Yes, Madam! (1985)
Reviewed by: cal42 on 2010-01-29
An incriminating piece of gang-related evidence has been inadvertently stolen by a pair of bumbling crooks (John Shum and Mang Hoi), who take great pains to save their skin while on the run from the police and the Triads. Meanwhile, a special task force is drawn up to bring the crime syndicate down, and Inspector Ng (Yeoh) teams up with her foreign counterpart Morris (Rothrock). Together despite their open scepticism of each other, they take on the crime lord and his army, but may have met their match with the petty criminals in possession of the crucial evidence...

I’ve said it before, but there are certain things about Hong Kong action films from the 80s that instil a feeling of warm cosy familiarity that is hard to shake off even if the film itself doesn’t live up to expectations. Tacky synth soundtrack? Check. Silly hairstyles and clothes? Check. Dick Wei as the main evil henchman? Check. John Shum larking about? Check. James Tien as the smug, arrogant villain? Check, check check. Throw in a cameo by Richard Ng (and Sammo Hung, producer of the project) at no extra cost, and you have all the hallmarks of Hong Kong cinema from the period that arguably produced its most well loved genre films.

However, YES, MADAM! is strangely lacking focus. The two leads share relatively little of the screen time, while the comic team of John Shum and Mang Hoi take centre stage. While their overly “shouty” routines wear thin after a while (for me, about ten minutes into the film) there are a few touches of genuine humour in there, and the proceedings are livened up immensely by the addition of Tsui Hark as their forger friend. And the scene where the pair keep trying to get locked up to avoid the Triad gang only for the two police women to keep releasing them is pretty funny.

When the two female leads take the screen, there is a definite lack of chemistry between them. Although the film contrives to create a cop buddy movie atmosphere, there is very little character development. While most would argue that this is an action movie and therefore to hell with character development, I would still have liked a bit of flesh on the bones, so to speak.

Mind you, the action scenes are pretty damn good. But when you throw the likes of Michelle Yeoh, Dick Wei and Chung Faat into the mix, something pretty damn good should come out of it. Speaking of Chung Faat, his character is bloody hilarious, despite not delivering a single line of dialogue that I can recall. It’s impossible to think that someone looking the way he does could have stayed on the streets for so long without being identified as demonic. Put it this way, he doesn’t look human...

Some mention must be made to the film’s misogyny and dubious dialogue. Well, if you’re very sensitive, you will probably find YES, MADAM! pretty offensive. Personally, a lot of the insults are so outrageously over the top that I found most of it quite funny. My favourite line is delivered by Tien, who, when being tackled by Yeoh, admonishes her with: “if you want to show off, do it in the kitchen!”

YES, MADAM! is not a solid gold movie classic, with its reliance on comedy skits and with an unsatisfactory conclusion, but is one of the best films in Rothrock’s extremely variable filmography. And Michelle Yeoh fans should be pretty happy if they can live with the fact that her physical skills are used somewhat sparingly.
Reviewer Score: 7