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THE
BLACKSHEEP AFFAIR
AKA:
The Black Sheep Affair ||
Another Meltdown
Year:
1998 Reviewer: Phil
Mills
In
Southern China a plane is hijacked by a group of terrorists.
Special agent Yim Dong (Chiu Man Cheuk) is amongst the team
sent in to try and defuse the situation. When one of the
team is shot, Dong directly disobeys orders and consequently
takes out each of the terrorists.
For
his misconduct Dong is relocated to Lithuania where he is
teamed up with his best friend, Hung Wai-Kwok. At
the airport they witness the murder of some Interpol agents
and bring the criminals to justice. The man that they
arrest is Keizo Mishima, a Japanese dictator type who believes
that he has been sent by god to wipe out all non-believers.
On his way home Dong is confronted by his old girlfriend, Chan
Pun (Shu Qi), who he cannot forgive as she disowned her
country to escape the violence.
Dong
and Kwok are put on escort duty for Mishima to get him back to
Japan but run into trouble when they are ambushed. After
dealing with their attackers they contact the man behind the
assault and discover he has taken over the Chinese embassy
with Pun amongst the hostages. Dong must choose
between his duty and the woman he loves to enable him to save
the day.
'The
Blacksheep Affair' is an exhilarating action film that firmly
puts Chiu Man Cheuk on the map as a possible successor to Jet
Li. Cheuk's Martial Arts are clearly of a very high
calibre and Ching Siu Tung's refreshing choreography allows
him to let lose with some superb kicking combinations that
only utilise minimal wirework. In fact, I would go so
far as to say that the action on display here is some of the
finest seen in any recent outings from Hong Kong because it
really does capture a little of that spark that was seen in
the bygone days of classic kung fu cinema.
Although
Chiu Man Cheuk clearly leads the charge as the most prominent
cast member, all of the actors and actresses put in sterling performances.
Relative newcomer Lin Hoi plays a mean bad guy whilst the
beautiful Shu Qi gets another chance to prove that she can
play a leading lady and, despite the stereotypical damsel in
distress dialogue, she still brings some solid content to the
role.
All
in all this is a very competent action film that comes highly
recommended thanks to some excellent bootwork and gunplay.
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