Righting Wrongs
| Righting Wrongs | |
|---|---|
| File:Above-the-law.jpg International film poster | |
| Directed by | Corey Yuen |
| Written by | Szeto Chuek-hon Barry Wong |
| Produced by | Yuen Biao Raymond Chow Leonard Ho Koon-cheung Corey Yuen |
| Starring | Yuen Biao Cynthia Rothrock Melvin Wong Corey Yuen Wu Ma Roy Chiao Peter Cunningham Siu-wong Fan |
| Cinematography | Tom Lau |
| Edited by | Peter Cheung Yiu-chung |
| Music by | Jacky Cheung |
| Distributed by | Golden Harvest |
Release date |
|
Running time | 95 minutes |
| Country | Hong Kong |
| Language | Cantonese |
Righting Wrongs (Chinese: 執法先鋒, aka Above the Law) is a 1986 Hong Kong action film directed by Corey Yuen, who also co-stars. The film stars Yuen Biao and Cynthia Rothrock. This is the one of Yuen Biao's better known films that he made without film industry compatriots Sammo Hung and Jackie Chan.
Title
The film's Hong Kong English language title is Righting Wrongs. The international version (dubbed in English) is titled Above the Law this title was also adopted for The Weinstein Company's 2007 US DVD release on their Dragon Dynasty label.
Plot
Jason Hsia Ling-chi (Biao) is a dedicated, by the books prosecutor who has tried to maintain patience and tolerance under the somewhat flimsy laws of the court. However, when his mentor is publicly gunned down in New Zealand and when the key witness of Ha's latest case and his entire family are wiped out over night, Ha can no longer go by the book.
Hsia initial plan is to take the law into his own hands and kill the two men he believes called for his witness' murder. He is successful in killing the first, which causes the Hong Kong police department to wake up and take action to regain order. Enter Senior Inspector Cindy Si (Rothrock), who is put on the case to find the killer under her superior Sergeant Wong Jing-wai (Wong). However, when Hsia goes to kill the second defendant, Chow Ting-kwong (Tien), he is already dead. Unbeknownst to them, both of the defendants were working under an even higher power, known only as "Crown". However, it is soon discovered that "Crown" is none other than Sergeant Wong, who was also Chow's killer.
Once Si realizes that Wong is the true mastermind behind all of the recent murders taking place, she and Ha finally work together to bring him in to prove he is not "above the law". However, depending on the version of the story told, both Si and Hsia fall victim to their ambition, with Si killed with a large screw through the neck by Wong and Hsia falling to his demise after killing Wong in an out of control airplane. However, in another version of the story, Si survives her attack from Wong, and while Hsia still kills Wong, he falls victim to a different, and rather ironic, fate: Hsia is given an eight-year sentence in prison under the charge of manslaughter (English dub), or a life sentence in prison under the charge of First Degree Murder (Mandarin dub).
Cast
- Yuen Biao - Hsia Ling-chi
- Cynthia Rothrock - Senior Inspector Cindy Si
- Roy Chiao - Magistrate Judge
- Melvin Wong - Sergeant Wong Jing-wai
- Siu-wong Fan - Yu Chi-wen
- Corey Yuen - Bad Egg
- Sandy Chan – Hsia Ling-chi's girlfriend
- Chung Fat - Driver of red porsche
- Wu Ma - Uncle Tsai
- Peter Cunningham - Black Assassin
- Lau Sing-ming – Yu Chi-wen's Grandfather
- Karen Sheperd - Karen
- Tai Bo - Yellow Shirt Cop
- Chung Fat - Red Sportscar Cop
- James Tien - Chow Ting-kwong
- Hsu Hsia - Mr. Leung (protected witness)
- Lau Chau-sang - Cop
- Kam Kong-chow - Station Cop
- Stephen Chan - Hung
- Siu Bo - Cop guarding Mr. Leung / Hanger Thug (2 roles)
- Yuen Miu - Cop guarding Mr. Leung
- King Lee - Cop
- Paul Chang - Four Eyes Bill
- Hsiao Hou
- Fruit Chan
Production information
- Cynthia Rothrock was originally supposed to act in Jackie Chan's 1987 film Armour of God, Rothrock was declined. But due to Jackie Chan's injury halting production of the movie, however Rothrock was reassigned to play as the lead actress in this film.
- This is Cynthia Rothrock's personal favorite of her own films.
- The airplane stunt finale was shot in New Zealand, rather than Hong Kong.
- Supposedly, many of the times Rothrock was doubled, she would be doubled by stuntman and fight choreographer Meng Hoi.
- Rothrock did not speak Cantonese or Mandarin, so all of her lines were spoken in English and then later dubbed into the respective languages.
- According to Cynthia Rothrock, despite being an impressive martial arts villain on screen in this film, actor Melvin Wong apparently had no formal martial arts training whatsoever prior to this film.
- According to Melvin Wong, the airplane hangar fight between him and Yuen Biao was "guest directed" by none other than Sammo Hung.
- The film has two main versions in Cantonese and Mandarin the primary difference being additional scenes for the Mandarin version and another ending.