The trio acting magnificently. note
The Magnificent Trio is a 1966 wuxia film released by Shaw Brothers, starring Jimmy Wang Yu, Lo Lieh and Cheng Lui as the titular characters.
A shot-by-shot remake of Hideo Gosha's Three Outlaw Samurai, set in the Ming Dynasty instead of Japan: nearing the end of the dynasty, the outbreak of war is about to happen, and corruption runs amok as powerful warlords took over the ruling authority of border provinces. The most ruthless of the lot, Magistrate Wei, enforces an iron grip on the peasants, but three heroic swordsmen - former soldier Lu Feng (Jimmy), wandering swordsman Yan Zi-qing (Lo Lieh) and righteous warrior Huang Liang (Cheng Lui) - stands in his way.
The Magnificent Tropes:
- Adaptational Location Change: Its pretty much a Shot-for-Shot Remake of Hideo Gosha's Three Outlaw Samurai, but with the movie being made in another country, the setting was relocated from Feudal Japan to Ming Dynasty China.
- All for Nothing: Lu Feng's attempts to save a farming family from being sentenced to death, by getting punished via 100 lashes to the back in their stead, doesn't save the farmers from eventually getting killed despite all his efforts.
- Badass Crew: The trio when they take on armies side-by-side.
- Back-to-Back Badasses: The trio in the final battle.
- Balance, Speed, Strength Trio: The titular trio, whom are three heroes trying to take down an evil overlord. With Jimmy Wang-yu's Lu Feng as The Hero who is Strong and Skilled, Cheng Lui's Huang Liang The Lancer and Fragile Speedster, and Lo Lieh's Yan Zi-qing as The Big Guy.
- Big Damn Heroes:
- Huang Liang's intro had him saving several villagers from a band of marauders, all which he kills in under a minute.
- The Imperial Minister and his army fulfills this role when he arrives to bail the Magnificent Trio out of the finale. Unfortunately though he only managed to save two of the three.
- Big Good: The Imperial Minister, who has authority second only to the Emperor. By the end of the film after Magistrate Wei's corruption is exposed, the Minister personally orders for the Magistrate to be demoted and arrested.
- Big Guy Fatality Syndrome:
- Inverted, it's Huang Liang the smallest guy of the three who serves the Sacrificial Lion role.
- Almost defied in a deliberate manner: in the final battle, Yan Zi-qing is about to be overwhelmed by enemy soldiers, at which point he attempts a Better to Die than Be Killed option by raising his sword to his throat. Lu Fang however stops him by blocking his sword.
- The Cavalry: In the final battle, with Huang Liang mortally injured and the remaining two of the titular trio cornered by enemy soldiers, suddenly an entirely new army of soldiers comes marching in, led by the Imperial Minister. The entire battle quickly grinds to a halt at that point.
- Corrupt Politician: The film's Big Bad, Magistrate Wei, is a corrupt judge who abuses his power while hiding the reality of the townspeople's poverty from the Emperor. He is also not above hiring brutal thugs and bandits as his enforcers to make life difficult for farmers.
- Even Evil Has Loved Ones: Well, as bad and ruthless Magistrate Wei is, at the very least he does love his daughter. That's a redeeming factor that sees him being arrested at the end of the film instead of dying, making him one of the few Big Bad from Wang Yu's movies that doesn't die.
- Foreign Remake: Of Hideo Gosha's Three Outlaw Samurai, but now set in the Ming Dynasty.
- Giant Mook: Gao, the Mook Lieutenant leading Magistrate Wei's soldiers.
- Grievous Bottley Harm: A variation in the tavern fight, Huang Liang grabs a ceramic wine vessel (it looks something like this
) and use it to smash a mook's head. - Human Pincushion: Huang Liang dies from being skewered by arrows.
- In a Single Bound: All over the place. Most of the named characters can defy gravity by leaping, and in the final scene Chief Gao tries leaping across the room to ambush the Imperial Minister only for Lu Feng to leap across in a similar way and kill Gao instead.
- Justified Criminal: The farmers kidnaps Magistrate Wei's daughter, Wei Wen-chen, for ransom money because they are starving and living in constant poverty due to the Magistrate repeatedly taxing the civilians.
- Like Father, Unlike Son: Or daughter. Magistrate Wei may be a cruel, ruthless and dishonorable warmonger, but his daughter Wei Wen-chen is a Nice Girl who cares about peasants and tries to make her father change for the better.
- Parrying Bullets: Lu Feng in the final battle parries arrows fired by enemy archers.
- Sacrificial Lion: Huang Liang.
- Single-Stroke Battle: Lu Feng vs. Chief Gao. Lu Feng wins.
- A Taste of the Lash: Lu Feng, in order to spare an innocent family of farmers, allows himself to be whipped a hundred times on their behalf. He ends up passing out from the pain until the farmer's daughter nursed him back to health.
- Trauma Conga Line: Lu Feng allows himself to be punished in order to save a family of farmers only to personally witness the farmers getting killed. Afterwards he is repeatedly thrown in near-death situations and barely survives the final battle.
- Wuxia
