Yes, Madam (4 Stars)

"Yes, Madam" is an action comedy film made in Hong Kong in 1985. It's significant for two reasons: it was Cynthia Rothrock's first film, and it was Michelle Yeoh's first leading role. Michelle is the Madam in the title.

Richard Nornen is visiting Hong Kong to deliver evidence on microfilm about the criminal activities of a supposedly respectable businessman called Tin. An assassin is sent to kill Richard in his hotel and retrieve the microfilm. He kills Richard, but while he's searching for the microfilm he's disturbed by room service. Except it isn't room service, it's two petty criminals called Aspirin and Strepsils. They see Richard's dead body and think he's sleeping, so they steal his wallet and his passport. The assassin would have shot them, but the room is visited by Inspector Ng (Michelle Yeoh), who wants to collect the microfilm.

Inspector Ng assumes at first that the thieves are the murderers, so she pursues them. The assassin assumes that they have the microfilm, and he's correct, although they don't know it. The microfilm was tucked into his passport, behind his photo. The thieves sell the passport to a colleague who forges documents.

The English police inspector Carrie Morris (Cynthia Rothrock) visits Hong Kong to help with the case. She knows that the microfilm was hidden in the passport. Aspirin and Strepsils are arrested, but soon declared innocent. They're released, but they know the assassin is hunting them, so they beg the police to arrest them again.

The film is difficult to pin down to a single genre. There's a lot of slapstick comedy, but there's also a lot of explicit violence, especially in the opening scenes. Michelle Yeoh says that it was intended to be a film that the family could watch together, but this intention didn't succeed. "Yes, Madam" has been given an 18 certificate in most countries for its excessive violence. The best scenes are doubtlessly the martial arts battles in which the two women take on hordes of bad guys. The humour is annoying.

There's a blunder in Cynthia Rothrock's first scene when she arrives at the airport.

Carrie Morris is forced to defend herself against an assailant. Her high kicks reveal that she's wearing blue panties. That's hot!

But seconds later we see that she's wearing yellow panties. Did Cynthia have to change her underwear between takes? There's only a brief glimpse for a few film frames. Evidently the film makers didn't think anyone would be perverted enough to pause the film to look up Cynthia's skirt. They didn't reckon with me.

I like Carrie's attitude. Inspector Ng plays everything by the book, but Carrie is an aggressive police inspector who bullies men that she's arrested. She beats up helpless men to get confessions out of them. I wouldn't confess to her. Not too quickly. I'd let her beat me up first.

I wonder if Carrie was portrayed like this for reasons of racial profiling. Did the director Cory Yuen assume that the English police are brutal?

Michelle Yeoh isn't just beautiful, she's an outstanding actress. She's been making films since 1984, but she still hasn't won an Oscar. This year she finally has a chance. She's been nominated as Best Actress for "Everything everywhere all at once". She was also nominated for this year's Baftas but didn't win. Let's wait to see what happens on 13th March. If she doesn't win, she should send Cynthia Rothrock to beat up the judges.

The Blu-ray was released in 2022, and it contains a new interview with Cynthia Rothrock. She says that she made her first seven movies in Hong Kong before she made her first American films. She must have counted wrong. According to IMDB she made thirteen films in Hong Kong from 1985 to 1990.

If I were only judging the action scenes, I would have rated this film five stars. I've reduced it by a star because of the non-funny comedy scenes.

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