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THE
INSPECTOR WEARS SKIRTS II
AKA:
The Inspector Wears Skirts 2 || Top Squad 2
Year:
1989 Reviewer: Andrew
Saroch
The
original 'The
Inspector Wears Skirts' was notable in many people's minds
for two reasons: firstly it was produced by Jackie Chan and
drew on the talents of his famed stunt team; secondly it
provided Cynthia Rothrock with a good supporting role and a
few enjoyable action set-pieces. Aside from these points, it
was actually a bright and breezy action-comedy that was a
pleasant throwback to the heyday of the Hong Kong industry.
The bumper box-office takings ensured that a sequel
quickly jumped from the drawing board to the big screen, sans
Cynthia Rothrock.
The
Banshee Team - a band of well-trained, yet wildly varying
female commandos - are again given the opportunity to compete
with their arrogant male colleagues in a number of tasks
designed to train them for future missions. This time they
also have a quartet of rookies joining their Banshee team and,
remembering the difficulties they initially faced when
starting the training, decide to play some tricks on the
newcomers. However, these new recruits give as good as they
get and the Banshee team is torn apart by their in-house
fighting and comic antics. Meanwhile their stern commander (Hu)
continues to act as the object of affection for the head of
the all-male 'Flying Tiger Commandos' (Fong), though this time
he has competition from a visiting anti-terrorist captain
(Wong). Although the various disputes rage on, the training
gradually comes to the fore and all of the female recruits
begin to outshine the 'Flying Tigers' in the exercises that
are meant to develop their skills. The petty issues of
superiority are rapidly ignored when a real mission arrives
and the hitherto rivals must now team up to defeat a band of
criminals.
An
ensemble cast of faces that epitomise 80s Hong Kong cinema;
from lecherous Billy Lau to the delicate presence of Regina
Kent, every performer will be familiar to viewers who've grown
accustomed to these conventions. Another major reminder of its
roots is the unenviable lack of cohesion or story. The 80s
gave viewers many genuine classics, but there were also those
that tended to view such distractions as storylines as
something that should be tacked onto the end. 'The Inspector
Wears Skirts II' happily ambles along with the main comedic
structure of the film only to suddenly introduce a woefully
underdeveloped story during the last twenty minutes. The
device serves merely to give the action of the stars some
context and doesn't attempt to make any sense. The set-pieces
and stunts during this period are typically well-performed,
but still fail to cover what is a very infuriating aspect of
the film.
This
is not a film that tries to please the purists though. Those
who have difficulty sitting through long sequences of Hong
Kong slapstick would be best advised to avoid this film as the
main concentration of Wellson Chin is comedy and the usual
antics of his stars. For the most part this proves to be
a good enough distraction to enjoy the duration of the movie.
With a slice of nostalgic fight action and a genuine feel-good
factor, 'The Inspector Wears Skirts II' is a sequel that,
while not quite offering the entertainment of the original,
isn't too bad a production to sit through for 90 minutes.
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