Dung fong sam hap

"The Heroic Trio" is a ridiculously over-the-top, magnificent living comic book that marks China's biggest foray into the martial arts-superhero genre by giving birth to three originals - super-heroines, who definitely know how to kick a** and seem to be riffs on iconic American super-heroines (the Invisible Woman of the Fantastic Four and DC Comics' Wonder Woman come to mind) - and assembling three top Chinese actresses (Michelle Yeoh, the late Anita Mui, and Maggie Cheung) to play the leads. The director in charge of this flawed, albeit spectacularly entertaining flick is Johnny To. True to most Asian martial arts cinema, To keeps the action fast, furious, and completely unbelievable. For example, in one sequence, are heroes are battling an evil henchman who has taken hostages at a subway station. The train is in for a head-on collision. The henchman, who's packing the dreaded flying guillotine, has already offed several hostages. In crashes our heroines, riding full-throttle on a motorcycle, and they somehow ride up on the wall and jump off - spiraling - toward the henchman. The day you see a flying motorcycle in an American martial arts movie (or any other movie) is the day pigs fly (and CGI can make it happen, unless you stuff a hog in a cannon). But the story of "The Heroic Trio" is that the three rival super-heroines Invisible Woman (Yeoh), Wonder Woman (Mui), and Thief Catcher (Cheung) must band together if they are to find out who is responsible for several baby-nappings in Hong Kong. All possess great powers and abilities, and their mission will take them from the streets and back-alleys of the city to the demonic underworld. The three leads are pretty and tough, and handled themselves accordingly. The shoddy script gets in the way of To's over-direction, and never quite lives up to the potential that I think it was truly capable of. A flawed, though hyper-active and entertaining entry in the Chinese superhero genre.

7/10

This is the movie that actually opened my eyes to the Asian cinema. Of course I had watched other Asian movies, but never been super interested because of the language (of course, I was familiar with early Jackie Chan movies).

And at the same time, this is also the movie that opened up my eyes to the talent of Cheung Man Yuk (Maggie).

This movie is quite cool. It has lots of action and an alright story line, though a bit cheesy at times. But you live with it, because the movie is in fast pace from start till end.

The characters in the movie are well played, particularly the 3 heroines portrayed by Maggie Cheung, Anita Muy and Michelle Yeoh. The bad guys and supporting roles were nice as well.

"Heroic Trio" is a nice movie to come out of Asian film market. If you like Asian movies and action movies, then definitely pick up this one. You will not be disappointed.

Ching Siu Tung, the master of wire work, and Johnnie To, the director of incredible The Big Heat, directed Heroic Trio in 1992. It stars three incredible beauties Anita Mui, Maggie Cheung and Michelle Yeoh. The story is very confusing, but these ladies play Thief Catcher (Cheung), Wonder Woman (Mui) and Invisible Girl (Yeoh) somewhere in future, where evil demon is kidnapping little babies in town, and it is soon revealed that he wants to train one of them to become the future king of China. The Demon has a helper played by very talented actor Anthony Wong (The Untold Story, Hard Boiled, Full Contact etc.) who can fight and keep intruders away from the demon master and babies. These three fighting ladies are on the trail of that baby stealing demon, and they start their fight for justice as the babies must get back safe. The story has some twists and turns, so it may seem a little confusing at first viewing, but the main merits of the film are not in the plot but in the outrageous and unbelievable action scenes, from which director Ching Siu Tung is best known. His most important films include Duel to the Death (the debut), Witch From Nepal and Swordsman films among many others. He is known also as "the wire master" and it is easy to tell why.

Heroic Trio is fantastic fantasy film, and will blow the viewer away, if one is not familiar with these kind of Orient wonders. These films have no equivalent in Western cinema. In Heroic Trio there hardly are any slow moments and only little of the usual stupid slapstick humor, that ruins little otherwise great films like Savior of the Soul and Ching Siu Tung's Terra Cotta Warrior. Heroic Trio is pure action and visuality, and it is easy to love, because there are practically no negative points in the film, considering this is pretty harmless fantasy genre.

The photography and atmosphere is stunning! The streets of Hong Kong are very misty and the greatest scenes are in the underworld in which the demon lives. It is hard to describe with words how this film looks like. The camera twists and flows smoothly and there seems not to be limits for visuality in these films. The fight scenes are great as usual, as wires are used and people fly high and camera shoots every detail in every possible angle. Ching Siu Tung is also action director and choreographer, and he has served in these roles in films like Tsui Hark's Zu: Warriors From the Magic Mountain and John Woo's The Killer and A Better Tomorrow 2. Films in which Ching Siu Tung are involved are usually totally over-the-top magic fests, and thus very unique even in Hong Kong cinema.

There is no any particular content in Heroic Trio and it is kind of empty, but if one can tolerate that and enjoy the visual perfection of this action film, then Heroic Trio is among the greatest Asian fantasy films. The sequel is far more serious as the atmosphere is very dark and holocaust like, and it is easy to see symbols about Hong Kong's future in 1997..

Heroic Trio has also very memorable music soundtrack and the film won even some prize for its theme song in Hong Kong movie awards or some other movie contest. The music is especially brilliant and sort of ominous in the underworld scenes with the sleeping and waking evil demon. The atmosphere is so brilliant, and the feel is just like one would feel in demon's cave! The soundtrack is great throughout, but those particular "demon scenes" are definitely worth a mentioning.

Heroic Trio is not too serious film, it is just action fantasy almost as fantastic as they come, but if there had been some theme or message in the film, it probably would've been even greater as a whole. A Chinese Ghost Story (also Ching Siu Tung's film) is perfect example of this: both visually unbeatable and still spiritually noteworthy. I like Heroic Trio still very much, because the look of the film is so unique, and this was actually the first of these Orient fantasy films I ever saw, and thus I was very amazed when I first saw this. Now after second viewing the magic's still there and the movie has not lost its impact on me.

Heroic Trio is 9/10 film, and is among the greatest (if not the cleverest) Hong Kong fantasies ever made. There are many many others, too, but Heroic Trio is proudly among them.

The Heroic Trio is at its best when it's also at its craziest, with the action sequences delivering some amazing moments of absolute insanity. It all made me wish the action was allowed to go on a bit longer, because while the action is frequent, most of the set pieces themselves are pretty brief. I guess that's part of the movie overall being fast-paced, whipping between three main characters all within a runtime of under 90 minutes, but it's a little sad how quickly some action scenes end. I might've also liked this a little more had it been more comedic outside its action (I wouldn't really call it a comedy, but some might), but that also feels a bit nitpicky. Most of this is a good time, I liked the leads, and it delivers fun action/thrills in a gloriously over-the-top way.

This film is superhero comics fare, nothing more. In said genre, character depth and acting weighs lightly.(As long as the principals are beautiful) With that in mind I have to say that HEROIC TRIO ROCKS! The first thing that stands out in the movie is the overall look of it. The production value is excellent and the atmospheric cinematography is done as deftly as any Tony Scott film. The action choreography with heavy usage of Hong Kong style wire effects is the finest I've ever seen and the fights(especially the one in hell against a demon who kidnaps children and turns them into cannibals-remember it's a live action comic book!)are frenetic kung fu masterpieces. I realize that this type of film may not appeal to all(I enjoy subtlety as much as the next guy)but I would ask you to give this one a chance because it really is much more interesting than the average Hollywood action pic.