The Armed Policewoman
Director:
Cheung Gon-man
Year: 1995
Rating: 4.5
This was an attempt
to cash in on the Inspector Wears Skirts series that had come to an end a
few years earlier. But without the physical talent that those films had.
Sibelle Hu, Kara Hui, Cynthia Rothrock, Cynthia Khan and Moon Lee are nowhere
to be seen - or even Amy Yip - but instead there are two good actresses who
try their best - Carrie Ng (Naked Killer) and Valerie Chow (The Blade and
the stewardess in Chungking Express). This has a much lower budget than those
films and many fewer women. It is a bit of a muddled mess as it aims for
an action comedy but the comedy in particular falls flat while the action
is ok but not nearly enough of it. In one scene a bomb is about to go off
and kill everyone and they play rock, paper, scissors to decide which wire
to cut. In another Carrie pats a woman down only to discover it isn't a woman
and the chase is on - with the transvestite chasing her.
The police brass has decided they need to
begin arming the women with weapons - before they were only used for traffic
ticketing and administration. Now they have to be trained how to use guns.
Roy Cheung is the trainer - in a bit of a role reversal in this one - playing
the good guy - while Ng Man-tat, usually a comic foil plays a psycho killer.
Valerie - who we saw in an earlier scene take on three guys who try and steal
her purse and make them pay with bruises and bloody lips - is the only one
with talent as she shoots bullseye after bullseye - but by the end of the
training they are all ready to take on crime!
Carrie and Valerie are paired together on
foot patrol and on their first day they chase a tiny biting dog into a building
only to come upon a large arms deal - a good action scene follows. The film
looks like it has potential at this point but instead it goes into a coma
for much of the rest of the film. The Superintendent (Lau Siu-ming) decides
to put Carrie undercover as the lawyer for Ng Man-tat. He had already killed
an undercover agent earlier - by constructing a no nail wooden chair that
he is proud of - then inviting the man to sit down - and bashing his head
in like Al Capone. Burn the chair he tells his men. To make Carrie look competent they have her free
all his arrested men like a legal eagle. Silly stuff. And Valerie is ignored
though her character was the most interesting one. In the final shot, Carrie,
Valerie and Roy are in uniform saluting with the British flag behind them.
Kind of nostalgic for that now. This is a fairly obscure film - mediocre
but one of many that have basically vanished in Hong Kong films. I hate seeing
that.
