Yes, Madam!

Ever since Everything Everywhere All At Once blew many minds last year (mine included), I've thought I should check out some of Michelle Yeoh's older films. I've seen a couple of the big ones, but not as many as I should have, because she's had a very prolific career since the 1980s. Of her earlier films, Yes, Madam (1985) seemed to be one of the most well-known, so I thought it would be a good starting point. Yeoh plays a cool, hypercompetent young police officer who's on the trail of a bunch of doofus criminals (thieves and gangsters). She's not quite in the movie as much as you'd expect - maybe because if she had more screentime early on, she'd solve the case well before the 90-minute mark, and the movie wouldn't be feature-length. Now, I'm not saying this inspired Fargo (it's very different) but the idea of a smart, charismatic female detective tackling a complex case with many (stupid) men behind it is a little comparable to the Coen Brothers' classic... Maybe? I mean, in both Yes, Madam and Fargo, while Yeoh and McDormand are the protagonists, the first half has many scenes focused on the criminals and the mistakes they made, so they can get their comeuppances in the second half. But the comparison is a little silly when you realise one's an action movie and one's a darkly comedic thriller. Some of the scenes early on in Yes, Madam felt sort of comedic, but the comedy didn't always land for me. I do find that sometimes with Hong Kong films from this era - their style of humour is very different from what I'm used to. With Jackie Chan, for example, I adore his action scenes, but don't always feel as amazing by the comedy scenes in his movie. Naturally, this means the film gets better as it goes along and gets more action-heavy. And when the film features Yeoh taking down the bad guys, it's really satisfying. It's a shame there are like 50 minutes between the opening action scene and the next time she gets to fight, but oh well. Her presence in the action scenes and charisma in the non-action scenes has made me want to watch a few more of her older movies, at least before she wins her Oscar in a couple of months for Everything Everywhere all at Once (calling it now - manifesting it, if you will).

As with most original movies that create a long series of sequels, this one is good. Basically a couple of small time crooks who are scrapping money to get their master out of a nursing home get caught up in a fraudulent business. They accidentally steal a micro-fiche upon which a false contract, which will destroy the credibility of a major corporation, has been printed. Unfortunately this corporation wants it destroyed and thus they find nasty hit men after them. This movie stars Cythia Kahn, the star of the In the Line of Duty movies, but it also stars Cynthia Rockwell, an American martial artist. From what I remember of her, she was an attractive woman that could kick butt, but in this movie she is much more masculine, and scary. Both Cynthias come across as very competent and are two women which you do not want to mess with. The movie opens with action and the action goes right through to the end, and the suspense is gripping. It all winds up to a movie where there is a shallow victory because even though the bad guys have lost, the good guys have not won. It is a movie that is not willing to kill off major characters and to show that even though violence may solve problems, it will create a lot more. The axiom that violence never solves anything is not entirely true. Rather it should be that violence creates more problems than it solves. For an action movie, this is great, but if you are wanting a simple movie where the good guys beat the bad guys and come out on top, then this is not that type of movie. It is a movie where things go from bad to worse, and the end comes about from a final act of desperation to make sure that justice is done. The one thing that I got from reading the bible tonight is that even if somebody seems to have everything, that will not last forever. The thing is that God will bring about their destruction, not us, so to attempt to speed up the inevitable will not solve anything. Here all of the evidence may have been destroyed, the bad guy will have to die sometime, and when he dies he will learn the truth of what life is really all about.

Wildly energetic 1980s Hong Kong action film made right at the outset of a spate terrifically original and entertaining Hong Kong action films. Released the same year as Jackie Chan's "Police Story," this film has a very similar tone that's primarily a serious police story but sprinkled with elements of comedy. Jackie's film is better in terms of stunt work and comedy, but this film has better shootouts and some fight sequences that easily rival those in Jackie's film. This is thanks in large part to director Corey Yeun, who'd later go on to direct and/or choreograph most of Jet Li's classic films, as well as Michelle Yeoh as the star or the film. Yeoh reprises her role for this sequel (looking super 1980s fashionable, as if she could break out in jazzersize at any moment) and is joined by Cynthia Rothrock who is way cooler here than she ever was in any of her English language martial arts films. Yeoh and Rothrock make and amazing team and are dynamite to watch on screen! It's also funny to see talented director/producer Tsui Hark appearing in a comedic supporting part in the film. Overall, this film is essential viewing for 80s Hong Kong action film film fans.

