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霸王女福星 (1988)
Operation Pink Squad


Reviewed by: mrblue
Date: 02/28/2010

Jeff Lau's Operation Pink Squad follows the playbook of the mid-1980's Hong Kong female-oriented action/comedy to a tee. There's more than a bit of dopey comedy, a dash of romance, a dollop of drama, some off-color remarks, and some decent action thrown into the mix. While the end product isn't anything all that different from the dozens and dozens of similar productions put out in Hong Kong during this period, fans of the genre should have a good enough time with this.

Reviewer Score: 6

Reviewed by: j.crawford
Date: 04/21/2009
Summary: action-comedy film

This is an action comedy film where all the comedy is largely is built around Cantonese sexual jargon/slang. All of it makes for some funny subtitles that mostly do the performances an injustice. Action sequences by Yuen Cheung-Yan are typical of similiar films from this era. Director Jeff Lau handles everything in his usual style, of which I'm not a fan. This movie is worth a look-see at an early Suki Kwan performance. The DVD presentation is very bad; they use a 4:3 version of the film and make it anamorphic.

Reviewer Score: 5

Reviewed by: ewaffle
Date: 11/14/2007

A female police officer in Hong Kong had a tough life. According to countless movies of the 1980s and 1990s she had to deal with incompetent superiors, corrupt counselor, fellow officers who couldn’t write a parking ticket without bungling it and evildoers armed with guns that never ran out of bullets. While her male counterparts were saddled with the same problems they made things more difficult for her with their patronizing attitudes, leering looks and outright hostility. Half the battle for a policewoman on the RHKP was to be accepted as a cop by her fellows. “Operation Pink Squad” recounts the struggle of four of them in lurid detail. It is an undistinguished effort with obvious gags that go on much too long, a plot that keeps losing track of itself and characters with whom it is impossible to empathize. It is worth watching (but not very closely) for one very good fight, a few genuinely funny scenes and Anne Bridgewater.

Inspector Wu wants to get rid of the women from disbanded Pink Squad, thinking they bring disrepute to the police force, although what they actually do is arrest quite a few violent criminals. He gives them almost impossible assignments hoping that they will fail but they not only carry out the assignment but almost casually detain other bad guys they encounter. More direct, Officer Hung (part of the brain trust of the precinct—their collective IQ is probably in the very low triple figures) suggests they hire the Bamboo gang to get rid of them. Wu and crew are so busy figuring out how to get rid of the girls that they have no time left to fight crime. There is a comic set piece in which the four women are watched through a two-way mirror by a squad of male detectives who react like horny 12 year old boys. The Pink Squad figures out very quickly that they are being spied upon so they do as much as they can to tantalize and frustrate their watchers, pretending to strip but turning away before showing anything and even acting as if there is a Sapphic attraction between two of them which has their watchers all but foaming at the mouth. An Anglo superintendent shows up at the station, his blonde wife in tow, and we know it is just a matter of time before she is unknowingly giving a show—the superintendent sees the detectives ogling his lingerie clad spouse who Inspector Wu has already inadvertently referred to as a “white pig”. Oops.

The fight occurs relatively early while the squad is doing undercover surveillance at a karaoke club while impersonating hostesses. Jeff Falcon is an assassin with a list that they need to get. Flower grabs him while he tries to escape through a bathroom. In addition to the very athletic punches and kicks that both deliver, she hits him with a metal stool; he hits back with a wooden bench. He tries to strangle her with a towel; she tries to strangle him with an electrical cord. He is electrocuted and in what might be a postmodern nod through the fourth wall, Anne Bridgewater (Flower) says, after retrieving list from his body “He always ends up like this” which could mean Falcon, the gweillo tough guy who seems to die in each of his roles.

Their next assignment is narcotics surveillance with the “Tiger Squad” which is the operational force. It is clear from their first encounter that members of the Tiger Squad and the Pink Squad have a romantic history, an issue that becomes more important than watching the criminals they are trying to arrest. Some of the lines in these scenes may be funny in Cantonese but didn’t survive the slicing and dicing used to create the subtitles.

There are a few funny scenes, many more that were clearly supposed to be funny and weren’t and a lot of padding. Funny is when Sandra Ng accidentally arrests driver of a getaway truck that was illegally parked, then impersonating him when the robbers pile into the back of the truck. They are armed with shotguns, grenades and a rocket launcher which she tries to keep them from firing at the pursuing police. Not funny (although it probably sounded hilarious before the cameras rolled) was Sandra Ng pretending to be blind in order to get close to the subject of yet another investigation, a blind musician who the police think has a cache of stolen diamonds.

