"Let me try the splits! I saw it in a Van Damme movie once..."
Black Mask is a 1996 Hong Kong science fiction action film starring Jet Li, Lau Ching-wan, and Anthony Wong. The film is adapted from the 1992 Manhua of the same name by Li Chi-Tak, starring Jet Li in the titular role, and is notably the second time Jet plays a character that pays tribute to Bruce Lee (after reprising Bruce's role of Chen Zhen in Fist of Legend).
The Black Mask character is based on Bruce Lee's character, Kato, from The Green Hornet; his attire consisting of a chauffeur's cap, domino mask and black coat is directly inspired by Kato as he appeared in the TV series. The character Kato was even specifically mentioned in a news report at one point.
Tsui Chik (Jet Li) appears to be a mild-mannered librarian with a simple life, but in actuality he was part of a covert super-soldier program, the "701" project, which was terminated after it went horribly wrong in the past and surviving members of the project are to be eliminated to keep the project a secret. After escaping from a top-secret laboratory, Tsui assumes the top secret identity of the superhero, "Black Mask", and have to stop his team of rogue super-soldiers hell-bent on a killing spree.
There is a sequel, Black Mask 2: City of Masks, which comes out 6 years later, starring Andy On as Black Mask.
Black Mask provides examples of the following tropes:
- Absurdly Spacious Sewer: Part of the entrance of infiltrating the Commander’s underground hideout leads through a massive sewer-line. Black Mask had to take on various mooks and fight a 701-unit elite fighter while treading on puddles of filthy water.
- An Arm and a Leg:
- Inspector Shek manage to get the drop on one of the 701-unit soldiers, and handcuffs him to the tracked loader he’s using as an attack vehicle. The soldier responds by hacking off his handcuffed arm (much to Shek’s bewilderment).
- Near the climax as Black Mask fights Commander Hung’s personal bodyguard in a chamber with turrets firing Frickin' Laser Beams all over the place, the bodyguard ends up accidentally having an arm sheared off by a stray laser.
- Badass Bookworm: Tsui, whose civilian identity is a librarian.
- Barehanded Bar Bending: Black Mask, after impaling a Mook Lieutenant on a set of construction bars, then bends the bars to hold his opponent in place. It doesn't work.
- Bathroom Brawl: One of the action scenes involve Tsui and Inspector Shek fighting off a bunch of punks in a public toilet. While Shek needs some effort to beat down the punks, Tsui, being Black Mask, took down his opponents much faster and easier, and effortlessly delivered an Offhand Backhand on a punk sneaking up on him.
- Blood from the Mouth: Black Mask defeats a 701-unit Mook Lieutenant with a sharp kick to his chin, and the film helpfully shows him spitting out a spray of blood, indicating that he’s a goner and won’t be antagonizing Black Mask anymore.
- Bluff the Impostor: Late in the film, Inspector Shek starts noticing some suspicious behavior from a young subordinate who is new to his unit and suspects that the guy is The Mole for the 701-unit. So he asks a few questions about how long the guy has been with the police and where he worked before transferring into Shek's unit. Based on these answers, Shek talks about the supervisor that his subordinate must have worked under before the transfer, and what a nice guy he is. The mole agrees and gets shot immediately.Chan died four years ago, and he was a real prick!
- Coat, Hat, Mask: The standard attire of Black Mask, including his Badass Longcoat, Domino Mask, and hat.
- Construction Vehicle Rampage: One of the 701-unit members performs an ambush on Inspector Shek and several officers using a tracked loader, and manage to take down several redshirts before Inspector Shek climbs to the vehicle's side and forces the driver to stop.
- Cop Killer: Jimmy. All 20-odd victims of his from the hospital rampage scene are police officers, in a massacre lifted straight from The Terminator.
- Dark Action Girl: Cailyn, the sole female member of the 701-unit. And also the alleged Lost Lenore of Black Mask until she’s revealed to be Brainwashed and Crazy by the experimentation.
- Deadly Disc: Black Mask uses razor-sharp discs as his back-up weapon, which is lethal enough to kill 701-unit members if aimed at the throat.
- In the final battle, Black Mask finally kills the Commander with a disc hurled into his throat.
- Deliberately Monochrome: Some of the opening flashback is in black-and-white to depict Black Mask’s past as a test subject. Those scenes are set at least a decade before the film proper.
- Disturbed Doves: Cailyn walking away from her meeting with Inspector Shek is followed by a close-up shot of a white dove held on her hand flying away into the distance.
- Elite Mook: The 701 Squad soldiers, several which Black Mask had to face. One of them named Jimmy ambushes a police unit in a hospital and turns the entire scene into a Mook Horror Show.
- Evil Is Not Well-Lit: The bioweapon research facility in the opening scene, and the Commander’s Elaborate Underground Base in the ending, both which are sparely-lit with a constantly gloomy atmosphere. These mostly works in favor for Black Mask though; his all-black attire allows him to sneak in and out easily and stealthily take out mooks.
- Escaped from the Lab: Black Mask’s Action Prologue, featuring him turning against the researchers that recreates him into a bio-weapon and breaking out, killing soldiers left and right.
- Face Framed in Shadow: Commander Hung in his lair in most of his scenes, due to the Evil Is Not Well-Lit example above.
- Four Eyes, Zero Soul: The Commander wears glasses, and is by far the most sinister character and the Big Bad of the movie.
- Groin Attack: Used briefly in the final battle, when Black Mask headbutts the Commander through the crotch and flips him over.
- Hollywood Acid:
- In the opening action scene, Black Mask took down several soldiers by causing a jeep to crash into an acid-producing lab, causing a massive explosion that leads to an indoor acid rain. The subsequent acid splashing on unfortunate soldiers results in the victims having a dose of Facial Horror.
