Movie Review: Heroic Trio 2: Executioners

Heroic Trio 2: Executioners (Jin doi hou hap cyun) 

China Entertainment Films Production, Paka Hill Productions, Hong Kong, 1993. 

After the events of the "Heroic Trio" the city has been destroyed by nuclear attack. Still most of the city seems to be intact. Anarchy reigns and the Heroic Trio- group has dispersed. Ching (Michelle Yeoh) drives a truck and delivers medicine. Clear Water Corporation has monopoly on water. Chat (Maggie Cheung) is now water bandit stealing water mostly for herself. Tung (Anita Mui) has a daughter Cindy (Sze Ning). Tung's husband Inspector Lau (Damian Lau) tries to keep law and order but the people are rioting because water quality is low and price is rising all the time. 

Chat

Tung

Ching

Expeditioners tried to find clean water but the searchers were killed by radiation. White Solar Society's religious leader Chong Hon (Takeshi Kaneshiro) asks government for answers, but someone arranges a massacre in demonstration. Quite many Honk Kong movies of the 1990s had references to 1989 student riots in Tiananmen Square. Anti-government sentiment is rising and Colonel (Paul Chun Pui) wants Lau to assassinate Chong Hon. 

Chong Hon

Colonel

President's deputy (Eddy Ko Hung) sends Ching to find clear water. Ching tries to resurrect Heroic Trio but Tung has promised her husband to leave the Wonder Woman days behind. Also Chat wants to follow her own path and earn money. To make a point Ching destroys what I believe to be her invisibility cloak. Or might as well be Shroud of Turin. Somehow the cloth was important symbol for the Heroic Trio. Anyway Invisible Woman is no longer invisible. 

Chong Hon is the puppet of scarred Clear Water Corporation boss Mr. Kim (Anthony Wong). Kim wants to control the government. Ching and her friend Kau (Anthony Wong) prevent the assassination attempt. Both of them seem to be followers of White Solar Society. Ching is also an government secret agent. So Kau survived after all, reformed and became Ching's servant. Heck, whereas the first film had flashback scenes this movie sure does not bother explaining things!

Kau

Tak

President's deputy suspects some kind of conspiracy and puts Tak (Ching Wan Lau) to study it. Mr. Kim conspires with military. Lau is murdered and Tong is captured so Ching and Chat must stop the military coup alone. Chat, Tak and Cindy go to find pure water but Clear Water Corporation tries to eliminate all who find it. At one point Ching fights against a guy (Vincent Lau Tak) who can punch through things and people. Maybe he has learned some punches from "Riki-Oh." 

Michelle Yeoh

Killer (Vincent Lau Tak)

Finally the members of Heroic Trio combine thir forces. The final battle between good and evil occurs in the abandoned church. Also Mr. Kim knows "Riki-Oh" techniques. The ending reduces the Heroic Trio to Heroic Duo. 

Wonder Woman returns

Chat, Tung and Ching

The sequel to "Heroic Trio" abandons the superhero elements until the final moments and is more a post-apocalyptic political thriller. The first movie had dark moments too, but this is set in dystopian future without many comic reliefs. The darker story has many of the characters from the first movie killed. Sacrifices have to be done for greater good. The story is quite complicated and the three women all have their own adventures with less teamwork. Ching tries to protect the President (Guan Shan), Chat searches for pure water and Tung sits mostly in jail planning for revenge. 

Compared to the comic book style of the first film the second movie does not fully integrate to the same fantasy universe and would have worked better as a stand-alone film. Also when the Heroic Trio returns to full force in the end, the otherwise good fantasy-wuxia action mismatches the otherwise semi-realistic style. In the first film the Trio battled against ancient monarchistic demon, now against greedy corporation. Although the film disappoints as a sequel, it offers entertaining political thriller with some good gun fu and wuxia action. 

Bubble bath scene!

Anthony Wong appears heavily masked like psychotic "Phantom of the Opera" and if American remake is ever considered Mickey Rourke would be good candidate for the role of Mr. Kim. This movie was Takeshi Kaneshiro's first movie debut.

Mr. Kim

This review is based on the uncut German DVD-print "Johnnie To Double Feature Heroic Trio Teil 1&2"  published by HDMV that contains also "Heroic Trio." Although the two movies are on one disc this edition is highly recommended as the picture quality is good and the films contain English, Cantonese and German audio tracks and English subtitles. However the subtitles of "Heroic Trio 2" contain many translation errors.

