DVD Corner

The Heroic Trio And Executioners Criterion 4K UHD Review

An oddball Johnnie To double feature.  

Written by Sandy Shaw, 1993’s “The Heroic Trio” is an out there martial arts cult action film about a demonic Master that lives in an underworld realm ordering his minions to kidnap human babies. One such minion is a woman who can become invisible (Ching) although she begins to have a crisis of conscience. A masked sword wielding crime fighter known as Tung/Wonder Woman (Does DC know?) and a shotgun carrying/motorcycle riding bounty hunter (Chat) are trying to stop the Master from carrying out his horrifying plan.

1993’s sequel “Executioners” takes an entirely different approach. A nuclear devastation has happened and Ching, Chat and Tung are now living in a troubling post-apocalyptic world where water is scarce and radiation is a problem. The villainous deformed Mr. Kim (who resembles the Phantom of the Opera) controls clean water and is looking to become President. Tung now has a daughter (Charlie) and wants to devote time to raising her, but she is forced back into action through a series of circumstances. Can Mr. Kim be stopped? Will everyone make it out alive?

“The Heroic Trio” and “Executioners” are unusual choices for Criterion. Yes, there is another Johnnie To film in the collection (“Throw Down”) and there’s no shortage of cult movies in the Criterion catalog, but these titles feel more like releases you would see from other labels. Regardless, they are now part of the collection and the sheer weirdness of both films may attract new fans (or please old ones).

The Johnnie To directed “The Heroic Trio” is the better of the two films and is an absolutely bonkers comic book inspired action vehicle that contains a vine snag, an underground realm, prophecies, a flying flaming barrel, a motorcycle doing a sideways spin, car explosions, a walking skeleton that latches on to someone, cannibalism, babies in constant danger, and the aforementioned invisible character. It’s the type of movie that will have you thinking “What am I watching?” One thing that is for certain though is that Michelle Yeoh, Maggie Cheung and Anita Mui kick butt in this movie. Yes, this may be an absolutely bizarre female action hero movie, but the cast and characters are entirely memorable. Where else are you going to see Michelle Yeoh as an invisible woman and a wisecracking scene stealing Maggie Cheung as a character called the Thief Catcher?

It would have been nice to see the Johnnie To and Ching Siu-Tung directed sequel “Executioners” directly follow “The Heroic Trio,” but given how weird ‘Heroic’ is, it shouldn’t be surprising that “Executioners” goes an entirely different route (like “Mad Max” to a degree). Granted, there’s still plenty of strange moments here (especially with the cartoony Mr. Kim) and the movie is never afraid to boldly kill off characters in truly wild ways, but the tone of ‘Heroic’ is missing here in Susanne Chan’s script. This one is more dramatic than it probably should be with Tung’s family drama, the President plot, and the political aspects bogging down the action. The 3 leads also spend too much time apart which doesn’t really help the story either. Thankfully, the movie goes all out in the end with a literal explosive finale.

Video/Audio:

Presentation: 1.78:1 2160p. How do the films look? Some viewers may take issue with these 4K digital restorations as they make the films look too clean, but the image clarity impressed me. People forget just how poor a lot of these martial arts movies looked on VHS and even DVD. Looking at these transfers is like watching the film anew.

Audio Track: Cantonese Uncompressed Mono, 5,1 Surround Cantonese, and English Dub Mono. How do the tracks sound? The Uncompressed tracks offer up the best quality. The English dubs are passable and the 5.1 tracks are lacking depth.

Extras (On The Blu-rays):
* Blu-ray copies of both films.
* A poster/booklet containing an essay by Beatrice Loayza.
* “The Heroic Trio” trailer
* “Superhero Sisterhood”- An 18 minute interview with film critic/podcaster Samm Deighan about the 2 films.
* A brief 7 minute interview with actor Anthony Wong who talks about working on the films.
* “Executioners” trailer.

February 19, 2024 - Posted by nicklyons1 | 4K UHD Review | Action Movies, Criterion Collection, Executioners, Johnnie To, Maggie Cheung, Michelle Yeoh, The Heroic Trio, The Heroic Trio and Executioners Criterion 4K UHD Review