- Later on, a group of agents accidentally triggered an acid spray trap while investigating a massacre, resulting in several of them killed by having their skin dissolved into green liquid.
- Human Shield: Black Mask briefly uses a soldier as a meat-shield from bullets during the opening breakout. A Bulletproof Human Shield, to be precise, considering how said soldier gets blasted by more than a dozen machine guns while being held by Black Mask.
- Impaled with Extreme Prejudice: Black Mask against another 701-unit Mook Lieutenant, which he took out by flipping his opponent over his head, landing gut-first on a row of steel construction beams. And the Mook Lieutenant actually gets back up from that a few seconds later.
- Lightning Lash: In the final battle between Commander Hung and Black Mask, the Commander detaches a thick electrical cord sparkling with static electricity, and tries whipping it at Black Mask as an Improvised Weapon.
- Made of Iron: The 701-unit members, who Feel No Pain, can soak up dozens of bullets in their body and can break bricks and bend metal by kicking or punching. Black Mask is notably a Super Prototype of the experiment and can take down other members, although with some difficulty.
- Man on Fire: During the hospital rampage scene where the police try taking on the Nigh-Invulnerable Jimmy, the action shifts to a storage room full of flammable liquids, where a poorly-timed misfire sets several cops and Jimmy alight. And while the cops died, Jimmy somehow survives and continues ass-kicking once the fire is extinguished.
- Mass "Oh, Crap!": Inspector Shek and several detectives when they discover they’ve been Lured into a Trap. As well as the entire police force when facing Jimmy's hospital rampage; they may be wearing balaclavas but the horror can be clearly seen in their eyes.
- Nothing Up My Sleeve: One of the 701-unit member which serves as Commander Hung’s personal bodyguard had a concealed blade which he manages to get the drop on Black Mask by stabbing Black Mask’s gut. Since Black Mask is Made of Iron, he simply push the blade away and continues fighting.
- One-Eyed Shot: The opening scene featuring Black Mask being subjected to experiments as a test subject have several shots closing up on his eye dilating from effects of the drugs and medication government scientists are using on him.
- Out with a Bang: King Kau's fate, being seduced by Cailyn on top of him, not noticing her stealthily slipping a razor blade out of her lips until she used it to slice his face up before garrotting him with a wire.
- Precision F-Strike: The English dub likes to play up Inspector Shek as a cynical, hard bitten, 90s tough guy, so it makes him swear quite a bit. Every now and then he's a bit more precise in his cursing.Inspector Shek : "Stop talking and just kick the motherfucker's ass, would you? "
- Playing Possum: After Jimmy gets set alight and collapses, a few police officers think he’s finally down for good (being set on fire and burning for a full minute onscreen… No One Could Survive That!) and extinguishes the flames. Natch, Jimmy simply gets back up, grabs a nearby gun, and continues firing away.
- Rank Scales with Asskicking: The Commander leads the 701-unit of super-soldiers, and is by far the deadliest, most cunning and most competent fighter Black Mask has ever faced.
- Rasputinian Death: Jimmy the 701-unit King Mook, who gets repeatedly beaten down, shot a hundred times, smashed through walls and windows, set on fire, and flung off a top-storey window before the time bomb on his body explodes turning him into flaming chunks. He left behind an arm on Inspector Shek.
- Ray Gun: The Commander’s main hideout is guarded by various ceiling-mounted Sentry Gun, which are triggered remotely and shoots Frickin' Laser Beams at intruders.
- Razor Floss: Cailyn eliminates King Kau by slicing his throat with a garotte wire.
- Rollerblade Good: Some of the 701-unit mooks tries to battle Black Mask while on rocket-powered roller-skates.
- Rule of Symbolism: Early on, while posing as a civilian, Tsui / Black Mask is seen reading a book titled "Fragility of the Human Mind". Considering he’s a Super-Soldier designed to be a mindless, emotionless killing machine....
- Shout-Out: Cailyn is shown playing Darius Gaiden at one point. (Specifically, the Golden Ogre boss fight)
- Smart People Play Chess: Tsui and Inspector Shek’s first meeting had the two of them playing Chinese chess. With Tsui winning.
- Super-Soldier: The 701 program is a government project to create artificial super-soldiers, which Black Mask used to be a member of.
- Unwilling Suspension: Cailyn, being strung up on a roof.King Kau: "Hang in there baby!"
- Why Am I Ticking?: During the dissection scene where Shek and a few police officers are dissecting a corpse recovered from the facility, they discover a time bomb stitched into the victim’s body while the victim is still alive.
Black Mask 2: City of Masks provides examples of the following tropes:
- Beast Man: Dr. Moloch's minions, whose names are Exactly What It Says on the Tin, including Wolf, Chameleon, Snake and Thorn,
- Contrasting Sequel Antagonist: Unlike the Commander of the first movie, who is a powerful fighter in his own right and a leader of his legion of minions, Dr. Moloch on the other hand is a Non-Action Big Bad who prefers using his experiments to enhance his mooks before sending them to face Black Mask.
- The Dragon: Dr. Lang, played by Scott Adkins.
- Evilutionary Biologist: Dr. Moloch, the new Big Bad, who uses his experimentation to turn people into beast-men.
- Greater-Scope Villain: Zeus, a Brain in a Jar seeking world domination via bioaugmented super soldiers, only sends out Lang to eliminate Black Mask and is otherwise not confronted at any point.
- In Name Only: Apart from Black Mask himself, this film has nothing to do with the first entry, let alone the original manwha.