Rating: Good 

Starring: Anita Mui, Michelle Yeoh, Maggie Cheung, Damian Lau, Anthony Wong, Kaneshiro Takeshi, Lau Ching-Wan, Paul Chun Pui, Guan Shan, Eddy Ko Hung, Sze Ning, Lam Kin-Fai, Vincent Lau Tak, Cher Yeung Suet-Yee, Dion Lam Dik-On, Yu Ngai-Ho, Leung Kei-Hei, Cheng Ka-Sang, Wan Seung-Lam, Kong Foo-Keung, Wong Wai-Fai, Ho Chi-Moon, Law Wai-Kai, Chang Seng-Kwong, Sam Hoh Choi-Chow, Kong Miu-Deng 

Directors: Siu-Tung Ching (as Ching Siu Tung), Johnnie To

Movie Review: Heroic Trio

Heroic Trio (Dong fang san xia)

China Entertainment Films Production, Paka Hill Productions, Hong Kong, 1993. 

Tung (Anita Mui) and her cop husband Lau (Damian Lau) buy a house that needs some serious repairing. Tung has a secret identity as Wonder Woman and she helps the police. Someone is kidnapping babies. Also police chief's (Paul Chun) baby is kidnapped. It seems that the baby kidnapper is invisible! 

Tung and Lau

Wonder Woman

Invisible Woman Ching (Michelle Yeoh) brings the babies to Evil Master (Shi-Kwan Yen). Evil Master's underground base is guarded by Number 9 a.k.a Kau (Anthony Wong). Number 9 does not speak much and he is immune to pain. His favourite food is finger food and his weapon of choice is thrown cage that removes opponent's head (see wiki-page about Flying Guillotine). Evil Master says that one of the babies will be the emperor of China. The rest will be enlisted to his cannibal army. 

Invisible Woman Ching

Evil Master

Number 9

Inventor (James Pax) has invented a cloak that will make the user invisible. Ching was sent to steal the cloak and kill Inventor, but they developed a romance. Ching 'loans' the cloak to do her business but it is still not quite ready as it does not work in daylight. Meanwhile bounty hunter Miss Thief Catcher a.k.a Chat (Maggie Cheung) solves a hostage situation. She offers to find police chief's missing baby.

Inventor

Thief Catcher Chat

Tung and Ching happen to visit the hospital when a crazy man (Patrick Keung Hiu-Man) threatens to kill babies. They temporarily join to stop him and seem to develop a mutual respect. Maybe Ching isn't evil after all? Interestingly another Hong Kong film that had the theme of saving babies, John Woo's "Hard Boiled" (1992) was originally planned to have a plotline with baby poisoning psychopath (and starred Anthony Wong as crime boss). The Hong Kong movies got darker when year 1997 was approaching and people were getting afraid because control of Hong Kong was changing from Great Britain to China.

When Thief Catcher tries to lure the kidnapper using baby as a bait, tragedy strikes. Also the story gets more darker: Inventor is dying of cancer caused by chemicals from invisibility cloak and Lau is injured in explosion. Tung and Thief Catcher must persuade Ching to join them so that they can have a chance against Evil Master. The final battle is a bizarre mix that looks like "Evil Dead" and "The Terminator." 

Number 9 vs the train

Evil master begins to fly

Happy new year!

Heroic Trio has superhero wuxia-action with some melancholic and tragic tones. The stylish kinetic action scenes look like 1990s Tsui Hark- films and weird camera-angles are used effectively. Cloaks flap in the wind and the cinematography looks cool. The music is good with songs by late Anita Mui. Especially the theme song is memorable. When the movie was published in USA the songs were removed, blasphemy!

The movie does a good work showcasing the three iconic Hong Kong female stars. Mui is the traditional superhero with secret identity, Yeoh the tragic antihero who must make a difficult choice and Cheung comic gunfighter. The mood swings between goofy superhero action, sentimental soap-operatic scenes and some disturbing scenes. This is not a Hollywood superhero film, so anything goes. Consider yourself warned if you do not like the idea of cannibal demon kids getting blown up. Still highly recommendable for those who get the wild and unpredictable style of Hong Kong cinema. The scenes with Cheung are more tongue in cheek while Mui and Yeoh are responsible for the melodrama. The backstories of the characters are intertwined with acceptable logic. The action scenes are enjoyable with creative special effects without CGI (some wires included). The plot is barely coherent, with lots of stuff that is just brushed off. The camp aspect is high and the over the top action is just fun to watch.  

