R E V I E W :    Yes, Madam!  

Reviewed 12/8/00 | Background | Movie Review | DVD Review | Recommendation

Background 

Universe / 1985 / 93 minutes
Directed by Corey Yuen Kwai
Screenplay by Barry Wong Ping-Yiu

Twenty-two year old Michelle Yeoh had made one film with Sammo Hung (The Owl and Bumbo) when she was cast in Yes, Madam!, which catapulted the former beauty pageant winner and ballerina to stardom and ignited the "Girls With Guns" sub-genre of HK films

In early November 1985, the wildly successful Mr. Vampire (of which Sammo Hung was the creative force) was released. At the end of the month came Yes, Madam! and then in mid-December Jackie Chan's Police Story exploded onto the screen (his follow-up to Project A after the disaster of The Protector). Yes, Madam! fits well into this period of exciting new genres (hopping vampires, girls-with-guns, and modern police dramas).

Director Corey Yuen Kwai has made nearly 20 films since the release of Yes, Madam! but lately has found employment as an action director for Hollywood films (Lethal Weapon 4, Romeo Must Die, and X-Men). His current project is The Legend of Tekken. Cynthia Rothrock has made more than 40 films since then, although her star has diminished. Michelle Yeoh retired in 1988, but returned to the screen in Police Story III: Supercop and has worked steadily ever since. Her career in Hollywood did not take off as expected, however, after her role in the James Bond episode Tomorrow Never Dies. (3/8/01 Addendum: Recently her career prospects look much brighter after the success of Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon.)

Movie: plot, performances, production, rating

The opening scene establishes Michelle Yeoh as a policewoman ready to spring into action at a moment's notice -- really, in this scene, Michelle Yeoh as an action star is born. As the mechanics of the plot begin to grind, we learn that she is a sergeant in the force who must learn to work with a "nasty foreign chick" -- Cynthia Rothrock as a copy from London -- who is brought in to help solve the mystery of missing microfilm. The story does not stick with the dynamics of the developing relationship between these two women; instead, it alternates scenes of the police with scenes of the bumbling trio of career criminals (director Tsui Hark among them) trying to figure out how to take advantage of their unexpected possession of the highly valuable microfilm, as well as scenes of the nastier criminal villains trying to get the microfilm back (since it contains incriminating evidence).

I've probably made the film sound more complicated than it is, but one of the film's downfalls is that it tries to be an ensemble piece, and the criminals simply are not as interesting as the police. Whether that's strictly because of the imbalance of the script, or because of the developing star power of Yeoh and Rothrock, is difficult to say 15 years after the fact. The sequences focusing on the criminals are not entirely without merit, it's just that the comedy is quite broad and as a result the action is not as gripping. The final fight scene, featuring the two women taking on a roomful of bad guys, is justly celebrated for its spectacular action and stunts, but it would have had even more impact if we had learned more about these two characters along the way. The screenplay was written by Barry Wong Ping-Yiu, who wrote a lot of scripts for Sammo Hung, as well as Hard Boiled for John Woo, among others. The performances are compromised by the synch sound - evidently everybody was dubbed in post-production, and it throws the timing off just a touch.

It's fun to watch an early directorial effort from Corey Yuen Kwai. Even at this point in his career (his second or third as a director), he had clear, original ideas on how to stage fights, where to place the camera, and how to pace scenes. As mentioned above, the film was produced by Sammo Hung, who also has a cameo as "the old man" to whom Tsui Hark and his cohorts are indebted. An interesting musical note is that some brief music cues were stolen (er, borrowed?) from John Carpenter's 1978 scare-fest Halloween (check chapters 3 and 4).

The film is rated as Category II. While there are a number of fight scenes, only a few are explicit in their depiction of violence (blood spray, shards of glass in bodies, and so forth).

DVD: look, sound, subtitles, and features

The letterboxed (1.78 to 1) image quality is fine. Considering the age of the film, in fact, it looks pretty good. The blacks are fairly deep, although the colors suffer a bit and look somewhat dull.

The remixed Dolby 5.1 sound is alright, but nothing extraordinary. Cantonese and Mandarin audio tracks are available along with a wide variety of removable subtitles (traditional and simplified Chinese, English, Japanese, Bahasa - Indonesia, Bahasa - Malaysia, Thai, Korean, Vietnamese). The English subtitles are easy to read although there are a large number of inaccuracies.

The original and effective 4-minute trailer is included, as well as equally long and effective trailers for Easy Money, Royal Warriors, and Magnificent Warriors (as "More Attractions").

There are 8 chapter markings, located with full-motion clips. "Stars' Files" in Chinese and English for Michelle Yeoh and Corey Yuen Kwai round out the package.

Buy, rent, or pass?

A consistently enjoyable film that showcases a major star in the making. True, the film could have been better developed character-wise, but that does not detract overly so from its entertainment value. Definite rental (be sure to watch the final fight scene at least twice!), and possible buy for Michelle Yeoh fans.

 

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