My Cultural Diet

Following an international incident involving an Arab sheikh and his wife, the Hong Kong police department decide to establish a crack all-female commando squad. The squad’s training is brutal and exacting, especially when Cynthia Rothrock (Undefeatable) steps onto the screen, but don’t expect anything too gritty from The Inspector Wears Skirts. After all, the film, which begat several sequels, was essentially Hong Kong’s response to the Police Academy franchise. Which means that a good deal of The Inspector Wears Skirts is taken up with various shenanigans as the trainees deal with the chauvinism and unwanted advances of their male counterparts as well as their own internal rivalries. Sometimes this works in a slapstick sort of way, and other times — like the roller rink musical number — it just doesn’t. What ultimately saves The Inspector Wears Skirts, though, is its absolutely gonzo action sequences, which rival anything you’ll see in a classic Jackie Chan film and thanks to some occasional squib work, even venture into John Woo territory. (Not surprisingly, Chan was one of the film’s producers.) Indeed, The Inspector Wears Skirts landed in my Tubi queue because of an article by Jordan Elyse Crucchiola extolling the virtues of one fight scene in particular. Multiple scenes had me chortling with glee, however, and I rewound several of them more than once so that I could more fully appreciate their insanity.

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