You know as soon as you get that moment, in the first fifteen minutes, where the one lady badass uses the thingamajig that severs one of the thug's fingers from his hand - with no positive or negative reaction, just "oh, there goes my finger" face - and then after she leave he picks it up and, after seeing Good that unfortunately it won't go back on he puts it in his mouth and eat it, this is going to be a very... special movie experience (and I don't mean that, at least entirely, in any ironic sense).
The Heroic Trip has both a relatively straightforward set up in that it's about 18 babies who have been baby-napped by a mysterious villain who is looking to have them for... world domination, perhaps (or just because this evil Master wants these babies because they have something he wants of them once they grow up) and yet how this plot unfolds doesn't always follow such a straight line. In fact, everyone's favorite bad-ass beautiful contemporary star Michelle Yeoh is initially on the villain's side, Ching aka the Invisible Woman, who has a cloak that makes her able to go in and cause chaos and steal the babies because, hey, who's gonna see her, and Anita Mui (aka Wonder Woman) is out to stop her, and doing a better job than the bumbling cops (what other kind would there be though?)
But the plot isn't the point here, and I don't think Johnnie To would want to kid us with all of that. All you need to know is that the Trio of the title does eventually form because (this shouldn't come as a surprise) they all have a past with this dastardly Imperial fantastical villain, and eventually you know Michelle Yeoh will turn to the side that is fighting to get back the babies. The appeal of the Heroic Trio is that To means to use his camera and editing equipment with the same insane ferocity that Sam Raimi had going on at the time with his Evil Dead movies (Dead by Dawn and Army of Darkness for sure), and like Raimi his delirious camera choices are matched by the special vfx department which has great goofy get ups of bad guys to fight, limbs and parts ready for the dismantling, and smoke machines all going at all times (yes, even when it's indoors).
It's a camp extravaganza of violence, and the focus isn't there for the entire run time, rather the movie works best in fits and starts. It's a terrific Set Piece movie more than a coherent story, but that is far from a complaint when To and his leading ladies (I also should mention Maggie Cheung, who is in a much different gear than one would see her a year later with Wong Kar Wai in Chungking Exp), and those set pieces are bursting with energy and fresh Gonzo ideas, largely involving how someone is falling needs to be caught before going to the ground (sometimes it works and, in one tragic cue-the-melancholic-pop-song post-dead-baby, it doesnt).
And while part of the climax is more repeating things visually we saw earlier- ie the bullet as it flies and then gets returned to the characters- the latter part of the climax is the best part of the movie, with I assume some influence from the end of The Terminator but much crazier and invigorating. It's the kind of magnificent showmanship and insanity that makes me almost bump up the rating a little higher, but for now it's fine where it is. It's hard to see someone not having a good time with The Heroic Trio as long as you click with it in the first several minutes. To and company aren't trying to "get" you with anything here: this is just straight out manic comic book filmmaking, but from a time when that meant something extra than it does today.
The Heroic Trip has both a relatively straightforward set up in that it's about 18 babies who have been baby-napped by a mysterious villain who is looking to have them for... world domination, perhaps (or just because this evil Master wants these babies because they have something he wants of them once they grow up) and yet how this plot unfolds doesn't always follow such a straight line. In fact, everyone's favorite bad-ass beautiful contemporary star Michelle Yeoh is initially on the villain's side, Ching aka the Invisible Woman, who has a cloak that makes her able to go in and cause chaos and steal the babies because, hey, who's gonna see her, and Anita Mui (aka Wonder Woman) is out to stop her, and doing a better job than the bumbling cops (what other kind would there be though?)
But the plot isn't the point here, and I don't think Johnnie To would want to kid us with all of that. All you need to know is that the Trio of the title does eventually form because (this shouldn't come as a surprise) they all have a past with this dastardly Imperial fantastical villain, and eventually you know Michelle Yeoh will turn to the side that is fighting to get back the babies. The appeal of the Heroic Trio is that To means to use his camera and editing equipment with the same insane ferocity that Sam Raimi had going on at the time with his Evil Dead movies (Dead by Dawn and Army of Darkness for sure), and like Raimi his delirious camera choices are matched by the special vfx department which has great goofy get ups of bad guys to fight, limbs and parts ready for the dismantling, and smoke machines all going at all times (yes, even when it's indoors).
It's a camp extravaganza of violence, and the focus isn't there for the entire run time, rather the movie works best in fits and starts. It's a terrific Set Piece movie more than a coherent story, but that is far from a complaint when To and his leading ladies (I also should mention Maggie Cheung, who is in a much different gear than one would see her a year later with Wong Kar Wai in Chungking Exp), and those set pieces are bursting with energy and fresh Gonzo ideas, largely involving how someone is falling needs to be caught before going to the ground (sometimes it works and, in one tragic cue-the-melancholic-pop-song post-dead-baby, it doesnt).
And while part of the climax is more repeating things visually we saw earlier- ie the bullet as it flies and then gets returned to the characters- the latter part of the climax is the best part of the movie, with I assume some influence from the end of The Terminator but much crazier and invigorating. It's the kind of magnificent showmanship and insanity that makes me almost bump up the rating a little higher, but for now it's fine where it is. It's hard to see someone not having a good time with The Heroic Trio as long as you click with it in the first several minutes. To and company aren't trying to "get" you with anything here: this is just straight out manic comic book filmmaking, but from a time when that meant something extra than it does today.