“Black Cat II” Theatrical Poster
Director: Stephen Shin
Cast: Jade Leung, Robin Shou, Zoltan Buday, Bob Wilde, Alexander Skorokhod, Tatiana Chekhova, Mike Miller, Jack Wong Wai-Leung, Wan Seung-Lam
Running Time: 90 min.
By Paul Bramhall
Despite Black Cat’s middling box office results, it wasn’t enough to deter D&B Films from continuing to push Jade Leung as a bankable action lead for the 1990’s, and just a year later we’d get a sequel in the form of Black Cat II – The Assassination of President Yeltsin. The production brought back D&B’s executive director Stephen Shin as director, and if anything doubles down on the globetrotting location shoots, keeping America as the setting (before being turned into an assassin in the original, Leung was a waitress at a New York truck stop diner), and having the primary plot play out in Russia.
As a sidenote, at the time of writing in 2024 the good folk at 88 Films released Black Cat II on Blu-ray during the same year, perhaps showing a sense of humour in their timing to put a movie out that shows the American government doing all it can to protect the Russian president. Times have certainly changed. The release is worth noting though as it’s one of the few times for the sequel to be made available with its original English audio, of which the majority of the production was filmed in, with most of the readily available releases previously only consisting of the Cantonese audio track. The last time I’d watched Black Cat II was on the 2008 Joy Sales Legendary Collection DVD, which only had the Cantonese track, resulting in a scene with a translator assisting communication between the Americans and the Russians coming off as nonsensical, since everyone is speaking the same language!
Of course being a slice of early 90’s Hong Kong action cinema there are plenty of other nonsensical elements left over. In the original Leung’s character is introduced as Catherine, however here her name is frequently referred to as Erica, despite it being made clear through the use of flashbacks that she’s playing the same character. The head scratching extends to Robin Shou (Tiger Cage II, Mortal Kombat) , who’d already appeared in over 15 Hong Kong movies since his debut in 1987’s The Big Brother, but finds himself amusingly billed as ‘Introducing…’ in the opening credits, as if Black Cat II is the first movie he’s appeared in.
In fairness Shou is essentially a co-lead along with Leung. After the incidents of the first this time the CIA wipe her memory, and fit her brain with an upgraded microchip. The microchip plot device was also included in the original, however seemed to have no bearing on the plot whatsoever, so it’s a relief to see that it actually has a purpose in the sequel. Essentially turning Leung into an emotionless terminator (we even get terminator style POV shots as Leung tracks her targets), the sequel dumps its La Femme Nikita source material from the original, and instead opts for Hong Kong action excess topped with that irreplicable feeling of “they were probably making this up as they went along” that was common for the era. After Shou’s agent fails to stop a Russian defector with knowledge of the Anti-Yeltsin Organization from being killed, he’s paired with Leung to prevent the Russian president from being assassinated.
Unlike similar productions that involve the attempted assassination of a head of state such as A Queen’s Ransom, Black Cat II refuses to go the stock footage route, and instead opts to go all in by hiring a Yeltsin lookalike in the form of Alexander Skorokhod. His time in the film industry was brief, with just 4 credits to his name between 1992 – 1995, and one of those was also playing Yeltsin in 1994’s Police Academy: Mission to Moscow (which means he spent half of his filmography playing the former Russian president!).
Why is the Anti-Yeltsin Organization so Anti-Yeltsin? How does a talented martial artist like Shou manage to look so ineffective? Why did they make Leung’s first line “meow”? All relevant questions, and all that will still be unanswered by the time the end credits roll. Leung’s role in the plot is down to her new ability to sense radiation within the immediate vicinity, a talent that’s particularly useful when it’s revealed the Anti-Yeltsin bad guys have been breeding super assassins through the usage of radiation. That makes her ideal for being able to track down the killers, but also means she’s susceptible to putting a bullet between the eyes of an innocent grandmother picking up her afternoon shopping, all because it turns out she was receiving chemotherapy treatment. Thankfully, due to movie magic, Leung’s trigger-happy tendencies towards the elderly community involves zero repercussions.
My biggest complaint with Black Cat was the way it never really followed through on the action front, and perhaps in acknowledgement of that, for the sequel director Shin takes the approach of putting the action at the forefront, with everything else coming second. That includes things like plot coherency (the change in Leung’s characters name being the perfect example) and characterisation, meaning Black Cat II is definitely not going to be for everyone. However for fans of HK action there’s plenty to enjoy, with a mountain chase involving skis, snowboards, and snowmobiles feels like a calling card for what’s to come. It’s a fight with Leung and Shou against a group of sledgehammer wielding workers in a foundry that really delivers though, allowing returning action director Poon Kin-Kwan (The Dragon Chronicles: The Maidens of Heavenly Mountain, From Beijing With Love) to let loose in a way we never got to see in the original.
Leaning into the enhanced abilities that the new microchip has gifted Leung with, the scene offers up the kind of exaggerated wirework that feels reminiscent of Phillip Ko Fei’s Philippines shot action cheapies from around the same time. Far from being a negative though, the use of wires effectively serve their purpose, and the scene offers up some welcome high impact hits. It’s also indicative of Black Cat II’s approach to action, with each sequence gradually building in scale from the previous one, mitigating the issue of the original in which each action scene largely felt interchangeable with the one’s before it. By the time we’re watching Leung run across the rooftops adorned in a black cocktail dress, pistol in hand, it’s clear to see why she was being banked on as a leading lady.
Events culminate in an airfield set finale where Leung is allowed to take centre stage for a face off against the Russian super assassin, played by Zoltan Buday (Decoy, Mask of Death), offering up a suitably ridiculous ending to a sequel that appears to be aware it had to put everything on the table to be successful. From an action cinema perspective, it arguably is, being superior to the original in the scope of its action scenes and the execution of them. Unfortunately Black Cat II would be the final production of D&B Films before it folded in the same year, leaving Leung without a studio to champion her talents, and subsequently few directors took advantage of her model looks combined with a willingness to throw herself into the thick of things. The likes of Satin Steel and Fox Hunter proved to be enjoyable exceptions, however by the time the millennium rolled around she was mostly relegated to dreck like Money Laundry.
As the biggest budget production Leung took part in as a leading lady, Black Cat II – The Assassination of President Yeltsin offers up gun totting ballerina kids, sewer dwelling getaway motorbikes with sidecars, and even some Full Contact inspired mid-air bullet collisions. While we’ll never know what direction the Black Cat franchise would have headed in had D&B Films continued on, it at least allowed them to go out with a bang, offering up a globetrotting tale of super assassins and presidential lookalikes. The Black Cat title would be unforgivably attributed to the English titles of a couple of latter Jade Leung productions, namely 2000’s Black Cat in Jail and 2003’s The Black Cat Agent Files, but for the real deal, stick to this one and the original. No Russian presidents were harmed in the making of Black Cat II.
Paul Bramhall’s Rating: 6/10
