''In the Line of Duty'' () is a series of

girls with guns Girls with guns is a subgenre of action films and animation that portray a female protagonist engaged in shootouts. The genre typically involves gun-play, stunts and martial arts action. Cinema The 1985 Hong Kong film '' Yes, Madam'', directed ...

feature film A feature film or feature-length film is a narrative film (motion picture or "movie") with a running time long enough to be considered the principal or sole presentation in a commercial entertainment program. The term ''feature film'' originall ...

s produced by

Hong Kong Hong Kong ( (US) or (UK); , ), officially the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China ( abbr. Hong Kong SAR or HKSAR), is a city and special administrative region of China on the eastern Pearl River Delt ...

movie studio A film studio (also known as movie studio or simply studio) is a major entertainment company or motion picture company that has its own privately owned studio facility or facilities that are used to make films, which is handled by the production ...

D & B Films which star, in the first two,

Michelle Yeoh Michelle Yeoh Choo Kheng, ( ; born 6 August 1962) is a Malaysian actress. Credited as Michelle Khan in her early Hong Kong films, she rose to fame in the 1990s after starring in a series of Hong Kong action films where she performed her own ...

and, in subsequent instalments,

Cynthia Khan Yang Li-tsing (born 13 December 1968), better known internationally by her stage name Cynthia Khan, is a Taiwanese actress. She starred in many Hong Kong and Filipino girls with guns films. Early life Yang studied Chinese and jazz dance i schoo ...

as a

Hong Kong Police Force The Hong Kong Police Force (HKPF) is the primary law enforcement, investigative agency, and largest Hong Kong Disciplined Services, disciplined service under the Security Bureau (Hong Kong), Security Bureau of Hong Kong. The Royal Hong Kong Po ...

(female Officer.) who combines use of firearms with

Kickboxing Kickboxing is a combat sports, combat sport focused on kicking and punch (strike), punching. The combat takes place in a boxing ring, normally with boxing gloves, mouthguards, shorts, and bare feet to favour the use of kicks. Kickboxing is pract ...

. The third was the first to use the ''In the Line of Duty'' title, retroactively applied to the two Michelle Yeoh vehicles. Due to the entries being thematically rather than narratively related and their varying titles and release order in different territories and formats, what is considered part of the series and which number of it is open to debate. One wide interpretation is, in order of original release: # '' Yes, Madam!'' (皇家師姐, 1985) a.k.a. ''Police Assassins 2'' or ''II'' (UK VHS), ''Police Assassins'' (UK DVD, AU DVD); co-starring

Cynthia Rothrock Cynthia is a feminine given name of Greek origin: , , "from Mount Cynthus" on Delos island. The name has been in use in the Anglosphere since the 1600s. There are various spellings for this name, and it can be abbreviated to Cindy, Cyndi, Cyndy, ...

# ''Royal Warriors'' (皇家戰士, 1986) a.k.a. ''Police Assassins'' (UK VHS); co-starring

Hiroyuki Sanada is a Japanese actor and martial artist. He is best known to international audiences for his roles as Genbu in ''Ninja in the Dragon's Den'' (1982), Ryuji Takayama in ''Ring'' (1998), Seibei Iguchi in ''The Twilight Samurai'' (2002), Ujio in ''T ...

and Michael Wong # ''In the Line of Duty III'' (皇家師姐III 雌雄大盗, 1988) a.k.a. ''Force of the Dragon'' (UK VHS); co-starring

Hiroshi Fujioka , better known by his stage name , is a Japanese actor known for playing the hero Takeshi Hongo in the tokusatsu superhero series '' Kamen Rider'', and later the Sega Saturn mascot Segata Sanshiro (jokingly revealed to be Takeshi Hongo himse ...

# '' In the Line of Duty 4'' (皇家師姐IV 直擊証人, 1989) a.k.a. ''In the Line of Duty'' (UK); co-starring

Donnie Yen Donnie Yen Chi-tan (; born 27 July 1963) is a Hong Kong actor, martial artist, and action director. Yen is one of Hong Kong's top action stars. Yen is widely credited for bringing mixed martial arts (MMA) into the mainstream Asian cinema by cho ...

# ''Middle Man'' (皇家師姐伍中間人, 1990) a.k.a. ''In the Line of Duty V: Middle Man'' (USA); co-starring

David Wu David Wu (born April 8, 1955) is an American politician who served as the U.S. representative for from 1999 to 2011. He is a member of the Democratic Party. As a child of immigrants from Taiwan, Wu was the first Taiwanese American to serve in ...

and

Elvina Kong Elvina Kong Yan-yin (; born 6 July 1967) is a Hong Kong television actress and presenter currently under contract to TVB. Background Kong was born in British Hong Kong on 6 July 1967. She was a finalist in the New Talent Singing Contest 1985 ...

# ''Forbidden Arsenal'' (地下兵工廠, 1991); a.k.a. ''In the Line of Duty 6: Forbidden Arsenal''; co-starring

Waise Lee Waise Lee Chi-hung (born 19 December 1959) is a Hong Kong film and television actor best known for playing the roles of villains and antagonists in various films. Biography Lee graduated from TVB's Artist Training Academy in 1982 and was from the ...

# ''Sea Wolves'' (海狼, 1991); starring Gary Chau and

Simon Yam Simon Yam Tat-wah (; born 19 March 1955) is a Hong Kong actor and film producer. He received international acclaim for his performances in international film festival and box office hits such as ''Naked Killer'', '' SPL: Sha Po Lang'', ''Election' ...

# ''Yes, Madam '92: A Serious Shock'' (末路狂花, 1992, a.k.a. ''Death Triangle''): A return to the series with Moon Lee and Cynthia Khan. # ''Yes Madam 5'' (危情追蹤, 1995, a.k.a. ''Red Force 5'')

References

Action film series Film series introduced in 1985 Hong Kong film series {{HK-film-stub