Executioners (Yin doi hou hap zyun) is the same-year sequel to the bizarro fantasy-sci-fi-kung-fu-horror smash-up The Heroic Trio (Dung fong sam hap), and it is an overall better film if only because it is so much more visually and tonally consistent. Of course, in the world of Hong Kong action extravaganzas that is not necessarily a virtue, and if anything goes is your aesthetic of choice, you could do much worse. I found much more to appreciate in the the formal and tonal coherence in Executioners, although it is in, its own way, just as gonzo in its approach.

Although it reunites the three protagonists of The Heroic Trio—Chan San, also known as Invisible Girl (Michelle Yeoh); Tung, also known as Wonder Woman (Anita Mui); and Chan Chat, also known as Thief Catcher (Maggie Cheung)—Executioners takes place in a post-apocalyptic world of desolation and political strife. While ostensibly set the same dystopian city-state we saw in the first film, there is no real explanation as to what happened in between, not that such an explanation is really needed. The post-apocalyptic setting gives the film a more coherent look, as it leans heavily into industrial claustrophobia, smoky darkness, and heavily armored vehicles with enormous tires. The setting also fits better with the film’s plot, which involves various power brokers taking advantage of the scarcity of clean drinking water for an increasingly desperate population.

Caught in the middle are the three protagonists, some of whom have moved on from their previous identities and some of whom have dug in even deeper. In the former category is Mui’s Tung, who has given up her alternate identity in exchange for motherhood and a stronger commitment to supporting her husband (Damian Lau), who has advanced from being a police detective to police commissioner, where his responsibilities involve maintaining the peace when it feels like all of society is on the verge of collapse. Yeoh’s Chan San is still trying to make amends for the damage she caused in the first film when she was under the control of the film’s villain, while Cheung’s Chan Chat is still happily self-employed as a sarcastic, largely self-interested bounty hunter.

Co-directed by Johnnie To and Ching Siu-Tung, the latter of whom served as the stunt coordinator on The Heroic Trio, Executioners boasts more than its share of slam-bang action sequences, all of which defy to some degree or another the laws of physics, but somehow feel more grounded due to the grittier nature of the mise-en-scene and the moody cinematography by Hang-Sang Poon (Crime Story, Kung Fu Hustle). The three leads are just as good as they were in the previous film, and the script by Susan Chan Suk-yin (from a story by Heroic Trio writer Sandy Shaw Lai-king) gives them some room to grow, especially Cheung’s Thief Catcher, who serves primarily as comic relief in the first film, but here expands into a more fully realized character with an actual arc. Of course, you don’t come to a film like Executioners looking for character depth and thematic coherence, but it doesn’t hurt to have some to leaven all the chaos.

Copyright © 2024 James Kendrick

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