The Heroic Trio II: Executioners (1993) poster

The Heroic Trio II: Executioners (1993)

Rating:

aka Executioners
(Xian Dai Hao Xia Zhuan)


Hong Kong. 1993.

Crew

Directors/Producers – Ching Siu Tung & Johnny To, Screenplay – Susanne Chan, Story – Sandy Shaw, Photography – Poon Hang Sang, Music – Cacine Wong, Production Design – Chun Pui Wah & Catherine Hun. Production Company – Paka Hill Film Production.

Cast

Anita Mui (Lau Tung/Wonder Woman), Maggie Cheung (Chat), Michelle Yeoh (Ching San), Ching Wan Lau (Tak), Damian Lau (Commissioner Lau), Anthony Wong (Mr Kim), Paul Chu (Colonel), San Kwan (The President), Takeshi Kineshiro (Chong Hon)


Plot

It is after the nuclear holocaust. Tung has married Lau who is now the police commissioner. He is trying to keep order in the cities where water is an irradiated scarcity and the authoritarian Clear Water Corporation maintains the only clean supplies. Thief Catcher Chat now acts as a bounty hunter and bandit robbing water shipments, while San drives an ambulance. The mysterious masked figure that pulls the strings behind the Clear Water Corporation gives orders that Chong Hon, the popular figure who leads crowds in protests about the water shortages, be assassinated. Lau is blamed and hunted for the murder and Tung arrested. Chat goes on a quest to find unpolluted water, while San guards a double for the President.


The Heroic Trio (1993) was a big Hong Kong hit. In short time (seven months later the same year in fact) this sequel was produced, reuniting director Johnny To, action director Ching Siu-Tung, the titular trio of superheroines Maggie Cheung, Anita Mui and Michelle Yeoh, as well as male co-stars Damian Lau and Anthony Wong.

The Heroic Trio was a good deal of fun, but Executioners is a resounding flop that does none of the things that the original did well. One might be more forgiving if this was a quickie sequel that was dashed off for the sole reason of exploiting the original, but to the contrary, Executioners involves almost all of the principal creative talents from the original.

The majority of the martial arts sequences are unexcitingly directed and compare dismally to the outré sequences that Ching Siu-Tung crafted in the original. Indeed, for more than two-thirds of this film, there is nothing of the masked superheroines and fantastical martial arts sequences that there were in the first film. Finally, after 75 minutes of the 101-minute running time, the film does eventually explode into action.

After this point, there come some moderately imaginative sequences – one with Maggie Cheung beating a metal mask for herself while in a jail cell, triumphantly announcing her presence by holding it up to the light in silhouette and then kicking the door down and grabbing machine-guns to shoot a hole through the wall to escape just like a character from a Warner Brothers cartoon. There is also an imaginative fight between her and the Colonel dancing along the power lines above the street. The climactic scenes taking on Mr Kim are entertaining – with hopping martial arts, fun with explosive-tipped arrows and the various combatants pushing vehicles around with super-strength and swinging in by chandelier. However, it hardly recompenses for such a dull and disappointing build-up.

Anita Mui, Michelle Yeoh and Maggie Cheung in The Heroic Trio II: Executioners (1993)
The Heroic Trio – (l to r) onder Woman (Anita Mui), Ching San (Michelle Yeoh) and Chat (Maggie Cheung)

The subtitling is some of the worst one has ever seen from a Hong Kong production and frequently produces some howlers:– “When the time comes you’ll be retaliated,” “The colonel has ordered to perish you,” “The world is belonged to us soon,” “Does she worth your protection?”. In one hilarious moment a combatant complains “Why did you kill me?” following an attack. There are bizarre taunts like “You’re immutable” offered up. Frequently the subtitling is clouded out due to being placed up against overexposed light sources, which may well be fortuitous in the circumstances.

Elsewhere, Johnnie/Johnny To has made genre efforts that include Happy Ghost 3 (1986), the children’s ghost story Lucky Encounter (1992), the Heavenly slapstick comedy The Mad Monk (1993) and the ghost story Linger (2008). He is best known for the hits of the gangster films Election (2005) and its sequel Election 2 (2006). To gained a name for his directorial collaborations with Wai Ka Fai. Together they made a number of hits including the romantic comedy Love on a Diet (2001) and the gangster film Fulltime Killer (2001). The two have versatility in a variety of genres and have ventured into fantastic material on a number of occasions including:- Help!!! (2000), a black comedy set in a hospital that has some fantasy elements; the comedy Wu Yen (2001) about mischievous fairies; My Left Eye Can See Ghosts (2002), a comedy about a woman who starts to see ghosts after an accident; Running on Karma (2003) about a Buddhist monk with the ability to see people’s past lives; and Mad Detective (2007) about a detective who can see people’s inner personalities.

Ching Siu-Tung’s other films are:- Duel to the Death (1983), The Witch from Nepal/The Nepal Affair (1985), A Chinese Ghost Story (1987), A Chinese Ghost Story II (1990), A Terracotta Warrior (1990), A Chinese Ghost Story III (1991), Swordsman II (1992), The Mad Monk (1993), Swordsman III: The East is Red (1993), The Scripture With No Words (1996), The Sorcerer and the White Snake (2011) and Jade Dynasty (2019). Siu-Tung is also known as an action choreographer par excellence and has coordinated sequences on films like Shaolin Soccer (2001), Invincible (2001), Hero (2002), House of Flying Daggers (2004) and In the Name of the King: A Dungeon Siege Tale (2007).


Trailer here


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