Tuesday, July 30, 2024

Black Mask - Jet Li (1996) - Jardines Lookout

I'm currently on the tail-end of a month-long sojourn to Europe (currently in Finland), but whilst in London visited my favourite Oxfam shop in Strutton Ground where I have picked up some bargains (books, music and DVDs) over the past few years. This time I managed to grab myself a copy of the English dub of Black Mask, starring Jet Li. 

The film is about a former member of a group of crack, bio-engineered, soldiers, known as 701 Squadron. They're a group of mercernaries who have decided to go their own way, under the control of their commander (a really creepy looking Patrick Lung), and remove the drug kings in Hong Kong so they can step in as the go-betweens for the South American cartels and greater China. Black Mask (Li) has already gone his own way and now works in a library to forget about his past, until his cop friend (Sean Lau) is put in danger when he investigates the drug killings.

The opening shot of the film is a helicopter shot (no drones in those days) over the peak of Jardines Lookout on Hong Kong island. Apparently, the helicopter was originally hired to do some close-up shots of the Bank of China tower but the plan was abandoned when the filmmakers thought they might get into trouble, so they settled for something a bit more discreet. 

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