Those who’ve never been exposed to the joys ofHong Kong action cinemawould be pardoned for thinking that Academy Award winnerMichelle Yeohonly blitzed onto the scene oppositePierce Brosnan’s James Bond, but Yeoh was a star long before Hollywood ever heard of her, evident in her starring in a film featuring Hong Kong’s very own Wonder Woman! And no, it’s notthat Wonder Woman. The film in question isJohnnie To’sThe Heroic Trio, and, just like anysuperhero movie from Asia, it’s properly insane. The ‘Wonder Woman’ in question is actually played byAnita Miu, where Yeoh instead plays the Invisible Woman. And no, we don’t meanthat Invisible Womaneither. Rounding out the cast isMaggie Cheungwho plays the Thief Catcher, a Batman analogue. Only this one,like Snyder’s, is very questionably fond of her guns.
For context, this is as ifMichelle Rodriguez,Angelina Jolie, andScarlett Johanssonteamed up for an ass-kicking adventure that escalates into another layer of insanity with every scene. InThe Heroic Trio, vigilantes live among us, though it’s never explained how or why. Their abilities are derived from the best ofwuxia martial artsto create what is most appropriately described asCharlie’s Angelson acid, witha substantial level of maximalismto boot. Their grand nemesis is known only as the Evil Master (Yen Shi-Kwan), whose evil master plan involves stealing a preposterous number of newborn babies from the hospital in an attempt to groom China’s new emperor. After all, he had to earn that title somehow. ThinkHard Boiled, but with superheroes, with plenty of sentimentality and melodrama to boot.
The Heroic Trio
Three superheroines discover a villain’s plot to mould kidnapped children into bloodthirsty world leaders.
‘The Heroic Trio’s Superpowers Are All Derived Straight from the Wuxia Genre
If you’re unsure whether you’ve seena wuxia filmbefore, just try and think if you’ve ever seen a shot of a character hanging from invisible wires.There’s an entire name for that fighting style, and it’s called ‘wire-fu’.It waspopularized in Hollywood byThe Matrix, but its origins extend far back into kung fu cinema, where the spirituality of martial arts practitioners allowed them to look graceful while gliding instead of just passing it off as a form of cheap flight. Wonder Woman utilizes this skill extensively, introduced as she propels herself in the air via telephone wires. Trained from childhood by her ruthless father of a mentor, she’s turned to crime fighting in her later years, using her sword and butterfly-shaped throwing knives to dispatch her opponents and save some falling babies, as you do. Like any good superhero, she conceals her identity from her husband, who’s actually a police inspector. Talk about juicy drama!
It’s worth noting thatThe Heroic Triodoesn’t start off as much of a trio to begin with. Thief Catcher works on her own, bursting onto an armed hostage crime scene with her gnarly motorcycle before mercilessly dispatching her assailants. She insists, however, that she saves her bullets only for those who deserve them,making Batfleck proud. The goofiest of the bunch, Thief Catcher tops off her introduction by igniting an oil barrel and riding it to propel herself onto a nearby building, brushing off the dirt like it’s a casual occurrence.If Wonder Woman representsCrouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, then Thief Catcher representsthe action comedy of Jackie Chan.
Michelle Yeoh Holds the Juiciest Part of All Three
The film may start out looking like it’s Wonder Woman’s movie, but really, it was always Yeoh’s. That’s because, initiallylike these antiheroes, she doesn’t necessarily stand on the side of justice. The Invisible Woman was actually taken in by the Evil Master when she was a child, hence why it’s actually she who uses an invisibility cloak to steal the babies from the hospital. Prior to the reveal that she’s capable of invisibility, these babies look like they’re being abducted by aPoltergeistthreat. She got the robe from ‘the Professor’ (James Pak), a pacifist inventor who takes the Invisible Woman in, not knowing that she’s actually working undercover to swipe the technology from under his nose.
There a problem however, and that’s the fact that she isfalling in love. Only upon reconciling her conflicted feelings does she complete the missing link in the Heroic Trio, which is fortunate for them because this woman knows her way around a lot of kung fu weaponry. Her weapon of choice is a chain whip, so imagineGhost RiderwithHarry Potter’s invisibility cloak. Naturally, this makes her a threat and a half, but leave it to the power of friendship to morally correct even the most deviant of baby-stealing fiends.
Nothing Can Prepare You for ‘The Heroic Trio’s Insane Climactic Battle
We’ve written before about just how insane Hong Kong’s action films can get. The Shaw Brothers’sHoly Flame of the Martial Worldliterally featured a technique called “Bone Incineration by Fire” and that was after our hero fought a kung fu version ofFrankenstein(it’s as awesome as it sounds).The Heroic Triofollows a similar trajectory. Plenty of gymnastic brawls take place and the power of the Evil Master is established early on when he literally stops a speeding freight train with his fists, but a rule of thumb for kung fu and anime alike: just when you think it can’t get any crazier, it most certainly will.
Just when the main villain is vanquished, he returns from an urban field of scorching hot flames likethe T-1000, only instead of sporting a brightly shining chrome skin job, he continues to fight the trio as a mangy skeleton, complete with his exposed, throbbing brains. Odds are that evenPeter Jackson,an early master of action gore cinema, was supremely envious of that effect.
What’s alarming aboutThe Heroic Triois that, even though it was produced in 1993, long before the MCU, or eventhe pre-MCU, it shares so many of the same beats that comprise the most classic tales of heroes living among us in disguise. It’s camp, it’s ridiculous, and it’s glorious all the same. Fortunately, there’s more where that came from, with the cast uniting for a sequel known asExecutioners(that escalated quickly!), which was released that same year. But for more pre-Hollywood Yeoh, Criterion has fortunately launched a retrospective on her body of work. For the best results, pair it withYes, Madam!, another sensationally undervalued Yeoh classic. Just please, please don’t try any of those stunts at home!
