The Heroic Trio / Executioners

With this outrageously entertaining cult favorite, director Johnnie To and his lineup of legendary stars gave Hong Kong cinema something new: its own homegrown superhero cinematic universe. Thief Catcher (Maggie Cheung), Wonder Woman (Anita Mui), and Invisible Girl (Michelle Yeoh) are kick-ass crusaders who must overcome their dark pasts in order to defeat an evil, baby-snatching eunuch terrorizing the city. Eye-popping motorcycle stunts, bloodthirsty undead, cannibal infants, and kinetically choreographed wirework are all part of the wall-to-wall delirium in this irresistible showcase for three of the coolest women warriors ever to hit the screen.

Maggie Cheung, Anita Mui, and Michelle Yeoh return in this gritty, postapocalyptic sequel to The Heroic Trio. Following a devastating nuclear attack, Hong Kong’s supply of clean water has fallen into the hands of a masked maniac (Anthony Wong) intent on seizing political power—forcing the three fearless fighters to settle their differences and unite to stop him. Darker in tone than the original, Executioners finds Johnnie To and codirector/martial-arts choreographer Ching Siu-tung continuing to push their whirlwind action set pieces to new levels of cartoon craziness, while adding an abundance of grungy, dystopian atmosphere and a fresh dose of antiauthoritarian attitude.