Stock and original footage from Nicholas Meyer's TV movie, 'The Day After'(1983) is recycled in the prolouge for 'Executioners'(1993) alias 'Xian dai hao xia zhuan'(The people getting vaporized, the man literally on fire, the trees and buildings getting ravaged by the atomic weapons, etc.). Interesting.
shareFor me, this was a hard one to watch. I'm a huge Michelle Yeoh fan - I won't give away what happens in this movie, but I was stunned. But overall, it kept you in the dark, you were depressed with the life the city had to lead, and then the ending was pretty decently done. Still showed how bad the locals had it, though.
shareThis is a GOOD movie
shareSaam Ching/SHADOW FOX(Michelle Yeoh)has a very unhappy ending in this film! Thank goodness for that gratuitous bath scene(no nudity, though). There's a scene where Ah Chat, Tungching, and Tak have to go underwater to reach a corridor(inspired by 'The Poseidon Adventure'?). 'Executioners' has a grim, disaster movie tone as opposed to the dark, supernatural tone in its predecessor, 'The Heroic Trio'.
shareIndeed, much much darker than HT. I was depressed all the way through, got hit with that shocker, and then the ending was pretty decent. As for the disaster movie tone - I think this one was pretty ultimate in disaster movies.
shareSpoilers:
When Saam Ching blows herself up with a bomb, my heart broke in two! Now we can see why a Heroic Trio Part III never came out. Then again, 'Executioners' is better than most HK movies being made these days.
Someone who panned 'The Heroic Trio' claims that Ah Chat looks like a "rocker". In 'Executioners', she looks more like a "hippie".
I can't believe that actuallly there are people who thinks that "Executioners" is a "good" film when it's one of the worse sequels ever made, if not the worst.
IMO The original movie was really good despite it's cheesiness because the characters were cool and likeable regardless if a bit pulpish. The villains were bigger-than-life, something that suited perfectly the mood of the movie. The plot was certainly over-the-top but also witty, funny and dark at the same time.
Finally the fight sequences were well done.
But everything that went right in the original film went bad in "Executioners". Here the plot is not only cheesy but also dull and inert for most part of the movie.
I like cheese but GOOD cheese. The Heroic Trio was like a good Provolone, but Executioners is no better than rotten cheese. Not even the beauty of Maggie Cheung and Michelle Yeoh, nor the charisma of Anita Mui could save the day.
Somebody said Executioners is one of the best movies made in Hong Kong. Happyly that ain't true. Johnnie To himself, after Executioners, have shot some remarkable films like "Exiled".
Executioners: 3/10
I don't see how these films are better than one another, although I enjoyed both film I would give the same rating for both. The fist film was pretty good until that ridiculous ending, I wish they would have just ended there with the villain gets bombed.
The 2nd film has a much serious and darker tone, with more people dying but I still don't understand why Chat had to bring a kid with her on her dangerous mission.