The Heroic Trio (1993) tells the story of a mysterious cult that is stealing babies from the city for nefarious purposes and the useless cops can only stand by and watch. I mean, they are kinda out of their league since Ching (Michelle Yeoh), the person snatching these kids, can turn invisible and run up buildings. Only a hero known as Wonder Woman (Anita Mui) and a mercenary named Chat (Maggie Cheung) step up to help the well-meaning but outclassed Inspector Lau (Damian Lau). Even when Ching has a change of heart, these three heroes are going to have a tough time facing against the Evil Master (Shi-Kwan Yen) and his cannibalistic super henchman Kau (Anthony Wong).
The Heroic Trio is the epitome of what I think of when I want to watch an undefinable thing that I can only shrug my shoulders and call “frickin’ cool cinema”. I want everyone to see this energetic spectacle because it’s just such a miracle where budget seems to be no object, and no one said no to any idea. There is also a surplus of ridiculous characters and comedic asides to take some of the edge off the unrelenting action and extra dramatic melodrama.
The tone is as fluid as the story elements are varied as the film switches from the brutally violent to the saccharine at the drop of a baby -oops, I mean hat. The Heroic Trio is the pinnacle of Hong Kong’s “and now we’re doing this” movies when the screenwriter didn’t care if they wrote themselves into a corner, because the corners were all doors to more dazzling and at times overwhelming flights of fancy. The superb cast is up to the task of making this unrelenting weirdness work.
Executioners AKA Heroic Trio 2: Executioners (1993) returns to the setting of the first film, but after a nuclear war has nearly destroyed the whole damn city, things ain’t good. Because baddies gonna baddies, the hideously scarred warlord, Mr. Kim (Anthony Wong), and his Clean Water Corporation are hoarding all the drinkable water. Of course, Kim and the evil colonel (Paul Chun) have used their stranglehold on what I’ve heard is important to the human body to snatch whatever power they can get their hands on. Since the utterly useless president (Shan Kwan) can’t do shit, it’s up to Chat, Ching, and Tung to reunite the Heroic Trio and take these suckers down.
I had heard Executioners was a very different film from the original, and I see that those reviews were totally on the nose. This is a grim and strange mega-bummer with mustache twirling villains ruining everyone’s lives as chaos and misery reign supreme. Eventually, there is hope, but it comes very late in the game. At least Executioners wasn’t a carbon copy of the first film! There’s no way that would have worked either.
Johnnie To was once misquoted on the set of this sequel saying, “On this film, we go big or go home. And none of you are going home!” The production values for this one seem to be as insane as the original. Maybe since there are less monster effects in this one, it was technically cheaper. Whatever the case, there’s just so much going on, I can’t believe what I’m seeing half of the time. Throw in Siu-Tung Ching, director of A Chinese Ghost Story (1987), as co-director and things are bound to get wild!
If you enjoyed The Heroic Trio and want more than that completely satisfying experience, I recommend turning off your expectations (like all the way off) for Executioners and you’ll probably enjoy it, maybe. Everyone from the first film that came back is fully committed to making this one work, especially Anthony Wong who goes absolutely off the rails for his performance. How many jaw-dropping villainous roles can one man pull off in his lifetime.
Never in my wildest dreams did I think I’d get The Heroic Trio (1993) on Blu-ray, much less a 4K scan that is this pristine. There are a few shots in Executioners that look a little darker than the others, but I assume that’s from the original source material. Criterion Collection have treated both of these films so well that they are quite a sight to behold. For audio options, you can get either the English dub or the 5.1 surround Cantonese soundtrack with English subtitles.
As for extras between the two films, there is a great interview on the disc with Samm Deighan talking about the relevance of The Heroic Trio in Hong Kong cinema. There is a short but very entertaining interview with Anthony Wong. It’s really good but it’s only around 8 minutes and doesn’t get very in depth. There are also some trailers on the disc. Finally, there’s a booklet with an essay by film critic Beatrice Loayza.