Operation Pink Squad - Male Terror

Dec

29

Operation Pink Squad - Male Terror

≡ Category: Action, Comedy, Girls with Guns, Hong Kong, Satire, Worth A Look |
≅ Written by: Michael Kydonieus

Country: Hong Kong
Genre: Girls With Guns/ Comedy/ Satire/ Action
Director: Jeff Lau
Year: 1988
Rating:

WORTH A LOOK

The main subject of Operation Pink Squad is the absolute terror than Hong Kong men had in the 80s of career women. It was the humiliation of women taking their jobs, the diminution of their sense of manhood, an assault on their heretofore unquestioned sense of entitlement.

Of course, such a touchy subject is most easily broached as comedy, the broader, the better.

There’s a squad of female policemen who’ve been making waves, so the brass decides to incorporate them into the regular police force. This terrifies the men, such as Inspector Wu (Wu Fung) and another policeman played by the reliable Charlie Cho. They decide to give the woman difficult cases and wait for them to screw up so they have an excuse to kick them off the force.

Of course this backfires, but the latest case might be the straw that broke the camel’s back.

The cops have been keeping surveillance on Piu (Tan Lap-Man), who is suspected of having taken part in a jewel robbery, but the cops can’t prove it. He was supposedly taken as a hostage and when the getaway car crashed with the police in hot pursuit, Piu was blinded and the robber, a Caucasian girl, went into a coma.

The Pink Squad’s assignment is to maintain surveillance on Piu and crack the case.

As a director, Jeff Lau’s strategies aren’t very productive. He has his cast overact, especially Sandra Ng as Ng Siu-Mui (the other members of the squad are played by Elsie Chan, Ann Bridgewater, and Suki Kwa). Sandra Ng mugs mercilessly in a variety of situations, which is not really necessary. As set up by Jeff Lau (he’s also the writer), the situations are inherently humorous. There was no need to force the laughs, although it played well enough with Hong Kong audiences to warrant a sequel. And I had to admit, I did laugh fairly often.

There is also a fair amount of gunplay and kung fu in Operation Pink Squad, but it’s poorly directed and edited. The shots don’t really cut together, so you don’t get the sense of watching people really fight, it’s just mostly undifferentiated movement. I’m reluctant to blame action choreographer Yuen Cheung-Yan because the editing of the action sequences, by Cheung Kwok-Kuen and Hai Kit-Wai, is so poor.

Who knows? Maybe they didn’t have the footage necessary to cut the fights together coherently, which would be director Jeff Lau’s fault. That would be my guess, because Operation Pink Squad comes off as a tossed off cheapie made at lightning speed.

The trade off for the lack in quality is a surfeit of energy. There’s no chance to get bored.

So, what’s the verdict? You have some admittedly amusing broad social satire and some energetic but borderline incompetent action. Does that sound like fun to you?

I enjoyed Operation Pink Squad, but it’s not really a very good flick, and definitely not for everyone.