io9
The greatest Wonder Woman movie of all time has already been made — even if Joel Silver comes to his senses and offers Joss Whedon unlimited money and creative control. I'm referring, of course, to the Hong Kong film Heroic Trio, which featured Wonder Woman (Anita Mui), alongside Invisible Girl (Michelle Yeoh) and Thief Catcher (Maggie Cheung) battling a monster who creates cannibalistic mutant children. Less well known, but even weirder, is the sequel, The Executioners. Where the first film was disturbing, the second is apocalyptic and depressing, culminating with the most psychotic arm-ripping, chest-spearing fight scene in history, which is below.
The greatest Wonder Woman movie of all time has already been made — even if Joel Silver comes to his senses and offers Joss Whedon unlimited money and creative control. I'm referring, of course, to the Hong Kong film Heroic Trio, which featured Wonder Woman (Some people hate The Executioners for being so bleak and grim, but it's actually pretty amazing in its jarringness, especially if you saw and loved the first movie.
Some people In a nutshell, it takes place six years after the first movie (even though they were filmed at the same time.) There's been some kind of unspecified nuclear holocaust, and society is crapping out the way it always does in post-nuclear dystopias. All of the city's water supply has been poisoned or contaminated, so fresh water is incredibly scarce. The military and the civilian authorities are grappling for power, and there are refugees, and tons of people die in horrible disasters. And there's a lot of moping and grim music.
Meanwhile, the three heroes from the first movie are splintered apart and don't trust each other any more. At the end of the film, they finally come together to fight the Phantom Of The Opera-looking villain — who's the head of the water company and secretly responsible for contaminating the water. The fight scene above comes just after the trio have finally made up and promised to be friends forever, which makes the bloody and horrendous fight scene that follows even more awful. Michelle Yeoh finally pulls an exploding arrow that's been stuck in her chest out, to blow up the water company CEO.
Comments
I dunno, I don't really dig these movies that give Justice League a run for it's production money.
If I want post-apocolyptic Bad Water Company action, I think I'd choose Tank Girl.
Too overdressed to be Wonder Woman. Also, how come Invisible Girl isn't invisible?
For some retro Bad Water Company action, there's always _Chinatown_. "We're in the middle of a drought, and the water commissioner drowns. Only in L.A.."
How can any of you not like these wacky Hong Kong movies? The superior cheese factor has been perfected by 5,000 years of over-the-top escapist literature & theatre. Sure the production values rival a typical Tom Baker era Doctor Who episode, but c'mon!
Oh well, I guess this stuff is just one of my special geek happy places, mebbe it's a cultural thing.
"Heroic Trio" is great especially for Maggie Cheung, prrrrr.
Anyone interested should check out her and Joey Wong in "Green Snake".
Kam pai/Cheers!
Ahh, yes, explosions and face-kicks won't kill him, but of course there's always Phantom of the Opera-guy's secret weakness: FALLING CHANDELIERS!!!
I really liked _Chinese Ghost Story_, and both _Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon_ and _Hero_ were very nicely made. But in general, I would say that I don't like those sorts of movies.
I did catch a bit of a Hong Kong remake of _La Femme Nikita_ on our Chinese station one night -- even without subtitles the original script was shining through. I think it was called _Black Cat_ or something like that according to the TV guide. I've been intending to watch it -- is it worthwhile? ... Looking on IMDB ... Nope, only a 5.6. Although Nikita only got a 7.5, and I'd put that in my top 20 movies (I gave it a 9).
Thief Catcher, part of the League of Obviously Named Superheroes (a subsidiary of Viacom).
This and Bullet in the Head convinced me that HK was where the best movies were being made. Heroic Trio is cheesy genius.
I love these movies. No movie industry is better then the asian one. If it is Hong Kong or Korea or another asian country... the make new and exciting things.
While these are a little dates they are still better then some of the cheap hollywood productions we see today. And What about the remakes like "The Eye", "Grudge", "The Ring" (Original Version's ending 1000x better)... Go see the original.
Other great Asian movies; "The Bride With White Hair", "Chinese Ghost Story", "Hero", "Old Boy", "The Killer", "Swordman II", "A Better Tomorrow", Hard Boiled" (10 times better then Die Hard, best 40 minute movie show down ever), and the list goes on...
Havn't seen an Asian movie yet, pick one from the list above, you'll be surprised.
Do not want.
I like my Wonder Woman with raven hair, tall, blue eyes and red, white and blue.
Oh Lynda Carter, I love you.
I love those movies SO MUCH. The atmosphere is so grim and creepy. The fights kick ass.
All those fight scenes where she's doing it with a baby under her arm!
And the scene where Michelle Yeoh squeezes a rat in prison and drinks its blood.
What happens if the Invisible Woman flies Wonder Woman's Invisible Jet?
I love over the top martial arts flicks! If only because they aren't poisoned by focus groups or Hollywood money and compromises. Besides how else you can you watch a dance flick, and let's be honest martial arts, swordplay, gunfights are dance--you dance until someone dies, and not have your Usan, hetro-masculinity threatened.
And Michelle Yeoh--I loved her ever since she pulled that sword strike from Zhang Ziyi at the end of Crouching.
heroic trio was so utterly full of awesome. executioners not quite so much, but still lots of awesome.
american movies need to use the fling-the-decapitation-device weapon. aw yeah.
Foul! Hair pulling!
@se7a7n7: Um.
This is cool. Lots of spinny. Plus, Michelle Yeoh is amazing.
@Taed: Yes, Chinese Ghost Story is a marvelous movie. I think why the "cheese" works so well in it, is because it's basically a fairy tale, not an action/adventure movie.
I really recommend seeing it, if anyone hasn't.
If one has "the dish", one can view
A CHINESE GHOST STORY, and others
on Kung Fu Hd..plus Heroic Tio has played onther..SEVERAL times..a day
Heroic Trio rocks very hard.
There is much to be said for films like this. There's nothing wrong with good natured, fun cheese like this.
And of course, Michelle and Maggie and Anita!
Silver Hawk, starring Michelle Yeoh is also pretty spiffy.
Lots of ass kicking (mainly by the oh, so hot Michelle!) and everyone is there to have a good time, and not take themselves too seriously.
Michelle Yeoh rocks so hard. I've seen The Executioners, and really need to see the first one.
It should be made clear that the name Wonder Woman here is only the translated name of the character in the subtitles and is not really the Chinese name of the heroine character.
As to the Invisible Girl, she has a cloak which grants invisibility, but it only gets limited use in the first film (I don't think it is around in the second film).
I always loved Anita in martial roles, and was really sad when she passed.
That dart gun was by far the weakest dart gun I have ever seen. It went from full power to just kind of tossed to the women.
So after getting her leg snapped, her arm ripped off, and a fist plunged through her torso, she still has the pressure to hose blood when she yanks the dart-bomb out of her stomach. She's tough!
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