Defining Favourites: The Heroic Trio (1993)

MCU: 0. Johnnie To: All the way up to 11.

Photo: Janus Films

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• Directed by Johnnie To

• Screenplay by Sandy Shaw

• Produced by Ching Siu-tung

• Starring Michelle Yeoh, Anita Mui, Maggie Cheung, Damian Lau, Anthony Wong

• Premiere Date: February 12, 1993

• Running Time: 83 minutes

While superhero films continue to dominate in popularity in contemporary American cinema, one can only see too many of them before they start feeling like you’ve seen one and then you’ve seen them all. That’s what makes The Heroic Trio stand out among everything else you’ll see – for it may be Hong Kong filmmaker Johnnie To’s greatest film, and simply put, it’s maybe the best superhero movie ever made. Every minute of The Heroic Trio feels like it’s making clear its influence and what exactly can To make just based on that alone. To say the least, it brings out a movie that feels almost like it could very well be lifted from comic books in the most bombastic way possible.

Yet that bombast never is shown to be a flaw in The Heroic Trio, but a feature. That happens to be exactly what makes the film every bit as wonderful as it is: for you’re seeing the end result of someone who’s probably watched Richard Donner’s Superman or Tim Burton’s Batman enough times to get a feel of a superhero movie. But instead of trying to create one based on the comics, Johnnie To gets a feel for the foundation of superhero media and instead ends up making his own movie: an action movie where three incredible women are put front and center as these drastically differing ideas of femininity might very well be what saves the world around them from a greater force of evil.