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Black Cat
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List Price: $29.95
Our Price: $85.95
Availability: N/A
Manufacturer: Image Entertainment
Starring: Jade Leung, Simon Yam, Thomas Lam, Curtis Fraser, Denise Stauffer
Directed By: Stephen Shin
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Average Customer Rating:   
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Audience Rating: NR (Not Rated)
Binding: DVD
EAN: 9786304857250
Format: AC-3
ISBN: 630485725X
Label: Image Entertainment
Manufacturer: Image Entertainment
Number Of Items: 1
Picture Format: Letterbox
Publisher: Image Entertainment
Region Code: 0
Release Date: 1998-03-24
Running Time: 92
Studio: Image Entertainment
Theatrical Release Date: 1991
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Editorial Reviews:
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If you thought La Femme Nikita was tough, then you haven't seen Black Cat in action. Shamelessly and aggressively ripped off from the sleek French action classic, this outrageous Hong Kong action melodrama stars Jade Leung as a surly, hot-headed Chinese drifter in New York (actually Vancouver, Canada, subbing for the U.S. location). After killing a couple of macho trucker slimeballs and a cop in a brutal, bloody fight at a roadside diner, she's "killed" by a mystery man and reborn as a stealth assassin for a super-secret high-tech government agency. Director Stephen Shin goes for broke in a series of bizarre action scenes, but none tops the protagonist's graduation exercise, an outrageous assassination at a Jewish wedding that explodes into gang warfare when every guest suddenly pops up armed with semiautomatic weapons. That kind of logic guides the entire film: Leung's character is never told why, only who, and she slickly takes out her heavily guarded targets with everything from ice bullets to steel girders. Leung pouts and sneers her way through her film debut, all attitude and sass even when she falls in love with gentle environmentalist Thomas Lam (who wins her heart with his syrupy harmonica playing). Simon Yam (the suave assassin of Bullet in the Head) plays her sensitive but steely mentor, secretly in love with the woman he plunges into heady mind games. Leung returns in Black Cat II: The Assassination of President Yeltsin, an even more insane action logic-bomb. --Sean Axmaker
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Spotlight customer reviews:
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Customer Rating:
Summary: New Twist to an Old Tale
Comment: First off, make sure that you buy the original release that Amazon offers, not the new English dubbed DVD release. Well, in the grand tradition of Hong Kong Action films to remake American and other films, Black Cat is the remake of the French film La Femme Nikita (The American version, Point of No Return, was the third in this series of remakes). Anyway...Black Cat stars Jade Leung in the starring role of a bad grrrl transformed into a top notch assassin for a top secret organization. The Hong Kong twist is that a computer chip called a Black Cat is implanted into Leung's brain, augmenting her abilities, and making her the great assasin that she is. This film has all the drama and action of La Femme Nikita, plus more. Simon Yam stars as Leung's mentor and controller. All in all a good film. If you've seen La Femme Nikita or Point of No Return, then you already know the plot and ending to this particular film, but give the HK version a chance. They take a proven storyline and do their magic with it.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Nothing spectacular but worth a view
Comment: I've always liked seeing flicks with chicks that kick a**. Thus, my spirits were high going into this film.Reading the description on the box pretty muched summed up the whole film. IT'S A REMAKE OF LA FEMME NIKITA. Not that this is bad, it's just that it isn't very original. Yes, Jade does most of her stunts, and quite impressive to say the least. I just wish that the character could have been devolped more in the beginning of the film so we could feel for the character more. Nothing groundbreaking, but still deserves a look.
Customer Rating:
Summary: different
Comment: Okay, it's a little annoying when people claim that Point of No Return was the second remake of La Femme Nikita. Black Cat was made in 1991 while Point was made in 1993. While Point was an almost blow by blow recreation of Nikita, Black Cat took the essential structure and gave it a different spin. Now, that's what I call a remake, what's the point of a blow by blow remake? Black Cat can never replace Nikita for me, I do think Nikata is a superior film. However, Black Cat has Jade and the film's biggest charm is the strength of the then newcomer to the movies. She brings a different intensity and understated fraility to the character. Not that Anne Parillaud was bad, she was very good, but she didn't make me want to go out there and watch every film she has ever made. Black Cat has nice action sequences courtesy of HK. It's focus is completely different from Nikita, it's more an action film then an exploration of what it feels to be trapped. There will be some of us who'll like, even love, Black Cat. There will be many who'll dislike it. There is a reason this film is called a cult classic not a classic. NOT everyone will like this film. Just bear in mind, if you intend to watch this film, watch it with an open mind and don't try and compare it with it's predecessor and you might see why Black Cat became a cult classic and Point of no Return didn't.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Yet Another 'La Femme Nikita' remake
Comment: Sigh.If first you succeed, try and try again. That's the motto of filmmakers around the world apparently. All we need now is for someone in India to make 'The Killer from Calcutta' and we will have seen every major movie industrial machine on the planet shoot a version of the same script. If you liked 'La Femme Nikita' in French (the original) and/or the Hollywood remake ('Point of No Return'), then maybe you won't mind seeing it a third time, this time with a Hong Kong sensibility. Me, I think enough is enough. Let's move on already! ('Black Cat' should probably get One Star, but I have to give the crew credit for some impressive stunts. The actors were also less-than-horrible, but no one really rose above adequate.)
Customer Rating:
Summary: It's a smart movie that knows its owner
Comment: Why is it so often the remakes of movies get the attention and accolades and it's not for some time afterward that the debt is attributed to the original? Such is the case with this film. Everybody went nuts for La Femme Nikita and thought Hollywood had the nerve to remake it as Point of No Return. They should have acknowledged this first and slapped both their hands. Maybe it's only because Hong Kong cinema is finally finding an audience that this title has surfaced. Though I like "La Femme" quite a bit, something in this version intrigued me more. Maybe it's because the heroine has greater inherant sadness and frailty about her, making the transformation all the more powerful. Anne Parlliaud is rough and tough from the get-go and merely seems to have had her natural criminality channeled into something acceptable (to the authorities anyway). The Black Cat seems to flow a bit steadier as well. I found my mind drifting a bit during La Femme when she begins to settle into a life of mayhem and finds it difficult to include a relationship into her routine. The production design in La Femme (the production values in general) are higher than those in The Black Cat, but Hong Kong cinema is not know for budet and this film performs admirably on significantly less. If you liked either of the remakes, give this a shot. It should satisfy on several levels.
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