		Year: 1996 Director: Daniel Lee Starring: Jet Li , Lau Ching Wan, Francoise Yip, Karen Mok Genre: Action/martial arts Literal title translation: 'Dark Hero'

Jet Li plays Tsui, former member of the 701 squad, a group of elite professional assassins trained to not feel human emotions. After leaving the squad Tsui finds himself a job as a librarian and begins searching for a normal life. However, Tsui's old team resurface to control Hong Kong and Tsui must become the Black Mask, a masked vigilante who must bring justice to the dark world.

A lot of time and money was spent on this film and it certainly looks good. Jet Li makes a very good leading man and his character seems to be written around his acting talents. Tsui is quite cold and calm and this is what Jet Li does best. He looks a bit short though, as the rest of the cast are all very tall in comparison (Lau Ching Wan, Francoise Yip). Some moments are quite shocking and this film is a lot darker than Jet Li's usual work. The world that has been created is very good and the characters that exist within it are all well developed and have their own personal demons. Lau Ching Wan is especially good as Jet Li's friend and mentor. The main problems here though are that there are not that many extended action scenes and Jet Li never really cuts loose (apart from in the excellent roof top battle). Also, Jet does not wear the black mask nearly enough, as when he does the character is very visually impressive. This is the Far East Batman but even darker and with a higher action bias. The end scene (where Tsui defeats the bad guy) is very well thought out and the entire aesthetic feels very much like a comic book. There are the usual comedy sequences but luckily these are downplayed in favour of the dark surrounds so the it never degenerates into farce.

This is one of Jet's better modern day films and the part has clearly been tailored for him. However, there is the feeling that a bit more could have been done with the source material. But this does not stop the film from being very entertaining. It all comes to a satisfying conclusion and the direction is solid. Daniel Lee has made an impressive debut but perhaps this film could have been a classic if someone different had taken the reigns and ironed out the small creases.