Allun Lam's The Blacksheep Affair (1998, Hong Kong) is a fast paced action pack set in some fictional East European country Lavernia. Man Cheuk Chiu's character Yim Dong, a policeman, is sent there as a punishment for his disobedience towards his authorities during the film's opening plane hijacking. In Lavernia, there's an evil Japanese Mishima (Hoi Lin) captured and his group has done some very severe damage to the people and he thinks he's on mission from God to "cure the world" by killing and so on. Qi Shu plays Dong's old love Chan Pun who also happens to be in Lavernia. What follows is action and brutality as the evil Japanese kill and kill innocent people and the good Chinese cop must fight them to death.

The film is very annoying in its attitudes towards foreigners, Japanese mostly. They are depicted as evil and rotten killers that cannot be good or change. The screenplay is filled with lines like "those evil Japanese this and that.." and I really can't appreciate a film that has so incorrect attitudes and undertones for no any apparent reason or real importance. And that's not everything that's wrong with this film.

Qi Shu's character, a young and attractive female, is depicted as total moron who can't do anything in a hot situation but scream hysterically and act as if she had no idea what's she screaming for and could she perhaps do something to it. This film suggests that females can't really do much and they are just useless pieces of flesh in a dangerous situation. All that seem to be good and capable for something noteworthy are of course the Chinese men and their police.

The music is very bad in my opinion and even though it tries to make the goings on more dramatic, it fails and sounds almost naive. None of the characters become too interesting or close to the real person so their destinies don't touch and make me feel anything either. There's only one thing this film manages to do somewhat good and that is the action.

The action choreography by the great Ching Siu Tung is not as near as kinetic and inventive as in his masterpieces (Chinese Ghost Story trilogy, various John Woo films plus many others) but his talent make the action scenes easy to watch and thus the whole film much easier to watch. The violence is surprisingly brutal and almost exploitive so there's plenty of evil acts committed by evil, uncharismatic and unreal characters in this film. Not too nice an experience for a lover of ambitious and unique Eastern cinema.

The Blacksheep Affair is very close to the most boring and needless HK category and is worth watching only for the occasional action scenes and some inventive usage of camera. For most of the time, the twisted and moving camera angles and drives don't mean anything special, they're just there to make the film look more "stylish", but at least occasionally they manage to depict something, too. A good example is at least the scene in which Qi Shu's character escapes from the raging masses. Otherwise there's nothing special or memorable in this film, and thus it is among the least convincing pieces of the more recent Hong Kong cinema.

3/10 and barely so.

"The Blacksheep Affair" was not one of the better Hong Kong action movies, though it wasn't a total waste of time either.

I picked up this movie from Amazon because Shu Qi is in it, and I am a fan of hers, and she did a great job in the movie, despite having a small supporting role only. The lead role was held by Chiu Man Chuk, and he was actually also doing a good job.

The story in "The Blacksheep Affair" was a bit too silly for my liking. It didn't have much continuity in it, and there were some holes in the plot here and there. But still, not the worst Hong Kong movie I have seen, but there are a lot far better Hong Kong movies available.

I found two things odd in this movie. The first was why people would be speaking English in this fictional country, Lavernia. And not just English, but poorly dubbed English with a strong lack of emotion and commitment. It was just hilarious, and it brought the movie down a notch. The second thing was the out-of-touch-with-reality-sounds that was used whenever people were throwing punches, kicking stuff and using swords. Those sounds were so bad.

One of the best things in "The Blacksheep Affair" was the ending, that was actually a nice surprise, and that made it up for the lack of proper storyline throughout the entire movie.

....and a goofy, half-baked plot it is. When you set your movie in a fictional country named Lavernia (?) and expect people to take it seriously, you've definitely started off on the wrong foot. But when the film is not slowed down by its story, it does have some very good action scenes. It is mainly a showcase for Chiu Man Cheuk, who has a likable screen presence and is a graceful, impressive fighter; although he's not quite "the next Jet Li", why he never became a bigger star in the field is a minor mystery. The fight choreography is brutal and efficient, and the main villain (Andrew Lin) is impressive in his own right, but the final showdown goes too over-the-top for my tastes. The beautiful Shu Qi is mostly wasted, but she does have a great scene where she fiercely stabs a man to death. (**1/2)