The Heroic Trio

viewed March 23, 2000 on video

For full information about this film, click here

I said it before and I’ll say it again: Hong Kong from 1987 to 1996 was the hottest movie-making spot on the planet.  Even films that aren’t excellent like this one are still thoroughly more entertaining than their Hollywood counterparts.  The Heroic Trio is in parts derived from Batman, Aliens, Terminator, Charlie’s Angels and various comic books, but the execution of the ideas and the undeniable charisma of its three female leads generates pleasures unique to itself.  Maggie Cheung, Anita Mui and Michelle Yeoh are perfectly cast respectively as Thief Catcher, Wonder Woman and Invisible Woman.  The underworld sets, where kidnapped babies are raised on human flesh to become the legion of the Evil Master, are gorgeously realized: birdcages suspended in a smoke-filled chamber, each containing a sleeping infant.  Also unforgettable are the superbly staged fights; my favorite among many takes place in a train depot and involves a motorcycle spinning sideways through the air, and a man with a bizarre decapitating device.  I’m as curious as anyone to know if the stealing of infants and cannibalism depicted here reflect a pervasive paranoia of Hong Kong society. 

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