Set in the future, the city has been devastated after an atomic blast and there's an evil villain controlling the city's water supply. This villain is out to destroy the military government and action needs to be taken against him. The Heroic Trio has gone their separate ways but has to re-unite in order for them to save the city from the evil man that is out to rule the entire country.
Executioners is more than just a sequel as it is very different compared to the first movie and takes a whole different turn than the first one did. While the original movie was simple but greatly entertaining, this one has much more to it story and character wise. It's also a whole lot darker and some of the humour that was found in the first flick is nowhere to be found in this one. The setting of the movie itself also brings a certain type of atmosphere, a gloomy and dark future where the city has been somewhat destroyed by a atomic blast.
Once again we are introduced to the Heroic Trio consisting of Wonder Woman, Invisible Woman and Thief Catcher, but this time they have gone their separate ways and have layed the old days of being superheros behind them. They all have new life now and are doing different things far more normal then being heroes, but things are about to change. After a while one of them decides to take action but is imprisoned for her efforts, something that in the end leads to a tragic outcome. This movie is far more realistic than the first as people actually turn up dead here, and it all has a darker feeling to it, with the military rule and all.
 
This movie also deals with the concept of conspiracy and corruption. There are a lot of things here that the first movie didn't have and I was happy that it was just not another sequel. Even though it actually is a sequel, it's still something else and also something totally different. A very good thing though is that they kept the main characters and that all of them are portrayed by the same actors as in Heroic Trio. Even Anthony Wong is part of Executioners, playing the same character as he did in the first movie.
Executioners is also a lot more slow-paced than Heroic Trio was. The first flick just kept on going like a speeding train without ever stopping to re-fuel, while Executioners slows down every now and then to let everything sink in. The first movie was better as a whole, but this one is good too and I really like the fact of how different this one is.
When it comes to action you'll get plenty. There's a lot of Kung Fu fighting, martial arts and cool action sequences every now and then. Some of the actual plot is a bit confusing and the movie might be needed to be viewed a second time to fully be able to grasp it all. There are flaws of course, but most of them are fairly easy to overlook. I've heard a lot of complaints about this movie, and I guess most of those complaints came from people who either expected it to be the first movie all over again, people who has a short attention span or those who are not used to Asian cinema. It's not a hard movie to watch, even if there are too many characters at times and things can be hard to keep track on, it's still a good and different sequel.
Very different from The Heroic Trio but still manages to be a good sequel. Executioners has a much darker mood and a more desperate feeling to it, all set in a gloomy devastated metropolis. It's a good movie, but very different to the first one, slower but has more story to it and a lot of great action as well.
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ALTERNATIVE TITLE: Heroic Trio 2
Modern Day Wonder Heroes Legend
Yin doi ho hap juen
MOVIE YEAR: 1993
DIRECTOR: Siu-Tung Ching, Johnny To
WRITING CREDITS: Susanne Chan, Sandy Shaw
GENRE: Action, Fantasy, Martial Arts, Sci-Fi
CAST: Michelle Yeoh, Anita Mui, Maggie Cheung
COUNTRY: Hong Kong
RUNTIME: 101 min
RATING: 6/10
Executioners Website/IMDB Click here
Executioners Trailer Click here
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