The Inspector Wears Skirts series (1988 - 1992)

[Daxtreme]

Just wanted to drop by and say that The Inspector Wears Skirts (1988) was indeed book-ended by awesome action sequences, but that the comedy bits were also really fun! I had a great time watching this movie, and would recommend it. 

There's a dropkick near the end of the movie that's gotta be one of the most amazing dropkicks I've ever seen. I was in stitches!

 

[DrNgor]

Inspector Wears Skirts 3 (Hong Kong, 1990: Wellson Chin) - aka Raid on the Royal Casino Marine - This is probably the least viewed of the four films in this particular series, and with (arguably) good reason. The premise is simple: criminals have stolen dozens of guns from under the police's collective noses, and the Superintendent decides to set up the Super Policewoman (Ba Wong Fa--the name of the film series) program again. Madam Wu (Sibelle Hu, in what is essentially an extended cameo) has retired after marrying Officer Kan (Stanley Fung), and the latter is tasked with training the girls. Those include Amy (Sandra Ng); big-breasted Susanna (Amy Yip); May (Kara Hui Ying-Hung); Sandy (Yip San), whose character is defined by her body odor; and another girl (Wong Wai-Kei), who has no personality trait whatsoever. Officer Kan and his assistant (Billy Lau) torture the girls into shape. They board a casino cruise, where some robbers plan on robbing the big 200-million-dollar gambling championship event on the ship.

The first forty-minutes or so is KOMEDY based around Kan tormenting his female pupils, physically and mentally. During this segment, there's an extended gag involving Jason and A Chinese Ghost Story. When the story moves onto the cruise ship, we get a God of Gamblers subplot and a romance subplot about Sandra Ng falling for Shing Fui-On. The action begins in the last 20 minutes, in which the terrorists mow down quite a few innocent people. Madam Wu suddenly swoops in and takes out most of the terrorists, Under Siege style.

There's precious little action in this film, and it's all reserved for the end. Most of the martial arts comes from Chui Ying-Jat, a Korean superkicker on par with the likes of Ken Lo and Ben Lam. I thought he was Ken Lo a few times during the film. He takes on all the girls simultaneously and looks good doing it. Sadly, despite this being a Girls 'n Guns film (of sorts), the girls are mostly useless, including Kara Hui. She's the only real martial artist among the protagonists and she trades a few blows, but fails to do anything really interesting. A waste of talent and, ultimately, a waste of time.

[chazgower01]

Inspector Wears Skirts (1988, Hong Kong) haiuken 3.5/5

First things first - Besides the opening, which is great and the finale which is great, and few minor things throughout - this is first and foremost a goofy comedy with some great action pieces in it. BUT....

Those action pieces include Sibelle Hu actually kicking some ass (and shooting guns), Cynthia Rothrock kicking ass (and shooting a BIG ass gun), Jackie Chan's Stunt Team doing some amazing work, and even some of the female recruits fighting and shooting, and naturally, some goofy comedy. Oh and lots of training sequences for the female police recruits. On top of that it has Stanley Fung, Kara Hui, Sandra Ng being her wonderfully goofy self, Ellen Chan as the cute girl, Billy Lau getting smacked around, a brief appearance by Bill Tung (as the police commissioner, natch!), the strangely entertaining Jeff Falcon, a cameo by Ricky Hui, Mars of course, Ken Lo... it's pretty entertaining stuff if you're a Hong Kong Film Fan.

The story: After helping some Shiek NOT get killed, he's still unhappy because one of the policeMEN touches his girlfriend, so a special female task force is commissioned to be trained and set up by super cop Sibelle Hu. Training and goofiness ensue. Then a great finale. Some great stunts, quality fighting, lots of shooting... lots of fun!

Edited May 27, 2019 by chazgower01

[AslanBey]

How is inspector wears skirts 2?? I purchased the first one but heard that the sequel is not so good?? Any recommendations?

[Daxtreme]

38 minutes ago, AslanBey said:

How is inspector wears skirts 2?? I purchased the first one but heard that the sequel is not so good?? Any recommendations?

 

I'm one of those weird people who really like the first, yes even the comedy scenes, I like all of it. The action is glorious.

The second one is still good if you liked the first, but less so.

Instead of copying what I said, I'll just point you to my review of it

tl;dr still good to me, less so than the first. You might heavily dislike it though (most people dislike this series)

 

edit: BUT even if you dislike it, it has great action. That's one thing everyone agrees on.

Edited December 22, 2023 by Daxtreme

[HeavenSword]

36 minutes ago, Daxtreme said:

 

I'm one of those weird people who really like the first, yes even the comedy scenes, I like all of it. The action is glorious.

 

Both Inspector Wears Skirts and Magic Crystal are 5 stars films to me. Personal classics …..actually, I gave Magic Crystal 6 stars !

[ironfistedmonk]

18 hours ago, AslanBey said:

How is inspector wears skirts 2?? I purchased the first one but heard that the sequel is not so good?? Any recommendations?

 

It's more of the same, if you like the first one you'll like the second one, I thought the comedy elements were a bit better in the second one, I hate the whole rollerskating scene in the first movie with that cringe song 

[Knetan]

I was no big fan of the first but the second felt like a bunch of skits with a tacked on action finale. I know that applies to even classic Hong Kong films but 2 felt so rushed out to cash in on the first, the third was also annoying but things pick up by the 4th part actually. Not a series I will upgrade to blu but availability is always good and key for even these films. 

[Scottfu]

Thoughts on the later Skirts movies? Any good? Are they too much comedy? Should I cut the cord?

[Knetan]

2 and 3 are comedy heavy and annoyingly so. 4 is the best entry thanks to being gadget heavy and therefore striking a better balance between comedy and action. It bears the series annoyances and weaknesses too but it's a step up.

