Starring:
Michelle Yeoh as Ching, Invisible Woman
Anita Mui as Tung, Mercy
Maggie Cheung as Chat, Shadow Fox
Damian Lau as Inspector Lau
Anthony Wong Chau-Sang as Kau
Paul Chu as Chief of Police
James Pak as Inventor
Yee Kwan Yan as Evil Master
Special Features:
None
Other Info:
Widescreen (1:85:1) – Enhanced For 16×9 Televisions
Running Time: 86 Mins.
Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround Sound
Captions Subtitles
Synopsis:
An evil wizard has been kidnapping babies all over China. His plot is to train them to be rulers in a new world that he will take over. The only things that will determine if he succeeds or fails are his three former students. The Invisible Woman is his loyal servant who, using an invisible cloak, kidnaps the babies for him. Mercy, a rogue former student, is now a mercenary who may thwart his plans if the price is right. Finally, Shadow Fox is his former pupil who is on her own and, forgetting her past, now acts as a crime fighting superhero.
Shadow Fox tries to track down the kidnapped babies, but she quickly finds herself facing off against her fellow students. The only way the wizard can be stopped is if the three work together, but can the Invisible Woman be convinced to change her evil ways?
“The Heroic Trio” is rated R for violence.
The Movie:
Sometimes movies from Hong Kong bridge all cultural gaps and provide popular entertainment for Western audiences. It worked for Jackie Chan, Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, and others. Unfortunately, this is not one of those films.
I love Hong Kong action movies. I’m a big fan of Michelle Yeoh. However, this movie was incredibly bad. The plot was stupid, the action was third rate, and a lot of it simply didn’t make sense. If I were to list all the incredible lapses in logic in this story, you’d be reading this all day. “The Heroic Trio” is obviously supposed to be a comic book film. Suspension of disbelief is to be expected. However, this movie never makes it all pay off. It just never works at all. The fights are not very exciting and you can even see the wires on thrown objects. Hong Kong action movies are supposed to be cheesy, but this is uber-cheesy. If you’re a fan of Yeoh, then stay far away from this movie.
The movie also jumps from playful absurdity to unnecessary gore. In one scene the ladies are fighting over a baby. They knock over the basket the baby is in and the child falls screaming. When Shadow Fox picks the baby up, blood is spurting from the back of its head. They then show a bloody nail in a piece of wood on the ground. She takes the screaming baby to the hospital where it dies. The evil wizard later kills some of the babies that he has kidnapped. I don’t know about you, but I don’t find that terribly entertaining.
The movie ends with an incredibly stupid fight between the girls and the wizard. They burn him alive and his charred skeleton continues to attack them. The grilled bad guy’s skeleton then grabs a hold of Michelle Yeoh, wraps itself around her, and proceeds to take over her body and fight the other girls. Yeoh looks absurd fighting with a big rubber skeleton strapped to her. Have I mentioned that fans of hers should stay away from this film?
The packaging for this DVD is misleading as well. It compares it to Charlie’s Angels and Terminator. The only comparison I saw was that it has three butt kicking girls in it and there was a skeleton walking out of a fire. Otherwise the movies are nothing alike. I don’t know how you can even call the girls a Heroic Trio when one of them kidnaps all the children and puts them in danger in the first place. The picture on the cover isn’t even from this movie, either.
Overall this is a bad moviegoing experience that I would not wish on anyone. The only thing it might be good for is a Mystery Science Theater 3000 type party where everyone makes fun of the movie. And did I mention that Michelle Yeoh fans should stay away?
The Extras:
This DVD had no extras at all unless you consider some Kung Fu movie trailers as bonus material.
The Bottom Line:
“The Heroic Trio” offers up a memorable moviegoing experience. Not a good one though.
