Michelle Yeoh, Anita Mui, and Maggie Cheung, three super-sexy icons of 1990s Hong Kong cinema, team up for this visually arresting genre-crossing effort from director Johnnie To. They play three ass-kicking characters with secret superhero identities, one of whom is actually working for a powerful underworld demon (Shi-Kwan Yen). Various HK babies are being abducted so that the monster may select a future emperor from among them.
"The Heroic Trio" is such agreeably giddy escapism - encompassing martial arts, the supernatural, crime fiction, superhero movies, horror, comedy, and fantasy - that it's immediately pretty hard to resist, even if it DOES come off as goofy and overly sentimental at times. Director To serves it up with plenty of style, relish, liveliness, and atmosphere. The villains' lair is inventively designed, the fights are exciting, and the story has quite a good pace going for it. Granted, it's the kind of thing to which you HAVE to pay attention if the story grabs you at all. You can't just throw this film on as "background noise" while you do something else. Otherwise, you might be lost.
Not that it matters THAT much. Among the highlights is a memorable scene of a train crashing into a station. The dubbing may be cheesy, but the on screen talent is so compulsively watchable that they still come off quite well. And To and screenwriter Sandy Shaw aren't afraid to go to some dark places, and actually off some of the infants. The art direction (by Bruce Yu), cinematography (by Moon-Tong Lau and Hang-Sang Poon), and score (by Wai Lap Wu) are first-rate.
This invigorating, individualistic example of Far East cinema sure doesn't have very many equivalents in North America, although John Carpenter certainly gave it a great effort with his rollicking adventure "Big Trouble in Little China" (which also includes cast member James Pax).
Seven out of 10.
"The Heroic Trio" is such agreeably giddy escapism - encompassing martial arts, the supernatural, crime fiction, superhero movies, horror, comedy, and fantasy - that it's immediately pretty hard to resist, even if it DOES come off as goofy and overly sentimental at times. Director To serves it up with plenty of style, relish, liveliness, and atmosphere. The villains' lair is inventively designed, the fights are exciting, and the story has quite a good pace going for it. Granted, it's the kind of thing to which you HAVE to pay attention if the story grabs you at all. You can't just throw this film on as "background noise" while you do something else. Otherwise, you might be lost.
Not that it matters THAT much. Among the highlights is a memorable scene of a train crashing into a station. The dubbing may be cheesy, but the on screen talent is so compulsively watchable that they still come off quite well. And To and screenwriter Sandy Shaw aren't afraid to go to some dark places, and actually off some of the infants. The art direction (by Bruce Yu), cinematography (by Moon-Tong Lau and Hang-Sang Poon), and score (by Wai Lap Wu) are first-rate.
This invigorating, individualistic example of Far East cinema sure doesn't have very many equivalents in North America, although John Carpenter certainly gave it a great effort with his rollicking adventure "Big Trouble in Little China" (which also includes cast member James Pax).
Seven out of 10.