Do not bring sword to a gunfight

Heroic Trio

This review is based on the German uncut region 2 DVD-print "Johnnie To Double Feature Heroic Trio Teil 1&2"  published by HDMV that contains also "Heroic Trio 2: Executioners". Although the two movies are on one disc this edition is highly recommended as the picture quality is good and the films contain English, Cantonese and German audio tracks and English subtitles.

Rating: Very good

Starring: Maggie Cheung, Michelle Yeoh, Anita Mui, Damian Lau, Anthony Chau-Sang Wong, Paul Chun, James Pax, Shi-Kwan Yen, Cheuk Yan Chan, Siu-Kei Lee, Patrick Keung Hiu-Man, Yat-Fei Wong, Tao Xu, Ruisheng Zheng, Mimi Zhu, Chui To, Louis Yuen Siu-Cheung, Cheng Ka-Sang, Dion Lam Dik-On, Chang Kin-Ming 

Director: Johnnie To

Movie Review: The White Dragon

The White Dragon (Fei hap siu baak lung) a.k.a The Flying Heroine: Little White Dragon 

China Film Co-Production Corporation, China Film Group, China Star Entertainment, One Hundred Years of Film Company, Singing Horse Productions, Hong Kong, 2004. 

Black Phoenix (Cecilia Cheung) has reluctantly joined the world of martial arts. Masquerading as White Dragon Jr., she has to fight blind assassin Chicken Feathers (Francis Ng) who has a contract on Second Prince Tian Yang (Andy On). Chicken Feathers is like Zatoichi, only goofier. 

Black Phoenix

Chicken Feathers

A week ago Phoenix was a rich and spoiled student. She dreams of Second Prince who also begins to like her. The prince has older brother First Prince Tian Sheng (Liu Lei). Chicken Feather kills schools lecherous principal. Martial arts heroine and school's janitor White Dragon (Nei Suet) tries to catch him but fails. White Dragon gives her powers to Black Phoenix, the sequence looks like Windows XP copying bar.

Rock 'n' roll

Second Prince Tian Yang and Phoenix

Phoenix gets acne. Only way to cure it is to make good deeds, Robin Hood style. When Chicken Feathers targets Tian Yang, she must try to fight against him. Phoenix begins to sympathize Chicken Feathers when he treats her broken leg. She plays her flute to describe the surrounding world to Chicken Feathers. Chicken Feathers has only one friend, physician Deer Tail (Shiu Hung Hui) who arranges him the contracts. Phoenix tries to solve the conspiracy and save both Second Prince and Chicken Feathers.

The story varies from sentimental drama...

...to silly comedy

Starting as a wuxia-film, the film then morphs into high-school comedy. This is partly a parody of Wuxia-films with some contemporary references. Phoenix plays lute like a rock star, McDonalds sells buns and there is basically medieval China's equivalent of Louis Vuitton. However as the movie switches the genre from wire-fu film, to comedy to romantic drama and back to wuxia drama, the result is uneven experience. Although mixing comedy, romance and action is usual in Hong Kong films, the seams are a bit too obvious. Still the main love story is sweet with some quirky humour so it is hard to dislike. The action scenes are acceptable, although not best of the genre as the movie seems to have quite low budget. The chemistry between the main actors is good and the story does not take itself too seriously.

McBun

Wuxia fight!

Rating: Good 

Starring: Francis Ng, Andy On, Lei Liu, Cecilia Cheung, Xiao Lung Ding, Avi K. Garg, Shiu Hung Hui, Zhangjin Shi, Nei Suet, Patrick Tang, Kitty Yuen,  Huang Xiao-Xu, Dang Chi-Fung, Xia Tai-Li, Meng Kai, Zhang Jia-Jun, Liu Jing-Cheng, Wen Wen, Hu Dan-Feng, Bi Yuan-Biao, Xu Chen Jun Lei, Shen Zun-Ying, Hu Xiao-Lin, Wang Yi-Qiu, Huang Di, Zhu Ming-Ming, Li Su-Qin, Zhang Deng-Ke, Dai Tian 

Director: Wilson Yip

Movie Review: To Kill With Intrigue

To Kill With Intrigue (Jian hua yan yu Jiang Nan) 

Starring: Jackie Chan, Hsu Feng, Sin Il-Ryong, Yu Ling-Lung, George Wang Jue, Tung Lam, Ma Kei, Kong Ching-Ha 

Director: Wei Lo 

Lo Wei Motion Pictures, Hong Kong, South Korea, 1977.

