6.3 | / 10 |
Users | 4.0 | |
Reviewer | 2.5 | |
Overall | 2.9 |
Four new Banshee Squad Members join the Hong Kong Police Academy to undergo training supervised by Madam Wu. Their personalities don’t click with the current Squad Members, resulting in petty arguments and duels. However, they later make peace with one another as they join the Tiger Squad Members, supervised by Inspector Kan, to undergo new training courses together and combine forces to take down a band of terrorists.
Starring: Sibelle Hu, Sandra Kwan Yue Ng, Billy Lau, Regina Kent, Anthony CarpioForeign | 100% |
Action | 14% |
Comedy | Insignificant |
Video codec: MPEG-4 AVC
Video resolution: 1080p
Aspect ratio: 1.85:1
Original aspect ratio: 1.85:1
Cantonese: LPCM 2.0 Mono (48kHz, 24-bit)
English: LPCM 2.0 Mono (48kHz, 24-bit)
English
Blu-ray Disc
Single disc (1 BD)
Slipcover in original pressing
Region A, B (locked)
Movie | 2.5 | |
Video | 4.0 | |
Audio | 3.5 | |
Extras | 3.5 | |
Overall | 2.5 |
The Inspector Wears Skirts was a perhaps slightly unexpected hit when it was released in cinemas in 1988, and while director Wellson Chin argues in a supplement on this disc that there had "always" been a plan for at least one sequel even when the first film was being shot, the fact that the first film brought in such nice amounts of revenue no doubt helped quickly make that sequel a reality. And "quickly" is the operative word, as Chin also mentions, since he was given the plumb assignment of delivering the feature in order to exhibit it theatrically during Chinese New Year celebrations, which evidently is a prized achievement, but which left Chin with precious little time to get this follow up shot, edited and ready to be seen. The Inspector Wears Skirts II continues with the sitcom-esque antics of a female police squad, and if it maybe has the slight whiff of that oft mentioned "sophomore slump", it's generally as mindlessly amiable as its progenitor.
The Inspector Wears Skirts 2 is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of 88 Films with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 1.85:1. The back cover of this release states that this is a "2K remaster from the original negatives". There's a somewhat variant level of palette suffusion on hand in this presentation, with most of the outdoor material popping beautifully and offering some really pretty sumptuous hues, especially primary blues and reds. Things can be a bit more pallid looking in any number of interior scenes, where even flesh tones can be a bit less saturated than in some of the outdoor material. Detail levels are typically very good to excellent throughout. Grain is also a bit variant, and can range from nicely tight to occasionally on the splotchy side. There's no major damage of any import.
The Inspector Wears Skirts 2 features LPCM 2.0 Mono in either Cantonese or English. The Cantonese track has a more noticeably bright high end, which can therefore mean perhaps less subliminally audible hiss as well as more obvious slight distortion in some of the music cues. The English track lacks the same bright high end, but probably sounds a bit muffled overall in comparison to the Cantonese track. Both tracks tend to show some of the same intermittent break up in the music in particular. Dialogue is presented cleanly and clearly throughout. Optional English subtitles are available.
The original The Inspector Wears Skirts could hardly be called innovative in any way, and in fact it kind of had its own sitcom-ish quality, though that said, this second effort is definitely even more like a made for television movie, or even a pilot for a proposed series. Some of the comedy is agreeable enough, but many of the performers mug incessantly, as if to suggest they're not quite confident in the actual writing. Technical merits are generally solid (video) to arguably improvable (audio), but as usual 88 Films has aggregated some really appealing supplements (even if the disc tries to "hide" them on some standalone players), for anyone who may be considering making a purchase.
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