Johnnie To’s career took off in the late 1990s and early- to mid-2000s, with films like Breaking News, Election (2005), Throw Down and The Mission (1999). By then, To had more than a decade of filmmaking experience under his belt, with films that ranged from action to drama to romance. He’d worked for Shaw Brothers Studio and collaborated with legends like producer Tsui Hark and actors like Chow Yun-fat. In the years before he made it big, To had already become a cult director, thanks in part to films like The Heroic Trio and its sequel, Executioners. These are delightfully entertaining romps that blend genres and deliver pretty awesome action set-pieces, grounded by To’s direction and the cast of absolute superstars with whom he was working.

In The Heroic Trio, three women come together to face down a terrible evil kidnapping children in their Gotham-esque city. The Wonder Woman (Anita Mui) is a housewife by day and avenger by night. Thief Catcher (Maggie Cheung) is a motorcycle-driving, shotgun-toting, bounty-hunting badass with a heart of gold. Last but not least is Invisible Girl (Michelle Yeoh), a conflicted servant of evil who wears a high-tech robe that renders her, well, invisible. Their foe is an ancient evil (Shi-Kwan Yen) aided by his enforcer, Kau (Anthony Wong). They do battle among themselves before joining forces to fight Kau and his evil master.

To lifts a lot from the superhero films of the day, which means he riffs on Tim Burton’s Batman: Every interior set is cavernous and gothic, each external setting industrial and covered in grime. The action scenes, choreographed by Ching Siu-tung, rely heavily on wire work and dangerous stunts (pretty much Hong Kong’s par for the course at the time). Each woman gets a chance to shine, and let’s be real: They’re three of the most beautiful, charismatic women to grace the silver screen. Although it isn’t a perfect ride from start to finish, The Heroic Trio is just an absolute pleasure to watch as Mui, Cheung and Yeoh engage in utter cinematic madness.

I’m also enough of a deviant to find the Anthony Wong of it even more exciting than the Heroic Trio themselves. There’s never been an actor more capable of playing a reprehensible monster you can’t help but kind of love to witness. That’s not the limits of Wong’s talent, of course, which To took advantage of in some of his later films. (Please, Criterion, start restoring those; they’re hard to find in these parts.)

Executioners is generally regarded as the weaker of the two films, jettisoning the superhero aesthetic for a post-apocalyptic story about the three women facing off against an evil political regime while trying to find clean water for their starving city. Mui, Cheung and Yeoh all return in their original roles, but the three spend very little time together as their paths and missions diverge. Wong also returns, this time scarred and deformed after his defeat in The Heroic Trio.

I’ll grant that Executioners doesn’t have the same spark of originality as its predecessor, but it still delivers some memorable sequences for each actress, and it’s remarkably unconcerned with maintaining any kind of status quo. It’s less gory than the first — there are no cannibal children (wait, what?) — but it’s still plenty violent and has a lovely batshit-action mentality.

It’s a joy to own The Heroic Trio and Executioners on 4K UHD Blu-ray, especially when they look this great. Hong Kong has proven fertile ground for boutique labels over the last few years, with Arrow, Shout!, 88 Films, Unearthed and Criterion all taking a slice of the country’s golden age. However, it feels like Criterion has been pretty sparse. They released World of Wong Kar Wai and Once Upon a Time in China in boxset form, John Woo’s Last Hurrah for Chivalry, To’s Throw Down, and a grab-bag of early Jackie Chan films over the last few years. They also put out a set for Police Story, without Supercop. Otherwise, it’s felt sparse. To me, The Heroic Trio represents Criterion’s first foray into the schlockier, anything-goes nature of 1990s Hong Kong action cinema.

The 4K restorations are gorgeous and hands-down superior to anything previously available stateside. The new interview included with Anthony Wong is a delight — simply because it’s Anthony Wong. The interview with critic Samm Deighan is informative and substantial. All things considered, this is a pretty high-quality two-film 4K release, despite the relative sparseness of special features.

My only complaint is on the packaging side of things. Like Trainspotting, it’s another Criterion release that tries something a little different with its physical presentation; like Trainspotting, it doesn’t entirely work.

Fans of the 88 Films Hong Kong releases have long enjoyed the special content included in their disc releases, which usually includes fold-out posters alongside booklets. Criterion has included a similar poster featuring the cover art by Alice X. Zhang. It’s a gorgeous piece. How could it not be, featuring the likenesses of Yeoh, Cheung and Mui? But the essay by Beatrice Loayza is printed on the back of the poster and can only be fully read when the artwork is flattened out, ostensibly for framing. I understand the desire to keep printed content to a minimum, especially if the idea is that the folded poster fits inside the case along with three discs. But it’s truly a strange choice that renders the essay unreadable or the poster undisplayable. As a collector, I’ve always enjoyed rotating the posters from my Blu releases every so often, and I’d have loved to hang Zhang’s artwork, but I can’t bring myself to remove the essay from its hardshell home.

That’s probably a small nitpick, but it’s important for fellow collectors to understand when they’re considering the special features of this release. The most important part of the product are the films, and the work is unimpeachable. Go with god.