Righting Wrongs (traditional Chinese: 執法先鋒; pinyin: Zhi fa xian feng), also known as Above the Law, is a 1986 Hong Kong action film starring Yuen Biao and Cynthia Rothrock and directed by Corey Yuen. This film is one of Yuen Biao's better known "non-Sammo Hung / non-Jackie Chan" films. The film's official English-language title is "Righting Wrongs" while for international English-dubbed releases, it has been known as "Above the Law". It is scheduled for DVD release under The Weinstein Company's Dragon Dynasty label on May 29, 2007 under the alternate "Above the Law" title (as seen on the right).
Plot
"Jason" Hsia Ling-Cheng (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 Hsia's latest case and his entire family are wiped out over night, Hsia can no longer go "by the book".
This being said, it is Hsia's initial plan 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 Yai Li (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 (played by James 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 Hsia 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: he 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 (original Hong Kong dialogue).
Production information
- Cynthia Rothrock was originally supposed to act in Jackie Chan's Armour of God, but due to Chan's injuries halting production of the movie, Rothrock was re-assigned 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 one word of 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 he and Yuen Biao was "guest directed" by none other than Sammo Hung
External links
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