Heroic Trio

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.

For westerners this movie is quite strange. The mixture of fantasy, action and eastern setting creates a dream like scenery in which everything is possible. Take "Tiger and Dragon" and mix in more fantastic scenery and you have a rough idea of this movie. Great stuff that will bring you a totally new viewing experience.

"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

I can't help it but love this film; it's great cheesy fun!:) Forget Batman, this is the way a Superhero movie should be done. Incredible imagery (some shots will take your breath away) prevails in a film genre that traditionally should not look as good as this does. There is also a plot (underground demon lord stealing babies to find an heir) and Anita Mui sings, too...what more could you want? A warning though: the film is gritty and violent, and contains a scene with an infant that may be disturbing to sensitive viewers. It's not graphic, but extremely suggestive of graphic violence.

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...