By no means the worst movie of 1988 but not recommended.

Reviewer Score: 3

Reviewed by: dandan
Date: 03/08/2006
Summary: sandra ng, how do i love thee...

four female cops who annoy their superiors get given the crappy jobs, but end up cracking cases, until they run into a blind diamond thief, who sandra ng falls for...

a nice slice of fun from hong kong, with some entertaining action, a few good laughs and man with silly hair.

good stuff!


Reviewed by: MrBooth
Date: 02/03/2002
Summary: Uneven but engaging

Sandra Ng, Ann "Drool" Bridgewater and 2 other girls I can't name play female cops who make their male colleagues uncomfortable (mainly because they're better cops than the men). Said colleagues try to set the girls up for a fall by assigning them to various dangerous cases, before settling on the stakeout of a blind man who is suspected of still having the diamonds from the robbery where he was blinded. This is dangerous because his female partner is just out of a coma and has escaped from hospital, presumably to go get the diamonds. Things get complicated when Sandra Ng falls for the blind chap, and experiences torn loyalty type things.

Being a Jeff Lau film, Operation Pink Squad is typically uneven, with copious plot holes and shifts in mood/tone without much warning. This is not necessarily a bad thing, as you might know if you're a fan of other Jeff Lau films... it's part of his charm, and goes hand in hand with his creativity.

OPS is fairly typical Lau territory, with bits of comic stupidity intermixed with melodrama and thriller. It's not his best work, but it's a pretty entertaining film. Sandra Ng was still in her "big hair, annoying" career phase at this point, but manages not to be unbearable and at times shines. Ann Bridgewater, as usual, shines all the time... from her dramatic acting, to being a sex kitten (sadly not much here) to being a clown to doing her own action scenes, she is always a joy to watch. The other women have much smaller roles in the movie, not much to say. The men are mostly sad specimins, obsessed with watching their own image and/or trying to take sexual advantage of the women... blind Piu being the exception - he's quite a cool character.

Not a great movie, not a bad one. Not as much fun as the supernaturally enhanced sequel, though it is a much more even film overall!


Reviewed by: Inner Strength
Date: 01/13/2002
Summary: Not bad

OPERATION PINK SQUAD (Chinese name meaning something like ‘Mighty Women‘) starts out as a comedy about a group of undercover female police women, Sandra Ng, Elsie Chan, Ann Bridgewater and Suki Kwan dealing with a lot of sexist jokes etc. Not much of an original concept, but then it changes to non-stop action with a serious story unfolding. But even that’s still nothing special. Ng Man Tat is the bad guy in this one, and plays his gangster role well. Sandra Ng as always helps keep the comedy going, and Ann Bridgewater does a lot of physical fighting, something she does not always do.

All in all, nothing special, but was one of the first action movies back in the 80’s I saw that caught my attention, but nothing much more than an average HK police story. One of the funniest moments from Sandra Ng is when she is trapped in the room listening to rather loud music (it’s worth seeing to understand!). Don’t bother with Operation Pink Squad II though, not if you like this genre, because it turns stupid with ghost and stuff, and is not really related to this movie at all.

Only available on VCD, unless it was released on DVD under another name (like the Operation Pink Squad II was given)

Rating: 3/5


(This rating is based on the year & genre, so don't think it's based as a comparison on new releases etc.)


Reviewed by: hkcinema
Date: 12/08/1999

This is a fun and light-hearted action comedy about a group of four unruly female police officers known as the "Pink Squad". When they get transferred to a new unit, their new superiors devise all sorts of silly schemes to get rid of them. Trouble starts brewing when one of the girls (Sandra Ng) falls for a handsome suspect that they're staking out, causing friction among the girls. Slow at times, but spiced up with awesome fight choreography and some genuinely funny humor. Unless you're a big Sandra Ng fan, the one to watch in this film is Anne Bridgewater - she owns every scene she's in with her tough and sexy presence, and her fighting is spectacular.

[Reviewed by Alex Smits]


Reviewed by: spinali
Date: 12/08/1999
Summary: NULL

A kind of HK Police Academy, in which five guys and four semi-babesplay with a Chinese Ouija board, and end up resurrecting an evil spirit bent on possession. A free-fall to new depths of tedium.

(1/4)



[Reviewed by Steve Spinali]

Reviewer Score: 2