Black Cat (Full Uncut Version)

• Cert: 18
• Running time: 92 minutes
• Year: 1991
• Pressing: 1996
• Sides: 2 (CLV)
• Chapters: 31 (15/16)
• Cat.no: HK 036L
• Sound: Mono
• Widescreen : 1.85:1
• Cantonese language with English subtitles
• Price: £29.99
• Extras : None

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Directors:

Dicksoon Poon and Stephen Shin

Cast:

Catherine : Jade Leung (Black Cat 2 : The Assassination of President Yeltsin)
Also starring Simon Yam (Killer’s Romance, Naked Killer, Return Engagement) and Thomas Lam

Black Catstars Jade Leung as Catherine, a young girl who has come fromliving on the streets to working in a diner somewhere in America. One night,as the sole diner trys to touch her up, she picks up a fork and stabs him inthe hand. She gets thrown out of the diner and her job. Outside, the samediner tries to rape her, but as she fights back both outside and back insidethe diner, her last line of defence becomes the gun suddenly produced by theowner trying to stop the madness.

After the carnage, the police arrive. Startled, Catherine shoots at the firstperson she sees, a cop, killing him instantly, and then being taken straightto the police station. She manages to escape after being given more than arough time by one of the female police officers, only to be brought back ina way she didn’t expect, and the next time she’ll open her eyes, she’ll bein a white bed in a white room in a white corridor, being told that she hasbeen certified dead, and is now the property of the United States government,with a microchip inside her brain so she is at their command, and she iscodenamed, Black Cat.

If all this sounds rather familiar to fans of Luc Besson’s Nikita,that’s because it’s a remake, albeit with a different beginning which soonfinds its way back to the roots of the original. It also has more action packedinto five minutes than most directors can pack into a whole film. Don’t getme wrong, I do like the original, but by comparison I don’t have a lot oftime for the other remake, The Assassin (released in the USA as”Point of No Return” from director John Badham.

I’m happy to report that with this remake, the directors have chosen to bringnew scenarios into the film for our heroine to exercise her new skills, ratherthan simply rehashing old ones used in “Nikita” a la “The Assassin“

Even for those who don’t like subtitles in a film, this one being set in theUSA, doesn’t have as much Cantonese dialogue. For those scenes which do,subtitles appear in the black bar under the widescreen image.

Picture quality is fine although the print does have a number of white speckson it and one or two picture jumps. However, this is sort of thing that onetends to expect from a Hong Kong film from time to time. The mono soundmixdoes the job, although it would have been nice if the film had been in stereoor surround. The only gripe with the sound is that it tends to fall behindslightly with the picture, so when Jade Leung is beating the hell out of aprison guard, it does seem a little weird.

The chapter breaks are perfectly adequate with 31 spread over the 92 minutesof the film. However, as side 2 only lasts 34 mins, it would have been niceto have had side 2 mastered in CAV.