Hak hap [1996]

Though you have to put up with atrocious dubbing, this Hong Kong superhero movie offers something no US comic book picture of the 90s has bothered with: non-stop, incredible action as our coolly-garbed hero [Jet Li] kicks and spins in mid-air while his guitar theme thrums and baddies go down like ninepins. Li has had an operation which prevents him from feeling pain in order to make him an ideal assassin, but he escapes from his bosses and poses as a mild-mannered librarian, donning an outfit that makes him look like Bruce Lee's Kato in the old Green Hornet show to go after old comrades who are planning to take over the Asian drug market. The nicest touch is that of all the people who meet the superhero only the slightly dim heroine fails to recognise that he's also the pacifist librarian.
KIM NEWMAN

First Published In: Empire [issue unknown]

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