This is an early Jackie Chan movie, the review is based on English dubbed version from Jackie Chan Early Collection 6-movie box set published by Pan Vision Finland. (The films are of VHS quality, but it is not easy get better versions with original Cantonese soundtracks).

Lots of spoilers here!

Lord of the Lei-palace (Ma Kei) celebrates his 60th birthday. Chamber-maid Chin Chin (Yu Ling-Lung) goes to meet her lover Hsiao Lei (Jackie Chan) but Hsiao Lei is rude and drives her away. Then Hsiao Lei goes to the party and drives the guests away. Hsiao Lei does this because he knows that Killer Bee bandits are about to attack (a message was sent with a severed hand). Lord Lei killed most of the Killer Bee clan members years ago. The family decides to fight to the death. They get also some help from their friends. 

Lord Lei celebrating his birthday

Then some guests stumble inside stabbed with Killer Bee daggers. Then some hopping maniac comes to claim his hand. Then some coffins appear and guys with flower masks jump out! Flying Chinese lanterns and guys with burning sticks appear. Female fighter Ting Chan Yen (Hsu Feng) is their leader. The Lei family are killed and Hsiao Lei is knocked unconscious. Hsiao wakes and fights with Ting. Ting says that lord Lei was a murderer and knocks out Hsien again.

Stabbed with a cute dagger

Lei clan prepares to fight

Birthday flowers appear

Chin Chin is harassed by bandits. Hsien's friend Chen Chun (Sin Il-Ryong) saves her. Meanwhile Ting is nursing Hsien who mistakes her for Chin Chin. Ting cries and leaves, she is obviously falling in love with Hsien. Meanwhile Chin Chin remembers the good old times.

Ting Chan Yen (Hsu Feng)

Chin Chin playing zither

Remembering old happy times

Then three assassins get in and fight Hsien. One of the killers is wielding feather-dusters (I'm not making this up). Hsien gets another head-ache, this time from sleeping gas. Then the assassins are told that they knocked out the wrong guy. Their contractor does not allow them to kill Hsien and fights the assassins. The contractor is the master of the Dragon Escort who is after Chen Chun who stole gold. Hsien joins the Dragon Escort team. 

Bloody Rain assassins

Feather-duster guy

The gold shipment is attacked by an old man and the gang wielding silly weapons. Including the feather-duster guy and a dude with a huge mace. Oh, and there is a painted face on the mace. Hsien defends the Dragon Escort while the rest of the Dragon Escort guys just relax and enjoy the show. The old guy has a lethal umbrella. Hsien gets as lethal stab-wound but Ting comes to fight the bandits. The Dragons try to figure a way to heal Hsien. Then Ting comes disguised (she has a different colour veil now) and takes Hsien with her. 

Another weird-looking guy

Mace with a face

The Dragon Escort master believes the Governor will kill him for failing to catch Chen Chun. And he is right. But wait! The governor is Chen Chun. And He is also the leader of Bloody Rain gang! He must be a super-busy guy! He then goes to marry Chin Chin. Meanwhile Ting's herbs have healed Hsiao but he has lost his will to live. Ting will not let Hsien leave until he can beat her in a fight. Every time he loses he gets a painful punishment. To gain her skills, Hsien must drink a potion containing Ting's blood. Scarred Hsien goes to stop the wedding of Chin Chin and Chen Chun.

Chen Chun

This is a weird Wuxia movie. The story is messy. It mixes ghost story with operatic drama, Wuxia action and sadomasochistic romance. While meant to be serious, the movie has a lot of unintentional humour. The weapons are some of the weirdest in martial arts movies. Fight choreographies are okay with plenty of wire jumping. Jackie is an impersonal hero here. Still the pure weirdness makes it entertaining to watch. 

Rating: So bad it is good