After Inspector Ng (Michelle Yeoh) stops a gang from robbing an armored car, she learns that an assassin has killed a man who ends up being her boyfriend, Westerner Richard Nornen. As he lay dying, two pickpockets had gone through his belongings and taken what he died for, a secret microfilm that has info on all of the major gangs in Hong Kong. This brings in Scotland Yard's Carrie Morris (Cynthia Rothrock) to find that microfilm - I love movies based on hidden microfilm, I must confess - and the two female cops take down the crooks in spectacular fights as their rivalry gives way to grudging respect. This was Rothrock's first film and it doesn't show at all. While working as part of a martial arts demonstration team, Inside Kung Fu that team seeking a new male lead. Even though only one role was mentioned, the team brought their female fighters and the studio was so impressed with Rothrock that they rewrote the film for her. She was surprised as she thought this was going to be a period film and not a modern cop movie. It's also an early starring role for Yeoh, who was credited as Michelle Khan. Her first acting work was in a television commercial for Guy Laroche watches. She was told that it was with an actor named Sing Long. She didn't speak Cantonese, so she had no idea that that was Jackie Chan. She appeared in The Owl vs Bombo and Twinkle, Twinkle, Lucky Stars before this; afterward, she was in Royal Warriors, Magnificent Warriors and Easy Money before her retirement, as she married Dickson Poon, who was the D in the D&B Group that made this movie. She'd come back in 1992 after her divorce for the incredible Police Story 3: Super Cop. Today, thirty years later, she's one of the biggest stars anywhere in the world. I think it's kind of amazing how much of the score of Halloween shows up in this movie, almost a prophecy that one day, Yeoh and Jamie Lee Curtis would have to battle in Everything Everywhere All At Once.

Hong Kong action movies in the 80s were made on such short production schedules that calling them 'quickies' is almost flattery. This one is no exception, a serio-comic cop actioner with a crazy plot that is at once simplistic and yet totally unbelievable. The police procedural plot is so silly and slap-dash it makes Crockett and Tubbs look like Holmes and Watson. Famed director Tsui Hark stars as a two-bit forger who, by a series of coincidences, stumbles across a valuable piece of microfilm, then discovers that a dangerous hit man is after it too. Detectives Michelle Yeoh and Cynthia Rothrock team up to follow the microfilm up the criminal food chain, hoping it will lead them, by another series of coincidences, I guess, to the hit man. Or something. I swear, Hong Kong is about the only place where a movie maker would attempt to shoot a murder mystery / police procedural story without bothering to fully work out the plot first... Or bothering to check with a police technical adviser to see how many laws the cops broke in 90 minutes. Anyway, Hark is pretty funny in his scenes as a coward adept at dodging and running away and sticking other people with his problems, and Yeoh and Rothrock kick major butt in their action scenes. If you take the movie on its merits and don't compare it to CSI too closely it makes for pretty decent low brow entertainment. Note that (this film having been shot in 1985) Yeoh and Rothrock - and everybody else - did all of their own stunts and that no wire work was used in the fight scenes, just a little slo-mo to stylize the action. As athletes, they were pretty impressive!

Ah, this film could have been so great. I tend to like Hong Kong actioners from the 80's so Police Assassins didn't cause me too much irritation for all its flaws, but its sad that the film is the way it is given its potential. Potential that amounts to this: Michelle Yeoh teamed up with Cynthia Rothrock. Two great ass-kicking ladies, Rothrcok with her genuine martial arts talents and Yeoh a graceful mover with some great training behind her (though she wasn't originally a martial artist), they make for a fine team and the film zings whenever they are together. Regrettably their time together is much less than it should have been, as the film inexplicably chooses to focus on a trio of dimwitted petty criminals who get in over their heads in a bit of dirty corporate dealing. John Sham and Hoi Mang are little more than irritating as the oddly named Strepsil and Asprin, while Tsui Hark (best known as a veteran director) does a bit better as the wheeler dealer forgery expert Panadol, perhaps the only one of the three who actually fits into the film. He puts across his sly and shifty, mischievous role pretty nicely and gets a few decent scenes, and isn't cloying in his comedy or emotions like the other two, who overact, mug and generally detract from affairs. Most of the comedy in this film is "off", the mixture of light and seriousness is even less well handled here than it is in other films of the same stripe. The films other problem is that the plot is pretty inconsequential, the device on which events hinge is never well explained, thus the film lacks suspense, and the arch baddies is never quite villainous enough to be an effective force, though his two head hench-people (Dick Wei and Fat Chung) are appropriately menacing and fine fighters. Also, the film is largely inconsequential in events until the halfway mark, there are fights and the pace is fair, but it all feels contrived and hastily put together. For all this the film isn't too bad in the end, mostly due to some great action and the fine style on display from director Cory Yuen. He knows just when to slow up or slow down a fight, plenty of smart angles and fast paced editing that remains coherent whilst keeping the pace rapid, also fitting in a couple of nifty jump cuts. His choreography ranges from solid in earlier stages to excellent in the rip-snorting finale and even with the aforementioned plot contrivances, when the film gets moving it gets pretty exciting. To sum up the good points, they just about balance out the bad and leave the film ultimately moderately satisfying. It surely isn't great (it took me a few viewings to really warm to it), but if 80's style Hong Kong action is your cup of tea, this film is certainly better than a poke in the eye with a wet stick. A low 6/10 then.

