Happy New Year! We’re back with the first review of the year and it’s a combination Christmas/kung-fu/sci-fi movie. There are probably a few other slashes I can throw in there too but nobody has time for that. This film is, of course, the sequel to THE HEROIC TRIO which is more grimly titled EXECUTIONERS. That title change should have been a big clue as to the mood shift of the movie, as it is dark, especially compared to its predecessor, which still had a good amount of light-heartedness to it, even with throwing grenades at cannibal babies.
It’s several years after the events of THE HEROIC TRIO. The world is ravaged by war and short on fresh water, which has become a hot commodity. Wonder Woman (Anita Mui) has retired from the crime-fighting life and is now the mother of a young girl. Ching (Michelle Yeoh) is attempting to atone for her evil deeds in the first movie by helping others, as well as her hunchbacked, masked friend Kau (and former evil-doer himself). Chat (Maggie Cheung) is still catching the bad guys and trying to make a profit in the process. All three live together and take baths together, sort of like a kung-fu version of FRIENDS.
The government is trying to find a source of fresh water, but everyone who goes out into the wasteland dies. Probably because the evil, deformed man who controls the water supply is secretly having them murdered. Also, he’s controlling an influential man looking for peace. And also trying to get the general to have said man assassinated, even dragging Wonder Woman’s husband Inspector Lau in to do it. When he gets framed for the murder and then the president is almost assassinated as well, the Heroic Trio must band together once more to stop the madness.
There’s strife, there’s sadness, there are betrayals and deaths. It sounds like it should be a banger, but it isn’t. Which is a shame as I really enjoyed the first movie and it’s all out goofiness. I attribute that to the darker tone, which we are constantly beaten over the head with, in case we somehow forgot the world was in such a horrible place.
Also the lesser amount of kung fu. There are few great fights and most of the combat is just people shooting at each other. If it had been made years later, I would have said it was a commentary on the state of action movies that moved from hand to hand combat to gunplay, but this movie was released in the same year as THE HEROIC TRIO. The villain too, while memorable-looking, doesn’t quite have the same cachet as the Evil Master from the first movie. Probably because he has no connection to the girls other than being someone to fight. And when they do fight, it’s not quite the epic battle from the first movie.
That’s not to say it isn’t without its good points. The actresses are in fine form though Anita Mui feels sidelined most of the time as she had given up being Wonder Woman and is trying to keep that promise. That gives Yeah and Cheung more time to shine and they do, as Ching works for redemption and Chat finds that there might be more to the world than just making money. And when Wonder Woman finally does appear, she does so with style, even though you might have wondered why she forgets how to fight until she makes herself a new mask. It doesn’t make much sense but that applies to the whole movie, which is a kitchen-sink style film that never adds up to something as good as its predecessor.
Still, any Heroic Trio is better than none, so it’s worth checking out to see more of their adventures. And it does take place during Christmas, though you would never know it with how dark everything is. Still, it’s themes of redemption and helping the unfortunate make it fit right in with the best of them.
