"Police Assassins" AKA "Yes, Madam!" marked the first action role of the now internationally famous Michelle Yeoh, and established her as one of THE top female stars in her field. When you see the movie, it's easy to understand her success: she moves, shoots, fights and poses with the speed and confidence of a veteran, as well as with the enthusiasm of a rookie. The film also marked the Honk Kong debut of the fierce Cynthia Rothrock, who is generally considered to have done her best work in this part of the world and not later in America. Essentially this is a female buddy-cop film, except that the rivalry between the two women doesn't last as long as in most male examples of the genre, and they soon join forces to get the bad guys. The most notable among those is Dick Wei, the kind of guy who doesn't pull any punches when he fights women (check out his fights with Cynthia Khan in "In The Line Of Duty 3"), which ends up making both him AND the women look good. There are some overextended "slapstick" sequences that don't really fit with the violent style of the movie (particularly those with Tsui Hark), but the action scenes deliver what they promise. *** out of 4.
Review of Yes, Madam!
