Dung fong saam hap (1993)

User Rating:

6.5/10   

Director:

Johnnie To

Writers:

Sandy Shaw (written by)
Jack Maeby (English version)

Release Date:

12 February 1993 (Hong Kong)

Genre:

Action | Fantasy

Plot:

The all-female Heroic Trio are Tung (Wonder Woman), Chat (Thief Catcher), a mercenary, and Ching (Invisible Woman)...

Plot Keywords:

Beautiful Woman | Blood | Bullet Catching | Levitation | Severed Head

Awards:

1 win & 3 nominations

Cast

Michelle Yeoh	...	Ching / Invisible Woman / Number 3 (as Michelle Khan)
Anita Mui	...	Tung / Wonder Woman / Shadow Fox
Maggie Cheung	...	Chat / Thief Catcher / Mercy
Damian Lau	...	Insp. Lau
Anthony Wong Chau-Sang	...	Kau (as Anthony Wong)
Paul Chun	...	Chief of Police (as Pei Chun)
James Pak	...	Inventor
Shi-Kwan Yen	...	Evil Master (as Yee Kwan Yan)
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Zhuoxin Chen
Haowen Jiang
Siu-Kei Lee	...	Leader of robbers at chemical factory (as Zhaoji Li)
Zhaoxiang Ruan
Yut Fei Wong	...	Car thief (as Yifei Huang)
Tao Xu
Ruisheng Zheng
Mimi Zhu

Also Known As:

Dong fang san xia (China: Mandarin title) (Hong Kong: Mandarin title)
Eastern Three Heroes (International: English title) (literal title)
The Heroic Trio (Hong Kong: English title)

MPAA:

Rated R for violence.

Runtime:

88 min | USA:86 min (edited version)

Country:

Hong Kong

Language:

Cantonese | English

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

Singapore:NC-16 | South Korea:15 | Argentina:16 | Finland:K-16 | Germany:18 | Hong Kong:IIB | UK:18 | USA:R

Company:

China Entertainment Films Production

Quotes:

Tung: So you're a woman.
Chat: So you're a bitch.

Movie Connections:

References Xue di zi (1975)

A visual delight, but nothing more

This movie has widely been regarded as one of the best fantasies to come out of Hong Kong. That's quite an honor, keeping in mind many of the other well-known fantasy films that came out of HK. The movie indeed is style over substance, and there are many great moments...visual moments that will leave the inexperienced HK viewer in sheer awe. However, in spite of the many great moments, this movie is not necessarily what it has been made out to be.

The main problems exist with the action scenes. They are choreographed by Ching Siu Tung, whose credits include the Swordsman series, A Chinese Ghost Story, and Dr. Wai, to name a few. The action scenes are much too short and the sword fights look like exhibitions, there's no intensity in them. Also, there is little real martial arts in the whole film. Michelle Yeoh's talents are essentially wasted (except in a quick fight w/ Anthony Wong at the beginning).

There are some great moments in this film. Anita Mui running across the telephone wires, the flying motorcycle in the train station, and such. The wire work and cinematography is very good and almost awe-inspiring at times. The special FX are pretty good as well.

This movie is a lot like Swordsman II. There's a lot of awesome visions and visual delights, but the action lacks any intensity and the talents of the leads are wasted (both Jet Li in Swordsman II and Michelle Yeoh in this). In the end, the film is entertaining but is essentially overrated for what it is.