[Daxtreme]

2 is like 1, more of the same, except a little worse.

3 is like 2, more of the same, except even worse

4 is the series back on track for an action-filled, batshit insane installment that ends on kids shitting in the streets. Lovely.

[Knetan]

That is a perfect breakdown.

[Asmo]

I've never seen 3 and 4 but soon is the time! 

[Daxtreme]

Also worth mentioning (how did I even forget about this?) but The Inspector Wears Skirts 4 has Cynthia Khan and Moon Lee join the cast of the previous 3 (which includes Kara Hui, who finally gets to fight here, among others), and the final fight is them teaming up against a bad guy for a lengthy and explosive fight sequence, so that goes without saying that this fact alone should make it rocket higher on most martial arts' fans watchlist priority.

Edited February 12 by Daxtreme

[Drunksnake]

These were enjoyable.

[BigDruDogg]

@Drunksnake I wonder how 3/4 will be? also do you have a green wall or is that ambient light?

[Drunksnake]

4 hours ago, BigDruDogg said:

@Drunksnake I wonder how 3/4 will be? also do you have a green wall or is that ambient light?

I've not seen 3 or 4.

That's LED lighting behind the TV lol.

[actionfan93]

How is Inspector wears Skirts 4 does have it have alot of gun play and action in general or very minimal in that department?

[Daxtreme]

15 hours ago, actionfan93 said:

How is Inspector wears Skirts 4 does have it have alot of gun play and action in general or very minimal in that department?

More action than the previous 3

[Chu Liu Hsiang]

INSPECTOR WEARS SKIRTS - first time watch and thorougly enjoyed it, while admittedly I was relieved when the action kicked back in for the attempted jewellery theft. I allready regret I didn't get the other parts too.

[saltysam]

Inspector Wears Skirts 3

It's not very good, a lot of silly comedy but these movies have a certain charm.Assume this never received a dub,as the 88 disc is cantonese and subs only.

[HeavenSword]

Inspector Wears Skirts 2(1989) - 

IWS2 isn’t a bad movie by any means , but it’s just kinda whatever all around  . Sibelle Hu was good throughout, along with some pretty amusing comedic bits between the girls  and decent fight choreography in the 3rd act . But I think this one just really suffers from a lack of original ideas, along with frequently camera time given to Sandra Ng and Billy Lau . 

 

When I say original ideas, there are a large number of scenes here ( the outdoor group training , the competition in the dojo, a song and dance number ) that are rehashed from the first IWS that are just …blah for the most part and done better in the first film. 

 

Again, this isn’t a bad film , But it really could have benefited from a few scenes being cut down and atleast a fight scene in the middle act. Ken Lo also appears in this and does absolutely nothing . Mind boggling I tell ya. 

[ShawAngela]

I just watched The inspector wears skirts 1988.

I enjoyed it A LOT! I had totally forgotten how good it was, and I only remembered that it had funny scenes. The fights were great!

Ellen Chan reminded me of Cherie Chung with here haircut in this movie.

I'm eager to watch the three other ones...

[HeavenSword]

Raid On Royal Casino Marine ( 1990)- 

Third entry in Inspector Wears Skirts finds Sibelle Hu retired and being a house wife , while Stanley Fung and Billy Lau train the Skirts for a mission on a cruise ship to locate some stolen military weapons . First off I wanna say if you’ve watched this film and didn’t think much of it on the first watch , I HIGHLY recommend watching this a second time with Frank Djengs commentary, which not only is very informative as usual , but Frank explains most of the comedic bits in this film, makings a lot of these scenes more amusing on this rewatch for me . 

With that being said though, I still thought as a whole this film was pretty average.  Stanley Fung , Billy Lau and Sandra Ng do most of the heavy lifting here , aided by a female cast that mostly serve as the butt of bad odor, boob and rape jokes. It isn’t a terrible film at all and there’s actually quite a few highlights, mostly in the first half , the best being scenes parodying Friday The 13th and A Chinese Ghost Story. There’s also an amusing bit where Stanley Fung finds new ways to train the ladies after Billy Lau gives him a VHS tape of Men Behind The Sun .

Then the quality kinda drops in the Wong Jing inspired second half on the cruise ship  , which is literally just a bunch of gambling sequences with Sandra Ng , spoofing God Of Gamblers, Casino Raiders and All For The Winner. This series is primarily comedy and while these scenes are mildly amusing, it would have been nice to have a fight scene here to add a bit of variety .  The action we do get though? I think it’s decent . Sibelle Hu and Kara Hui both had such a commanding presence in the first two films that it’s a bit unfortunate here they don’t get much screen time . Sibelle shows up the last few minutes to kick ass , but it’s too short and most of it is really some guy in a wig). Same with Kara, who when compared to her role in the first two films , is pretty much a non factor in this.

 

So yeah, Raid On Royal Casino Marine. Not a terrible film. Id actually recommend a watch, especially for Stanley Fung , who was by far the highlight here. It’s just slightly underwhelming in my opinion .  

Edited May 6 by HeavenSword

[tinlunlau]

On 4/26/2024 at 4:18 PM, ShawAngela said:

I just watched The inspector wears skirts 1988.

I enjoyed it A LOT! I had totally forgotten how good it was, and I only remembered that it had funny scenes. The fights were great!

Ellen Chan reminded me of Cherie Chung with here haircut in this movie.

I'm eager to watch the three other ones...

Funny thing...I was chatting with Ellen Chan just the other day thru her live stream on douyin and she said she honestly doesn't know what the heck I'm talking about.  I was using too many of the latest Cantonese slangs on her (that I was). 🤣🤣🤣