Black Mask (1996)
Reviewed by: grimes on 2000-04-09
Jet plays a supersoldier whose ability to feel pain has been turned off. He wants to find out how to be a normal human being so he goes to work in a library and plays chess with cop buddy Lau Ching-Wan. However, the rest of his supersoldier unit comes to town and starts making trouble so Jet gets involved (but wears a black mask to conceal his identity). Meanwhile Karen Mok chases after him because he's not like other guys.

This is not Jet Li's best film (not even close). It has a kind of a weird comic book feel to the whole thing (which is good) but it didn't pull it off very well (which is bad). Karen Mok was in it (which is good) but her character was pretty one-dimensional (which is bad).

Jet wears a mask and talks in a funny voice for a good portion of the film (think Michael Keaton in Batman) which kind of took away a lot of the fun for me. It could have been anyone in many of the scenes. Karen Mok has nothing to do but squeal. Lau Ching-Wan almost manages to create a character from the weak script, but even his talents can't quite pull it off. There are some decent action sequences but nothing that you can't find in other, better, Jet films.