4 star

Martial Arts in Hong Kong 80s Style.

Corey Yuen (Righting Wrongs, She Shoots Straight) brings us the female lead martial arts extravaganza, that started the ‘girls-with-guns’ sub-genre, and spawned the In ‘the Line of Duty’ series of films. Produced by the great Sammo Hung (Jackie Chan’s Police Story & Police Story 2, Jackie Chan’s PROJECT A & PROJECT A PART II, City Hunter, Wheels on Meals), who also plays a cameo in this film. The director really, really loved the sound of breaking glass in the making of this film. Smashing Stuff.

Inspector Ng (Michelle Yeoh, THE POLICE STORY TRILOGY, Mechanic Resurrection, Star Trek: Discovery Season 1) is out catching petty criminals when an armed robbery takes place at an armoured vehicle, she immediately gets into action, and we get to see her in gun toting action (with a nice nod to Dirty Harry).

Back at the station, she is presented with flowers and a special bunch from her mentor from Scotland Yard, Richard Nornen (Michael Harry, An Angel at My Table) whom she is meeting in his hotel room later. In his room, Nornen is sorting out his passport when Mr Dik (Dick Wei, Millionaires Express, Eastern Condors) turns up and starts talking about a micro film that shows a dodgy contract. But Nornen is adamant that it doesn’t exist. This gets him shot dead. There is a knock at the door, so the assassin hides as two dodgy hotel staff, Aspirin (Hoi Mang, Zu: Warriors from the Magic Mountain, Enter the Fat Dragon) and Strepsil (John Sham, New Police Story, Pom Pom) come in. They are petty thieves, looking for anything that will get them money for their collection to get their old mentor a home. They think Nernen is asleep as they search for their loot, they take the passport, because of their childhood friend Panadol (Hark Tsui, Once Upon a Time in China, A Chinese Ghost Story) who is in the forgery business. He supplies the local thugs with false I.D’s and fake guns and grenades (one of the running gags of this film). (Other petty criminals are available)

“What do you want from a forger?”

Panadol gets his hands on the passport and sets about swapping out Nornen’s photo for that of a local thug who wants out of the country. This is when Asprin  and Strepsil get cold feet, and inform the police about the forged passport. Fight time, as the new passport owner is cornered in the airport, Ng and her force fight throughout the airport until Inspector Carrie Morris (Cynthia Rothrock, Millionaires Express, The Inspector Wears Skirts) shows off her impressive martial arts skills. The race is on to get the microfilm. Mob boss Tin Wai-Keung (James Tien, The Big Boss, Fist of Fury) will do anything to get it.

Guns, swords, fists, feet and comedy what more could you want. A definite must own for any martial arts fan, as the ladies take the fight to the bad guys. Just watch out for all the flying glass.

Yes, Madam! Is available on Blu-ray

SPECIAL EDITION BLU-RAY FEATURES*

Limited Edition O-Card slipcase featuring new artwork (TBA) (First print run of 2000 copies only) | 1080p HD presentation on Blu-ray from a brand new 2K restoration | Original Cantonese mono audio | Optional English dubbed audio | Optional English Subtitles, newly translated for this release | Brand-new Inspector Ng feature length audio commentary by Asian film experts Frank Djeng (NY Asian Film Festival) & Michael Worth \ Brand-new feature length audio commentary by action cinema experts Mike Leeder & Arne Venema | Brand new select-scene commentary with actress and martial-arts movie icon Cynthia Rothrock | Brand-new interview with Cynthia Rothrock | Locations featurette | Archival interview with Michelle Yeoh | Archival interview with actor and producer John Shum | Battling Babes – archival featurette | Trailers | Reversible sleeve design | PLUS: A Limited-Edition collector’s booklet (First print run of 2000 copies only) featuring new writing by James Oliver | *All extras subject to change