The Heroic Trio (1993)

Really Surprised!

Don't listen to the negative reviews

Brilliant and touching

True to its essence, the characters remain on the same line and manage to entertain the viewer, each highlighting their own distinctive qualities or touches.

Maggie Cheung, Michelle Yeoh and Anita Mui, three of the loveliest leading ladies to grace Hong Kong cinema in the 90s, team up for this classic slice of comic-book style fantasy action that compensates for a confusing and cloyingly over-sentimental story by delivering impressive visuals and seriously insane action the likes of which could only come from the Far East.Directed by Johnny To and featuring stunning choreography by Siu-Tung Ching, the film concentrates on delivering scene after crazy-ass scene of totally insane action, all set against impressive, billowing backdrops created through the use of strong coloured lighting, plenty of smoke, and a wind machine. Among the film's many over-the-top set-pieces: a locomotive crashing into a crowded station; Anita Mui leaping across telephone wires to catch a falling child; two of the movie's heroines spinning wildly through the air on a motorbike; Maggie Cheung blasting herself into battle astride a dynamite powered oil drum; and a Terminator-style finale that sees the bad-guy's charred skeletal remains seizing control of Maggie Cheung's body (and who can really blame him?).On top of all this inspired lunacy, viewers are also treated to another unforgettable turn from Anthony Wong as crazy killer Kau (who is a dab-hand with the flying guillotine), some surprisingly nasty violence (including a baby dying after falling onto a nail, several decapitations, and flesh-eating children who wee themselves before being blown to smithereens by dynamite), and last, but by no means least, plenty of opportunities to ogle stars Cheung, Yeoh and Mui, who all look scrummy in their super-sexy outfits.

Good films are good films no matter where they come from. Bad films are bad films no matter where they come from. Just because this movie is a product of the HK cinema scene doesn't make this a good film. Do I have poor taste? Nobody can judge me on that. Am I just not open to filmmaking from any sources outside of Hollywood? I'd like to think so. But no amount of open-mindedness can give me the kind of taste to recommend a movie with lame stunts, very poor character development, weak humor and tedious mood music. The girls look good, but I'd rather spend 104 minutes looking at still photos of these ladies before spending another 104 minutes with this overrated waste of celluloid. Only for genre lovers.

For the first 45 minutes, I was debating whether or not to turn The Heroic Trio off. I came to the film via Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon, and, wary that many purists have called CTHD diluted Hong Kong wire-fu, I thought that a real one might be quite interesting. It was, but it wasn't entirely successful. It isn't nearly as good as CTHD. Go ahead and accuse me of being a Westerner. I know I am. The main problem with THT is the editing. I assume these films are made fast and that they are quickly edited. And I'm sure fans care less about the story than the action. The editing here is so choppy that I was always racing to catch up with the film. It took me a long time to figure out the relationships between characters, and a lot of things still didn't make much sense to me. Even if the action scenes are supposed to be where the filmmakers invest all their interest, most of the action scenes are just as poorly edited as the rest. In the old dancing musicals of Astaire and Rogers, the directors made it their point to show the entire scene, so you could see the dancers and what they are doing. The same ought to go for these types of movies. That's certainly what they were thinking in CTHD: there may be cuts, but there are long periods where you watch the actors do their stuff. In THT, they cut almost every time someone draws a weapon or kicks. One of the most effective shots in CTHD was when Jade Fox tossed that round blade at the old man's forehead. We see it travel from Fox's hand straight into the man's forehead without a cut. I heard the audience shout "OUCH!!!" You'll find nothing that good here. At least the action sequences get better in this respect as the film progresses. The final battle scene is a lot of fun and very exciting. 6/10

Is this really as bad as Teen Wolf or Highlander 3, as one reviewer here has suggested? No. In fact, if you're attuned to the kind of crazy stuff that was surgin forth from Hong Kong's movie factories in the early 90s, this will already be a key component of your cult viewing repertoire. The three leads are all stunning and elegant adn everything else is secondary. The plot is maudlin and at times really cloyingly sentimental, but this is just HK cinema for you, and it always displays extreme emotions in a deliberately heightened manner. Its ultimately a really enjoyable film, but you have to see it with some kind of cultural/historical context in mind to help you avoid those nagging Teen Wolf comparisons...