88 Films
Blu-ray Release: July 9, 2024
Video: 1.85:1/1080p/Color
Audio: Cantonese and English LPCM 2.0 Mono
Subtitles: English
Run Time: 93:33
Director: Wellson Chin
For an introduction to the series, check out my The Inspector Wears Skirts, The Inspector Wears Skirts 2, and Inspector Wears Skirts 3 reviews.
To save the Hong Kong Police Force's Banshee Squad from becoming defunct, the struggling new squad members seek the help of former officers Amy (Sandra Kwan), now a divorced mom with a young kid, and May (Kara Hui), now partially mentally-unstable, to help them with their training regiment, led by Madame Yang (Cynthia Khan). Their police skills are put to the test when they are ordered to nab a band of brutal thugs in the city. (From 88 Films’ official synopsis)
On a narrative level, The Inspector Wears Skirts 4 is essentially the same movie as parts one and two with a veteran supercop training a group of misfit recruits. Fortunately, it avoids the doldrums of familiarity by also reviving the original Inspector Wears Skirts’ emphasis on action and stunts. Unfortunately, it doesn’t deemphasize the brash lowbrow comedy that make films two and three challenging watches for those of us not attuned to this brand of popular Hong Kong humor. This results in a gobsmackingly mean-spirited combination of violence and crass comedy that evokes more nervous giggles than hearty chuckles. The brisk pacing magnifies the audacity, for better and worse, and the climax promises a smorgasbord of bad taste for those that enjoy that sort of thing.
Structurally, Inspector Wears Skirts 4 is a bizarre mess of half-assed continuity and hard reboot. The bulk of the original cast is dumped in an unceremonious fashion at the beginning of the movie with a series of comic strip stills, while a few former members get short scenes where we learn that they’re either pregnant or have become nuns. The only two original SKIRTS commandos that rejoin are May (Kari Wai) and Amy (Sandra Kwan). I assume we’re meant to ignore the events of the non-Golden Harvest third film, because May has been driven insane by some unnamed off-screen event and Amy has married, then divorced Inspector Nam (Billy Lau) between films (I think – the entire script is pretty inconsistent), sadly negating her whirlwind romance with reformed gangster Richard (Shing Fui-On), who was last seen being whisked away to Hawaii to repair his bullet-riddled penis.
The film benefits greatly from the presence of Cynthia Khan, hot off of the superior Girls with Guns franchise, In the Line of Duty, in which she starred in the third (1988), fourth (1989), and fifth (1990) entries. She plays a straight-faced parody of her In the Line of Duty persona, right down to the character name (Madame Yang), enhanced by superheroics, jet boots, and Batman-like gadgets. Her scenes are, without exception, the best in the film. The rest of the replacement cast is disappointingly bland and interchangeable, even the normally reliable Moon Lee.
Video
Following the third film’s 4K master, Inspector Wears Skirts 4 returns us to another Fortune Star 2K scan that matches the first two 88 Films Blu-rays in the series. The grain has an occasionally snowy quality, especially during the soft focus, super-diffused outdoor sequences. These are largely photography issues (note: there is no credited cinematographer on the fourth film), not mastering problems, but they can lead to discoloration and flare-ups of what looks like mosquito noise. Overall, noisy grain will always be preferred to edge enhancement haloes and overly-smoothed noise reduction, and, while the 4K scanned 1080p Inspector Wears Skirts 3 transfer is better, I wouldn’t call any of the Fortune Star scans a bad representation of the original materials.
Audio
Inspector Wears Skirts 4 includes English and Cantonese dub options, both in lossless LPCM 2.0 mono. The effects and music (no composer is credited this time) more or less match between tracks, but they have a compressed quality on English dub, which otherwise boosts dialogue compared to the more uniform Cantonese mix.
Extras
Commentary with Frank Djeng – Everyone’s favorite Asian film expert returns for his final Inspector Wears Skirts commentary. As per usual, he explores the wider careers of the cast & crew, returning and new talent, the rushed production, the accuracy of the police procedures, the recent 2019-2020 Hong Kong protests, technical aspects, and critical/audience reactions.
Hong Kong trailer
Image gallery
The images on this page are taken from the BD and sized for the page. Larger versions can be viewed by clicking the images. Note that there will be some JPG compression.
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