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Chasing the Dragon >> Jet Li gets in line with Black Mask
by RUPERT BOTTENBERG
One can't be sure producer/pop auteur Tsui Hark intended the getup as a nod to the one-time king of the martial arts genre. A few comparisons can be drawn, though. Equally babyfaced, Lee and Li share a stern, quiet, scrappy shotglass-of-TNT quality, and the attendant lack of comedic zing (Jackie Chan hogs all that). Also, both Lee and Li are subject to quasi-mystical aggrandizement. Li was never a Shaolin monk, and negative chi vibes did not make Lee's brain pop. On the other hand, while Bruce Lee's oeuvre was pretty crazy stuff, he never did anything as absurdly obtuse as Black Mask, now being re-released dubbed, reedited and blessed with a--what's the term?--"bumpin'" hip hop soundtrack. It's like this: Tsui (Li) is a librarian who's really an elite ultrasoldier from a top secret project involving brain surgery that made the 701 Squad impervious to pain and emotion but also a security risk so the government tried to eliminate them but Tsui escaped to try to build a new life and learn to feel again until rogue 701ers show up in Hong Kong to corner the global drug market by killing all the drug dealers except one who has a bomb planted in his heart and then it's all crazy fighting and lasers and rollerblading commandos and murder bunnies in fishnets and S&M and CDs-as-ninja-stars and microwave guns and explosions and stuff like that. Not only does Black Mask feature the adorable and capricious Karen Mok and the deadly eyebrows of Lau Ching Wan, it boasts fight choreography by Yuen Wo Ping. He helped set a new standard of action movie excellence with The Matrix, so his name might well pop up around more western productions. Li's certainly will; camera's are rolling on Romeo Must Die as you read this.
Black Mask opens Friday, May 14 |
Once you're done snickering at Jet Li's bat-costume in Black Mask--a chauffeur's cap and a Lone Ranger number flawlessly crafted from raw corrugated cardboard--ask yourself who he reminds you of. Let's see, let's see... oh, right, it's Kato, the sidekick from '60s TV show The Green Hornet. Who played Kato again? That's right: Bruce Lee.