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The Inspector Wears Skirts
[Blu-ray]
Blu-ray A - America - 88 Films Review written by and copyright: Eric Cotenas (10th December 2023). |
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The Film
 After an international incident involving the wife of a visiting sheikh, Police Commissioner Tung (Rumble in the Bronx's Bill Tung) puts forward his plan to create a SKIRTS force of commandos to handle sensitive security issues that require a female touch and appoints Madame Wu (The Seventh Curse's Sibelle Hu) as the head trainer. Wu is not impressed by the best that the police force has to offer in female officers, among them uber-competitive May (My Young Auntie's Kara Hui), no-nonsense Karen (Full Contact's Ann Bridgewater), meek Amin (Miracles' Lee Pooi-Ling), attention-seeking Amy (Peking Opera Blues' Sandra Ng), and lovesick Betty (A Better Tomorrow II's Regina Kent). They seem less interested in training and interested in the attentions of the academy's male Tiger Squad members more so than Wu is of enamored male trainer Inspector Kan (The Iceman Cometh's Stanley Fung). With the trainees ready to turn on each other for various petty reasons – including the discovery of a shared boyfriend (Vampire Hunters' Michael Chan) scamming two of them – Wu gets help in putting the potential SKIRTS officers through their paces from CIA colleague Madame Law (China O'Brien's Cynthia Rothrock) before their trial-by-fire first assignment: posing as eye candy alongside Kan's Tiger Squad at an eighty million dollar jewelry exhibition when the CIA receives intelligence about a potential heist. A Jackie Chan production in which he does not even do a cameo, The Inspector Wears Skirts plays like a female version of Police Academy, and that is likely all the thought that went into the pitch. Characterization is flat, most of the verbal comedy is lame, but the film makes up for its deficits exactly where Hong Kong martial arts cinema fans expect in it action set-pieces which are as exhilarating as they are often hilarious. While Hu is absent for a chunk of the middle of the film in favor of the trainees' hijinks – and a fitfully cute love interest subplot between trainee Jean (The Eternal Evil of Asia's Ellen Chan) and singing Tiger Squad stud Man (Alex To) and making "fat" Amy the butt of jokes about her looks – the film could still be said to be a star vehicle for her since she figures into the major fight scenes as much as Rothrock (keeping in mind that in Hong Kong, Rothrock in spite of her abilities and screen time was only really considered to domestic audiences as the lead of Lady Reporter and the subsequent American-lensed China O'Brien films) and lead villain Jeffrey Falcon (Six-String Samurai) whose Monkey kung fu style is athletic but also provides some hilarious visuals. Although the tone is generally light, the climactic fight is quite brutal and painful-looking in moments where one is not sure if some impacts were intended or accidents caught on film. The film proved successful at the box office and inspired three sequels, with Cynthia Kahn replacing Hu in The Inspector Wears Skirts IV amid further later entries in the Yes Madam series following In the Line of Duty III series. 
Video
Released internationally in an English-dubbed export version titled "Top Squad", The Inspector Wears Skirts had a tape release in the U.K. in 1991 but was hard to see stateside (the Hong Kong laserdisc did not include the usual theatrical print dual-language subtitles). English-friendly DVD editions became available in Hong Kong, first as a non-anamorphic release from Universe and then as a PAL-converted anamorphic release from Joy Sales (which was apparently not one of their Fortune Star remasters but an older Digibeta source). As expected, the Hong Kong Blu-ray from 2019 was an upscale of Fortune Star's DVD-era master. We have had confirmation that the limited edition German mediabook (which has the English dub track) comes from the same new 2K restoration as 88 Films' dual-territory 1080p24 MPEG-4 AVC 1.85:1 widescreen Blu-ray which boasts eye-popping color and good detail in close-ups while blue-gelled night scenes look a little noisy in the shadows while the roller rink sequences are hindered somewhat in rendering detail by heavy use of smoke and parts of the exhibition flare with cliched use of star filters that would have looked more appropriate a decade before. 
Audio
Audio options include Cantonese and English mono tracks in uncompressed 24-bit LPCM 2.0. Both tracks are post-dubbed, boasting clear dialogue, foley effects, and scoring, with only singer To's performance – which remains in Cantonese on the English track (as we are told it did on the U.K. tape release of the export version) – seeming like the lip-synched playback it is. Optional English subtitles are included for the Cantonese track while a second subtitle track is enabled for the English track for credits, onscreen text, and song lyrics. 
Extras
Extras start off with an audio commentary by Asian film expert Frank Djeng who reveals that Hu's character had been established in My Lucky Stars and Twinkle, Twinkle Lucky Stars – although Fung was not his character from that series despite seemingly existing in the same universe – and The Inspector Wears Skirts was a Police Academy-inspired attempt to compete with the Yes Madam, and that Chan was not on set at all, leaving the responsibility to his stunt team who also play members of the Tiger Squad and various villain extras. He reveals that the opening sequence was shot on the sets built for Project A: Part II and provides background on the rest of the cast, noting that Ng often played roles making fun of her looks, and that cinematographer Andrew Lau went on to direct the Infernal Affairs trilogy (which, of course, starred the other Andy Lau). In "Shooting Her Shot" (16:46), actress Rothrock recalls that she was making Lady Reporter at the same time she was asked to appear in The Inspector Wears Skirts (which she thought would feature Jackie Chan), and that her role was added during production. She recalls working with Hu and her impressions of Falcon's monkey style fighting, while also revealing that she knows no more than anyone else what became of Falcon who may be living somewhere in mainland China. She recalls that the fire stunt had to be redesigned after she asked the effects technician to try it out before her and he got severely burned, and that she might not have been asked to do the sequels because Golden Harvest sent her stateside to do the China O'Brien films. In "The Director Wears Pants" (16:03), director Wellson Chin recalls getting into the industry through cousin Sammo Hung and working as his assistant director. When Chan invited him to direct Naughty Boys, Hung did not think he was ready but respected his need to seize the opportunity and gave his blessing. He recalls coming up with the concept for The Inspector Wears Skirts, casting the film, and compares working with Hung's versus Chan's stunt teams.  The disc also includes the "Top Squad" English opening and closing credits (2:47), the Hong Kong theatrical trailer (3:32), the English export trailer (2:02), and a stills gallery (1:41).
Packaging
The first pressing includes a double-walled O-Ring slipcover featuring new artwork by Sean Longmore, a double-sided foldout poster featuring new and classic poster art, and a 32-page booklet featuring notes by Paul Bramhall (not supplied for review).
Overall
The Inspector Wears Skirts may lack the charm of the Police Academy series (at least, the early entries), but it makes up for it in simultaneously hilarious and exhilarating action sequences.
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