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Yes Madam! A Serious Shock

AKA: Yes Madam: A Serious Shock, Yes Madam 92: A Serious Shock, A Serious Shock! Yes Madam!, Death Triangle

1993

Director: Albert Lai

Stars: Cynthia Khan, Moon Lee, Lawrence Ng, Yukari Oshima, Melvin Wong, Waise Lee, Eric Tsang

I wanted to like this movie, I really did. Seeing three of the top female action stars in Hong Kong joining up or beating the hell out of each other would normally mark a good night's entertainment, even if the plot -- which has HK cops Lee and Khan turning on each other after Lawrence Ng tries to play the middle -- is pretty much crap. Yes Madam! A Serious Shock seemed all the more enticing, since Moon and Yukari go against their normal types in these kinds of movies; Moon is very much the villain, and Yukari is the most likeable character in the movie, even going so far as to providing comic relief.

However, Yes Madam! A Serious Shock suffers from a severe case of script retardation, and it looks like it was edited with a pair of blunt scissors -- which means the movie is hard to follow and the action scenes are hard to watch (and really unexciting to boot). What shouldn't be hard for you is the decision to skip this clunker. I rented this movie for a dollar, and it feels like I only got a quarter's worth of entertainment.

Even if you are a huge fan of one of the leading ladies, I'm sure you could find something better to do with your time than watching yet another example of bad 1990's Hong Kong low-budget action movies (aka "the reason Jurassic Park took the number one spot at the box office"). The only "enjoyment" (if you can call it that) I got out of Yes Madam! A Serious Shock was laughing at the terrible dubbing in the English version, and there are plenty of other movies which provide that, and also dole out some decent action to go along with it. Don't waste your time or money on this stinker. It's one of those movies you could get a better use out of by using the tape as a drink coaster rather than watching it.

RATING: 2

Due to the dubbing, re-editing and re-titling of the movies for international release, there is some confusion as to exactly what movies fall in the In the Line of Duty series. There are several theories about the time line, but this is the one I subscribe to:

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