Moments of slapstick comedy are nothing but expected when Sammmo Hung makes an appearance, however it may be a touch overdone here in this sub-genre defining "femme-fatale" flick. Two female officers of the law present themselves as hard-hitting women which should be shown absolute respect, but another group of protagonists weighs them down and the overall result is more comedic than dramatic. There simply wasn't enough Michelle Yeoh and Cynthia Rothrock on-screen to provide sufficient character development, but even at a basic level it works to support the crime investigation story (which is also very simple). A reel of film ends up being passed around Hong Kong as a triad corporation tries to obtain and destroy it in order to avoid the legal consequences attached. Meanwhile, a group of idiotic underdogs inadvertently become mixed up with the triad affair, as well as our two female hero cops Yeoh and Rothrock. The adventure is goofy yet fun, and the finale will take your breath away in terms of martial arts prowess. This is an iconic movie of both Hong Kong action cinema and the femme- fatale sub genre, and if your mildly interested in either you'll have a great time with this one. - 7/10

Typical Corey Yuen. Lighter on the action than some other directors, but very entertaining and involved plot/comedy. And when the action does kick in its spectacular. Its a little dated now (low quality film and sound) but its charm and fun comes through fully intact. This was Michelle's Yeoh's first big role and she is great (as is her partner Cyndy Rothrock). Tsui Hark also proves himself a fine actor as one of the three brothers (with a very goofy Sammo Hung as father). Note: Lovers of bad guys with over-the-top "Hahahaha" evil laughs MUST see this film. The head baddy here is a nonstop stream of raucous mocking laughter.

Oddly enough, then it is not before now in mid-2019 that I had a chance to watch "Yes Madam" (aka "Huang jia shi jie"). But when the chance presented itself I needed no persuasion to sit down and watch this 1985 action movie. Well, the storyline in the movie was very generic, actually to the point of being almost non-existing. So you shouldn't sit down to watch "Yes Madam" with the hopes of being in for a grand storytelling of epic proportions. The movie barely had a plot, but luckily it had stupid enough characters to match the almost non-existing storyline. "Yes Madam" is a very stereotypical Hong Kong movie from the mid-1980s. Silly dialogue, silly characters with stupid names for the most part, a heap of action and a very predictable storyline. However, it should be said that the ending of the movie was actually so questionable that you will hardly believe it. I am not going to reveal it here, of course, but you need to watch the ending for yourself. Trust me. I was happy to see Michelle Yeoh in this movie, and it was also one of the reasons why I picked up the movie. And I have never been much of a fan of Cynthia Rothrock, so having her in a Hong Kong action movie hardly got me worked up. It was also fun to see Tsui Hark in the movie. "Yes Madam" is a movie that is suitable for hardcore and diehard fans of the Hong Kong cinema, such as myself. I hardly think that most other people will just roll their eyes at this movie with what they will see on the screen. Not the brightest of moments in Hong Kong cinema for sure, but still a fun trip down to the golden age of Hong Kong action cinema.

This was one of those 1980's Hong Kong action flicks that had been on my list for some time. I'm glad I saw it, but it's nowhere near as good as some of the sequels, especially the excellent In the Line of Duty IV. The opening action scene is pretty brutal and sharply edited, but truth be told, it's about as good as the flick has to offer. I mean, it would have been better if it had built up to something truly extraordinary. Never happens. Flick's notable for being Michelle Yeoh's first lead role and she's pretty good, as is the always athletic Cynthia Rothrock, again looking like the female half of some British synthpop duo from the '80's. Gotta love her. Tsui Hark and his two stupid buddies create some funny slapstick scenes which, in true Hong Kong fashion, are at odds with the gritty violence. I love how these Hong Kong flicks switch tone every few seconds. If you're a completist like me, take a look. If you're new to the genre I suggest skip this and watch part IV in stead. If you want a better Yeoh flick, watch Tai Chi Master or Wing Chun in stead. They are freakin' awesome.