributor Artisan Entertainment released a re-edited version in the United States theatrically. It grossed a reasonable US$4,449,692 ($4,545 per screen) in its opening weekend, and grossed a total of US$12,504,289.[9]
DVD sales for Black Mask totalled in North America and more than worldwide.[1] Lionsgate Home Entertainment (successor to Artisan when it acquired in 2003) released a Blu-ray version in the United States on 2 September 2008.[10]
The film is recognised for having multiple versions: Hong Kong (Cantonese), Taiwanese (Mandarin), English (export), United Kingdom (distributed by BMG) and United States (distributed by Artisan Entertainment).
For the Cantonese version, the original Mei Ah DVD is cut for gore, but the remastered DVD restores a scene of blood-spurting. The French DVD features the Hong Kong version in the correct form, but contains no English subtitles.
Featured on DVDs distributed in Taiwan by Long Shong, Ritek and Thundermedia, there is approximately 100 seconds footage exclusive to the Taiwanese version:
Both Hong Kong and Taiwanese releases maintain the green-tinting of the film.
An English version similar to the Hong Kong version was produced for export (featured on the Spanish DVD), but BMG and Artisan decided to make their own. Whilst only occasionally replacing music on the UK release, Artisan commissioned a brand-new English Hip Hop soundtrack – therefore, removing any reference to the original (despite using excerpts from it in their trailers). Despite a tendency of trimming non-action scenes, the Artisan and BMG versions not only contain all gory content, but also some non-violent scenes not found in any other version:
Lawrence Van Gelder of The New York Times called it "long on flying bodies, bullets and blood and short on credibility".[11] Marc Savlov of The Austin Chronicle rated it 3/5 stars and called it "a bloodily exhilarating piece of hyper-kinetic filmmaking".[12] Nathan Rabin of The A.V. Club wrote: "While never reaching the manic highs of Chan's best work, Black Mask is an exciting, lightning-fast introduction to one of Hong Kong's biggest and most charismatic stars."[13]