Jump to content

The Magnificent Trio (1966)


Guest goliamoto

Recommended Posts

Guest goliamoto

I know it was released long time ago but this movie deserves a special mention because it is surprisingly good. I have not seen it till today because of the horrible spanish DVD cover (yeah I know it sounds stupid but this cover really keeps you far away from this movie...).

After watching it I can only say that this is one of the best movies of Chang Cheh I have ever seen, on par with One Armed Swordsman, The Boxer from Shantung, Invincible Fist or The Assassin . The cast, the story, the cinematography and the fights (YES the Fights too!! incredible for a 1966 movie) are all excellent.

Any opinions about it? What do you think about this movie?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Guest kermit

I agree. I thought the movie was excellent and probably better than 'The Assassin'.

Strangely, one of the things that stands out in my memory is the excessive make-up. Wang Yu looks a bit like a member of a Chinese new romantic band.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Member

I wouldn't quite rank it up there with One-Armed Swordsman or Boxer From Shantung, but it is a very good 60's swordplay movie. Great costumes, sets, colors and art design, especially. Also, as this was based on the samurai pic Three Outlaw Samurai (I think?), it's a great example on how Chinese filmakers would approach a story differently than the Japanese.

Very cool movie.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Member

was releases this year over here and worth purchasing....jimmy might not be best swordplayer but he can make good drama.biang cheng san xia is almost as good as golden swallow

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Member

Magnificent Trio is a great movie... One of my first martial arts/wuxia DVDs, actually... Pretty much everything about that film is first-rate I think...

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Member
vengeanceofhumanlanterns

Great film. What's the short guy of the trio's name? Anybody know? He dores great in the just released Winged Tiger.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Member

This movie was pretty good, I only felt ket down by the subtitles. They didn't explain things all that well & sometimes flashed on & off screen. It was a distraction to pause & rewind all the time.

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Member

Surprised no one mentioned this classic sooner.:) I feel like a lot of Jimmy Wang Yu's best work was from this era, and had he elected to allow himself to be trained by sifu Lau, things could have gotten more interesting with his career...

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Member

watched it today again..this is one awesome flick,intro sequence is one of best..whole movie has kinda spaghetti western feel(I mean it is good thing),there is lot sword action,plot gets along nice..and sets are extremely pleasing to watch.Lo Lieh in maybe his best role

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Member

Sword of Swords is another of his that's along the lines of Spaghetti Westerns. For the people who don't care for Wang Yu, I suggest they go review this period of his career...

Sword of Swords: Directed by: Cheng Keng

Choreographed by: Lau Kar Leung and Tang Chia

Check it out...:cool:

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Member

If you enjoyed this,Three Outlaw Samurai is essential.It`s even better.Unfortunately seems there is not widescreen english subtitled version around.

  • Like 2
Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Member

I think I may have found my new favorite Chang Cheh film.  Did I read correctly somewhere that this is a remake of a Japanese film?

I was glued to the screen during the entire runtime of this movie. Which is rare for me for movies from the 60s. 

Also I don't think I've ever seen so many girls in a Chang Cheh film before lol.

And is this technically Chehs first martial arts movie? Or at least his first martial arts movie with Wang Yu?

  • Like 4
Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Member
Killer Meteor

Tiger Boy was the first Chang Cheh/Wang Yu collaboration, but that seems to be lost.

Regarding The Magnificent Trio, it's interesting how despite the title and the opening credit sequences showing the three male leads, it is the three FEMALE leads who get top billing.

  • Like 4
Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Member
On 1/27/2008 at 7:23 AM, tai_shin_mun said:

If you enjoyed this,Three Outlaw Samurai is essential.It`s even better.Unfortunately seems there is not widescreen english subtitled version around.

Since that post, Three Outlaw Samurai got a Criterion Collection release in Blu-ray and DVD, back in 2012.  Amazon description says it's widescreen.  Description also says the language is unknown.  (How do I insert one of those silly emojis here?)  Three Outlaw Samurai is available on Amazon for reasonable prices. 

  • Like 3
Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Administrator
On 1/27/2008 at 10:23 AM, tai_shin_mun said:

If you enjoyed this,Three Outlaw Samurai is essential.It`s even better.Unfortunately seems there is not widescreen english subtitled version around.

 

On 12/28/2017 at 4:36 AM, Iron_Leopard said:

I think I may have found my new favorite Chang Cheh film.  Did I read correctly somewhere that this is a remake of a Japanese film?

I was glued to the screen during the entire runtime of this movie. Which is rare for me for movies from the 60s. 

Also I don't think I've ever seen so many girls in a Chang Cheh film before lol.

And is this technically Chehs first martial arts movie? Or at least his first martial arts movie with Wang Yu?

Yes, THE MAGNIFICENT TRIO is based on Hideo Gosha's 1964 samurai classic, and I agree with @tai_shin_mun that the original is superior to Chang's version. Now I saw the Hong Kong film long before viewing it's Japanese inspiration, which is also the case with the Sergio Leone westerns based on Akira Kurosawa's films. My Dad is a big western fan, so I saw these Clint Eastwood features in the theater (re-releases) and on TV, and didn't see the originals until much later. Though my father did tell me that they were based on Japanese samurai movies, which, as a kid, I found to be very strange, and had trouble wrapping my mind around. It was quite interesting seeing the originals years after their remakes. In the case of THREE OUTLAW SAMURAI I was not aware that it had been remade, and I was about a half hour into it before I started thinking "This seems a lot like THE MAGNIFICENT TRIO." By the time the film was over it was pretty obvious that this was the case, but I still looked it up for verification.

 

On 12/28/2017 at 6:48 AM, Killer Meteor said:

Tiger Boy was the first Chang Cheh/Wang Yu collaboration, but that seems to be lost.

In addition to the star and director, these two films also have a lot of the same crew in common.

Ah... TIGER BOY... one of the "white whales" of Hong Kong cinema. :worried

 

57 minutes ago, whitesnake said:

Since that post, Three Outlaw Samurai got a Criterion Collection release in Blu-ray and DVD, back in 2012.  Amazon description says it's widescreen.  Description also says the language is unknown.  (How do I insert one of those silly emojis here?)  Three Outlaw Samurai is available on Amazon for reasonable prices. 

The Criterion release is excellent! :nerd:

Yes, it's presented in it's proper aspect ratio of 2:35:1.

The "language is unknown"? What the hell? Um, Amazon, it's in Japanese:tongue: Definitely "silly emoji" worthy, and here's how you insert them @whitesnake: when you are writing a post you can see a band of controls at the top of your post box. It has "Source" on the far left, followed by I  U  and other controls. See the little smiley face among these controls? Click on that and you will have many options to add. So when writing, when you get to a spot where you want to make your text more expressive, click on the smiley face, pick a category, then click the one that best illustrates your intention. Then it will appear in your text.

If you hover your cursor over these control icons you will see a little text pop-up explaining their function. For instance, if you want to make something in your post either bold or in italics, highlight the word you want to change, then click on the control button. Walah!

  • Like 5
Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Member
Iron_Leopard

My original comment in this thread didn't age well as now the 60s are my favorite decade for martial arts films.

Still rank this one near the top for Chang Cheh with the only real issue being the runtime. This didn't need to be an hour and 45 minutes. 

  • Like 2
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

×
×
  • Create New...

Important Information

Terms of Use

Please Sign In or Sign Up