Yes, Madam!

Yes ,Madam! (Huang Jia She Jie) (1985)

Runtime: 93 minutes

Directed by: Corey Yuen

Starring: Michelle Yeoh, Cynthia Rothrock, John Sham, Hoi Mang, Tsui Hark

From: D & B Films Co. Ltd.

Better than you suspect a movie to be that has three important characters named ASPIRIN, STREPSIL & PANADOL

Recently I realized I needed to see more 80's Hong Kong movies and instead of something from the typically reliable Shaw Brothers, why not the first movie in what was a successful few years in the region for Cynthia Rothrock? It's definitely an 80's movie from HK... meaning that there are a few genres present, slapstick comedy in this case. As this is an incredibly violent picture where many people fly back many feet after being blasted with a big gun, three silly characters named after medicine may sound inappropriate for a tale involving bad guys looking for an important piece of microfilm, yet it manages to work.

In this case, opportunistic thieves (the medicine trio) steal items from a murdered man, one item in particular that microfilm. This is investigated by both a HK cop-Michelle Yeoh-and a detective from Scotland Yard-Rothrock. Both know how to kick ass and beat up many bastards, so it was indeed a good time with all the martial arts action and other action beats.... usually creative too. Panadol being played by Tsui Hark did help in that regard. Thankfully for me all the goofy characters (two of which I haven't mentioned yet were Yeoh's fellow police officers) were either inoffensively juvenile or were actually pretty amusing. Plus, one henchman looked like the inspiration for Dustin Hoffman in Hook...

This is largely what I expected (at first, the two leads don't exactly get along due to their different methods of doing their job, wacky 80's music, a lot of broken glass) but me and many others-even if they don't like all those elements-will be satisfied by all the violence and how well it was done.