Jade Leung made an impressive debut in Stephen Shin’s ‘La Femme Nikita’ redux, ‘Black Cat’, that while it has its misgivings still delivers enough hard-edged action and is buoyed by Miss Leung’s electric performance to make it a trashy action hit.
Leung plays Catherine, a down-and-out drifter wandering the American highways who falls foul of a nasty trucker late one night at a truck stop. Barely surviving the scuffle, she kills her assailant and an officer on the scene, meaning she’s chucked in the local clink. Not offered much salvation by some abusive cops she makes a daring and violent escape before being sedated by unseen assailants. Waking up in a secure facility, with little memory, she’s informed by mysterious handler Brian (Simon Yam) that she’s been recruited into an assassin training program with a microchip now logged in her head. Said chip is used to enhance her skills and despite trying to escape the facility, Catherine comes to terms with her situation and submits to being trained as an expert killer. Once training is complete, she’s let go and reborn as Erica/Black Cat, an assassin who must fulfil her missions no matter what. Attempting to assimilate back to a normal life in Hong Kong, the balancing of her new relationship with Allen (Thomas Lam) and carrying out killings becomes near impossible: the two different sides of her life clashing with violent results.
A fairly no bones about it retread of Luc Besson’s classic, ‘Black Cat’ is still some energetic fun, despite a lacklustre third act, mainly thanks to some blistering action and an almost feral performance from the great Jade Leung. It’s quite a startling debut as for the first half of the film her character is rarely given a moment’s rest from beatings, chases, and relentlessly harsh training. The opening scenes border on the exploitative as Leung’s would-be assassin is dished out some harsh abuse before segueing into some just as harsh training sequences. It’s all propelled by Leung’s intense and physically dynamic performance and some glorious widescreen photography courtesy of Lee Kin-Keung (‘Tiger Cage’, ‘Forbidden City Cop’). There’s some intense gunplay action also and the makers at least try to make the assassination kills inventive if overly elaborate (the kill in a Japanese outdoor water spa is particularly memorable!).
Unfortunately, momentum and interest dip in the third act when the relationship with Erica and new beau Allen becomes the focus of the film: now miles away in tone from what it was at the beginning. The eventual clash of Catherine’s/Erica’s two lives eventually erupts in violence and misfortune, but it all seems rather rushed (after a long and inevitable build up) with an all too abrupt conclusion: the film feels like it just stops (presumably making way for the sequel that followed a year later!).
Still, the solid action, Jade Leung’s impressively committed performance and the always dependable Simon Yam (along with some location lensing in the USA, Hong Kong, and Japan) elevate the low budget nature of the flick making it an entertaining romp.
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