The Inspector Wears Skirts

 

The Skirty Dozen

The Inspector Wears Skirts
aka Ba wong fa
Hong Kong 1988 
Directed by Wellson Chin
Golden Harvest 
88 Films Blu Ray Zone B

The Inspector Wears Skirts (the first one, at least) is a pretty entertaining slice of Hong Kong action cinema, produced by Jackie Chan and initially top lining Sibelle Hu in the first instance, who is really good in this one. Sometime during the production, the producers didn’t think it was working out all that well so they added Cynthia Rothrock into the cast, already making a name for herself in Hong Kong before she conquered the American market... and she turns up in the absolutely brilliant opening sequence, where she and Hu take on a bunch of terrorists... and then is brought in for the third reel for a section of training sequences and the big scene to catch out some lethal diamond robbers at the end. I think she’d already gone to America by the time of the first sequel to this one so, as far as I know, she doesn’t turn up in the other three films.

After the opening sequence, which is one of the best action scenes in the movie, the Hong King police decide to put Sibelle Hu’s character Madam Wu in charge of a new, special unit of female police officers, known as SKIRTS (no acronym origins of the codename are given because, you know, Cantonese to English translation is probably not doable in terms of getting it to make sense in English), who she will train up to help support the male police force when needed for special assignments. And this is when the film turns into Police Academy for a good long while, as Wu trains her band of recruits like an army drill sergeant and these sections and the inevitable ‘battle of the sexes’ between the male and female cadets are played for laughs a lot of the time. And, if you’re not familiar with the style of Hong Kong movies during this period of their cinema... the comedy is played very broadly with a lot of crudity and slapstick, it seems to me. It’s not all to my taste, I have to admit but, like most comedy, some of it hits and some of it definitely misses. 

And then Cynthia Rothrock’s character, Madam Law, is brought back to take an even tougher training stance with the girls and then, when both the male and female units are despatched undercover to a fashion show to protect the jewellery... well... somewhat predictably, it’s the gals who save the day with a nicely put together series of creatively choreographed fight scenes, which are all pretty entertaining. 

And, helpfully, the various cadets played by the likes of Regina Kent and Ann Bridgewater all play likeable characters who the audience can, at least, sorta relate to and, luckily, are all doing some good action work here too. Although, with some of the male leads... I could have perhaps done without the song and dance number, truth be told. 

The editing is quite good in this too, asides from the normal action editing... where the timing has to be just right. In one scene, for instance, after one of the male police cadets has taken part in a drinking competition with one of the girls, he passes out and starts to fall to the floor. This cuts then to a new scene which starts off with a bang of an explosion, timed perfectly to when the guy’s head in the previous shot would have hit the floor. Giving the previous sequence a kind of audio/visual punctuation period point (or full stop as we call it here in the UK). 

Another stand out thing is the score... which perhaps stands out for some of the wrong reasons but it seems appropriate to the comic undertones of the whole thing. So, yeah, the score for this one by Noel Quinlan (who I only know from The Man From Hong Kong... reviewed by me at some point in the future... it’s in the pile, okay?) like the comedy content of the film, is not exactly subtle or clever but, unfortunately for me, it’s quite an infectious ear worm of a cheesy synth-pop main theme which helps give some of the scenes a certain buoyancy, it has to be said.

And I think that’s me about done on the first The Inspector Wears Skirts film. I didn’t know what to expect from this and I’m pleased to say that I liked it just fine (to the point where I’m going to have to go and buy all the sequels, which have fortunately now been released over here by the same company in the UK) and I’m still hearing that annoyingly catchy theme tune in my head... more’s the pity. So, yeah, expect some other reviews of similar films to follow this one soonest.