At Lai Ying in Chinatown tonight picking up the latest Shaw Bros. releases (heavy on the Venoms: KID WITH THE GOLDEN ARM, HOUSE OF TRAPS, MASKED AVENGERS, LIFE GAMBLE), I also picked up some more VCDs in the Legendary Collection line of Golden Harvest classics from Joy Sales/Fortune Star. There were tons of good ones. I picked up six but was told by Paul that three of the six didn’t have English subs. I put two of them aside (THE COMET STRIKES and I forget the other one…THE ASSOCIATION?) but took the sub-less THE HIMALAYAN anyway because I already have an English dub of it. So I now have four more Angela Mao’s including WHEN TAEKWONDO STRIKES which I’ve been waiting for years to see in its proper dimensions, as well as THE TOURNAMENT (the VCD image looks terrible) and THE ANGRY RIVER. THE HIMALAYAN opens with a narrated pre-credits sequence that has subs., so I was thinking maybe the info on the VCD box was wrong, but then after the credits, the dialogue sequences had only Chinese subs. But it’s a good-quality VCD. Still, four new copies of Angela Mao films, only one of which I’d previously seen. (Angela's 57th birthday was yesterday!)

They also had three new editions of 1980s classics from Mei Ah. I picked up IRON ANGELS (aka ANGEL), but held off on PEOPLE’S HERO and MY HEART IS THAT ETERNAL ROSE, but I should get them. John Charles gives them high marks in his book. Never seen either.

Anita Mui:
My recent interest in J-pop star Ayumi Hamasaki has led me to listen again to Anita Mui--Ayu has more in common with her than she does with the other J-pop stars I favor. I have 3 releases of Anita's but haven’t listened to them in years. So this week I took out the 3-disc set, “Tribute to Anita Mui,” which came out in 2004. I’d forgotten how much of it I’d listened to, so I just put in the 3rd disc and was immediately put off by…I don’t know, I just didn’t like it. Too fast, too pop-py. I put in the first disc and wasn’t crazy about that either as she did a Canto cover of George Michael’s “Never Gonna Dance Again.” This isn’t what I wanted to hear from Anita. So I put in the second disc and…BINGO! This is it. Slow, soulful ballads and Chinese-sounding strings and instrumentation. Just beautiful. Great stuff. And no covers of American disco-era hits.

So at another store tonight I picked up another Anita Mui disc--a Sony Music 2006 2-disc set called “Good Song Classics.” 34 tracks total. Some I’ve heard on other Anita CDs, some I haven’t. Mix of good stuff and not-so-good (e.g. it has the George Michael cover—which I’m listening to right now on the new CD and it’s starting to grow on me—it’s her voice that makes the difference). Whatever…it’s Anita. And I’m listening again. Still, I have no idea which CD of hers has the song she sings from HEROIC TRIO. The store had a bunch of CDs I’d never seen before, but the track lists are all in Chinese.

It's the only A.M. CD I own - spent forever trying to locate as we all know that song rules. No English on CD other than her name. I found a pic of the CD cover here:
mui-mui.org/album

It's listed in the 1994 section even though the copyright on my disc is 1993. It seems to be translated as 'Life is Drama' (compilation) and has a BW photo of her sporting a 1940's glamour hairdo. The track is no.3 and you might like the other tracks too as I'm listening now and they are all rather slow and soulful. Think it may be out of print so if you can't find it email me! B)

I just finished listening to the rest of the CD and I forgot there are two other HT songs on it. The one from where Anita walks into the hospital with the hurt baby after her fight with Maggie and another awesome piece that plays during the horse race/over the cliff scene where Michelle and Anita match up their tattoos and realize who each other are.

Thanks, Jennifer. I'm not sure I've ever seen that CD in the stores in Chinatown here, but I'll look again.

I bought that CD in Jan 2004, and have used the Heroic Trio Main Title on several compilations - but I never realised that I had those other two tracks as well! I really must not have time to check out everything I buy, so I really appreciate the tip that there is more to listen to on that CD than I already know.

Now Out Of Print at Yes Asia where I bought it.

There is only one other HT song - my bad (trying to do too much at the same time) - the track during the horse race / over the cliff scene IS the HT theme song! However track 2 is another great song from film played when AM walks into the hospital with hurt baby.

There is a track on this disc I know is also from a film that I just can't identify (actually I think all the songs may be from films). If anyone has this disc and can identify track 10 for me it would be greatly appreciated. It's a peppy, old-fashioned sounding diddy very reminiscent of the song played during snowing scene with the girls in PEKING OPERA BLUES. I figure it's prob from an Anita film and it's gotta be 1993 or earlier but it's not:
HEROIC TRIO
EXECUTIONERS
MOON WARRIORS
SAVIOR OF THE SOUL
BETTER TOMORROW 3
MIRACLES
ROUGE

Could be MAGIC CRANE (which I badly need to add to my disc collection). Very probably something historic since the song sounds so old-fashioned.

Hi Jennifer, I'm listening to that track now and like you, can't identify it. Know what you mean though about it sounding old-fashioned and historic and am thinking MOON WARRIORS -- but you seem sure that it's not from that movie -- or THE MAGIC CRANE. Having said that, not all of the songs on that album come from movies in which Anita Mui starred for if I'm not mistaken, there's a song from DAYS OF BEING WILD in there (on Track 11, I believe).

And yes, Tracks 2 and 3 are indeed songs from THE HEROIC TRIO. To see their lyrics, etc., go over here for "Don't Ask About Life":-
http://michelleyeoh.info/Movie/Ht/dontask.html

And here for "Woman's Heart":-
http://michelleyeoh.info/Movie/Ht/womanheart.html

And then thank Jane Ding for the translations, etc. :)

Ha! I figured if anyone had this CD it would be you Yvonne. No, it’s not from the sublime MOON WARRIORS although the song is super similar to Andy’s theme (where he’s cutting down the bamboo and later riding the whale Hei Wei). Will have to locate and re-watch MC in hope of finding it there - if it’s not from an Anita film I doubt I’ll ever be able to match the piece to the film. :(

And thanks for those excellent lyrics links – I could practically sing along in English to "Woman’s Heart" and make it work!