Disc 2. In the Line of Duty 2: Yes, Madam!
(Huang jia shi jie, 1985) Direction: Corey Yuen Kwai
This is the Stuff that
Dreams are made of ! Michelle Yeoh in her first action
movie and Cynthia, The Goddess of
Martial arts, in her film debut. The film that caused a sensation in
Hong Kong and kick-started the Female Fighters
Girls with Guns action genre (we've had women fighting before as legendary
Angela Mao but now guns were
added to the brew). An action comedy classic from future international
action maestro Corey Yuen and with the agile
Malaysian ex-ballet dancer and beauty queen Michelle Yeoh showing she
could do martial arts too, and with The
Queen of Martial Arts, the in her late twenties US female world champion
Cynthia Rothrock.
Cynthia just explodes onto the screen as the ultra-tough Interpol cop
Carrie Morris in the legendary airport
scene
and she will make a deadly duo together with Michelle's also tough crime
cop, Ng "Big Sis" Lok-Sai.
In the intro Michelle stops (= kills) a gang of bankrobbers, and just
as in Royal Warriors Big Sis gets a lot of flowers
from her police colleagues, being the pride of the Police force.
Cynthia's role Carrie Morris gets to be nick-named "The
Nasty Foreign Chick" by her Hong Kong police colleagues,
or "Vicious White Hag" (depends on which edition and dub you're
watching). So, why is she there, in HK?
Michelle is about to meet her friend, the British Interpol agent Mr.
Norman at a hotel, but he has already been killed
by killer Ah Wei (Dick Wei, the taiwanese martial arts master that had
to play baddies in almost every film he made).
He's chasing a microfilm that Norman had, and that carried a lot of
devastating proofs of his boss, Tin Wai-Keung's
(James Tien) criminal activities. But petty thieves Saridon/Alvedon
(Mang Hoi) and Strepsil (John Sham) already
accidently have stolen it.
Above: Reversible sleeve
A warning though as this film has a lot of often silly
1980's HK comedy in it, a lot of it, BUT the action scenes makes
up for the comedy suffering, and the epic final fight at boss Tin's
mansion plus Cynthia's beating of Eddie Maher
at the airport are fantastic (Maher, a gweilo born in Macau and playing
bad guys in Hong Kong movies like this).
The antics of Alvedon, Strepsil and Panadol (Tsui Hark) are a bit of
annoying, admittedly.
The duo of Lok-Sai and Carrie are chasing the microfilm also and resigns,
turning loose cannons to better handle
Mr. Tin Wai-Keung and everything ends in in a big showdown at Tin's
mansion.
I LOVE YOU MICHELLE AND CYNTHIA, and
the cantonese dubbing of Cynthia is adorable as she spouts out
her lines like a machine-gun, and when she finally gets hold of a weapon
to fight with .... aaah, so beautiful.
Cynthia, today in 2023, looks better and healthier than ever (and do
visit her website) and Michelle has refined her
acting and become a great actress, who won an Oscar for Best Actress
in "Everything Everywhere All at Once".
The film is presented in 1.85:1 widescreen and with cantonese original
theatrical mix audio mono, or cantonese home
video mix mono audio, or a new english dub 5.1, and with english subtitles
to be turned on and off from the remote.
Region A release. Extras:
An audio commentary by Frank Djeng (HK version), A Team Player: Cynthia
Rothrock
on Yes, Madam! (18 minutes), Airport scene commentary with Cynthia Rothrock
and Frank Djeng, an interview with
Mang Hoi (14 minutes in cantonese with english subtitles, co-action
director and stunt coordinator but here also
playing the role of Alvedon), an old interview with Michelle Yeoh (15
minutes, what a sexy voice and how beautiful
she was, in an interview by .... Rick Baker, the FX guy ?), Battling
Babes (10 minutes, old documentary with Yukari
Oshima, Moon Lee, Kathy Long, Cynthia Rothrock et al.), Hong Kong trailer
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The 2010-2011 Fortune Star remastered DVD edition of
Yes, Madam!
widescreen 1.85:1, cantonese audio DTS, or DD 5.1 or original cantonese
audio 2.0 with english subtitles
(or mandarin 5.1) Extra: original movie trailer, new edited movie trailer,
movie stills photo album, photo slideshow
Early Hong Kong Universe DVD release in widescreen letterbox
in cantonese audio 5.1 with english subtitles
Extras a trailer, stars file info in english, trailers for Royal Warriors
and Magnificent Warriors
