Merely seven months after their first adventure, the heroic trio of Maggie Cheung, Anita Mui, and Michelle Yeoh return Executioners. And if you thought things were bleak before, let me tell you, this one starts with a bang! Nuclear war has poisoned the world and the survivors are forced to grovel at the feet of anyone who can provide clean water. Hong Kong’s president (Kwan Shan) is desperately trying to keep the government on top while a masked, disfigured maniac (Anthony Wong) pulls the strings from the shadows. This is a world that needs heroes more than ever before, so where are they?
Well, Tung (Anita Mui) has given up her Wonder Woman alter ego and decided to become a full-time wife …and mother! That’s right, in the years since everything went to shit, Tung and her police inspector husband (Damian Lau) have had a little girl and, rather than reveal herself to them, Tung has instead locked that part of herself away. Although the instincts are still there, as we see in one scene when Tung and her daughter witness someone having their water stolen and Tung can’t resist nonchalantly knocking out the attacker and kicking the water back into the victim’s hands.
Meanwhile, Tung’s sister, Ching (Michelle Yeoh), a.k.a The Invisible Girl (although I don’t think she does any invisible stuff in this one), has embraced her noble nature and is trying to carry on being a hero by herself. She’s teamed up with another former bad guy, the hunchback Kau (Anthony Wong), and they’re going around beating up unsuspecting raiders and answering the call whenever people need help. Apparently Kau is a character from the first movie but actually more time has passed for me between movies than there was between theatrical releases and I didn’t remember him until I checked Wikipedia to write this. Just goes to show how crazy this series is that I could forget a super-powered hunchback.
Finally, The Thief Catcher Chat (Maggie Cheung) is up to her old tricks, looking for any opportunity she can find to make a quick buck. She is the one who initially reunites the trio, after stealing a bunch of water she drags a firehose into Tung’s home and makes it rain. It does feel pretty wasteful since it’s established most people are fighting desperately for little bags are water and Chat is soaking everything Tung’s family owns. The trio and Tung’s daughter share a bubble bath but still can’t get quite on the same page. Sadly for them, things are going to get a lot worse from here. Fortunately for you, it’s all way too complicated for me to try to recap.
I wanted The Heroic Trio to team up more after the first movie so I was disappointed that they spend almost all of Executioners on separate side quests. Also way more of the action scenes in this one center on guns and explosions, which just isn’t as fun as the martial arts stuff everyone involved (including director Johnnie To and choreographer Ching Siu-tung) is capable of doing. One exception is the moment when Tung finally becomes Wonder Woman again and fights an evil colonel (Paul Chun) and in a battle the ends up high above the city. That shit’s sweet!
Despite a darker tone and setting, Executioners was easy for me to watch because those vibes are totally undercut by the cartoony tendencies of the action and the number of children and babies who are killed being zero (although with Tung’s daughter’s prominence in the story, I was worried). But that also kinda just makes it less distinct, you know? The Heroic Trio was CRAZY and I wanted to tell people about it and share clips so people would believe me that it really happened. This was more just a campy, extremely nineties action movie. One that kind of wasted its potential as a sequel with such a stellar main cast. But they clearly rushed it out after making the first, who am I to complain? We’ve all been there. I get it, I’d hate to be judged as a writer based solely on these reviews.