The Inspector Wears Skirts 2

Skirting The Issue

The Inspector Wears Skirts 2
aka Shen yong fei hu ba wang hua
Hong Kong 1989
Directed by Wellson Chin
Golden Harvest 
88 Films Blu Ray Zone B

Oops. Okay, I predict this one is going to be a pretty short review because, I really don’t have a lot to say about The Inspector Wears Skirts 2 other than, it’s not even a pale shadow of the previous film.

Once again, the film is a kind of Hong Kong equivalent to the US Police Academy films and a fair few of the cast (sadly not Cynthia Rothrock) are ported over... included Sibelle Hu as Madame Wu, the instructor of the all female SKIRTS team, Sandra Kwan Yue Ng as comic relief Amy and, as the leader of the male cadets, Stanley Sui-Fan Fung as Inspector Kan. This one also includes Melvin Wong, who I’ve seen playing a villain a few times in these 80s Hong Kong action flicks, as Mr. Lo, the visiting inspector and rival to Inspector Kan for Madame Wu’s affections. 

Okay, so this time up, four new girls join the team and are made to feel unwelcome by the other SKIRTS, as the usual pranks and infighting goes on. This includes a mess hall fight, a birthday bash dance (similar to a scene in the first film), a way too long assault course montage where pretty much every character in the film is watched as they repeatedly perform the same course and... in a last ditch effort for, literally the last ten minutes of the movie, a real life mission which reunites everybody for the common good.

And it’s all pretty dire and terrible, it has to be said. The comedy is way too broad, crude and unfunny (as seems to be the way of a lot of these 1980s Hong Kong flicks) and there’s a heck of a lot less action than in the first movie. Some of the lead actors and actresses, including the ones I just mentioned, are all very good but it’s clear they just have a terrible script to work around. It’s like the writers and producers looked at all the elements of the superior first movie which didn’t quite work... and then replicated those kinds of scenes at the expense of any good material being left in the mix. 

About all I can say which is really positive about this one, asides from the acting and the occasional stunt (although it’s clear Stanley Sui-Fan Fung is not doing his own fighting... ridiculously clear) is that it contains that ridiculously infectious ear worm of a main theme from the first film, courtesy of composer Noel Quinlan. Which is honestly the only part of The Inspector Wears Skirts 2 that I’m likely to remember in a couple of days, in all honesty. So, yeah, if the first one did nothing for you... maybe give this one a steer. I’m going to press on and watch the next two at some point either way so... I’ll let you know.