Righting Wrongs a.k.a. Above the Law (1986)This is an interesting movie. It's a starring role for Yuen Biao, a guy who seems to get overshadowed by Jackie Chan and Sammo Hung, despite sort of coming up in the martial arts genre with them. He's quite good in this movie. He convincingly plays a proper badass, but also a somewhat complex character with some depth. He struggles with the issue of whether or not the justice system can be counted on and whether or not it is right to take matters into your own hands and go "Above the Law" a.k.a. be a vigilante. Cynthia Rothrock has almost as much of a starring role as him. She very much represents "The Law" and is quite obstinate about working within the system and following the rules. One of the major themes of this movie is the conflict between their view points. She believes in the law so strictly, she reminds me of Javert from Les Miserables
Both of them have some truly, killer action sequences and some of the people they go up against are every bit as badass as they are. The action in this movie is fun, exciting, and damn creative too. Often times I would see someone do something so damn cool I had to rewind and watch it again like an instant replay. The movie even has one of the earliest examples I've seen of the so called, "Gun Fu" that John Wick is famous for.
This movie has all the trappings of a cheesy, 80s action movie and I often smiled or laughed at some of the movie's more ridiculous moments, some of which were probably unintentionally ridiculous. There are some over the top moments during some of the action scenes in a way that only an 80s movie would do. Big explosions, dramatic slow mo shots, exaggerated facial expressions and screams, and villains really hamming it up, etc. There's even one random thug who reminded me of one of the goons from Tim Burton's Batman. Surprisingly though, the movie gets damn serious and dark at times and takes its central themes quite seriously (like what is the best way to seek justice against criminals). Actions have consequences in this movie and sometimes it is hard to know who is really right and wrong in their choices when it comes to the central characters.
The tonal shifts are interesting, but sometimes jarring. Sometimes it feels like the movie may be punching above its weight class in trying to handle its themes. The soundtrack in particular doesn't really fit some of the movie's darker and more serious moments. The music never gets out of, "silly, fun, 80s movie" mode, even when the movie itself actually does. Also, while I enjoy many of the movie's lighter, funnier, moments (including the unintentionally funny ones) there are scenes involving certain supporting characters that are so over the top silly I was rolling my eyes. There's a group of cops in this movie (including a father/son duo) who get way too much screen time and I hated every single one of their scenes as they all involve them acting like buffoons and I suppose it's supposed to be funny, but it felt more cringy than anything. One of these characters gets a really, well done, redemptive moment in the movie, but it's immediately followed by another cringe-worthy scene involving his annoying cop buddies and more annoying father that kills the good will the previous scene creates towards him. To say more is spoilerish. I honestly feel like this would be a stronger movie with all their scenes edited down or cut out entirely.
Overall though, I really enjoyed this movie. The way the story plays out is surprising in some ways, subverting my expectations in a good way. The 80s cheese is fun, and the darker elements work pretty well even though sometimes the music and sillier scenes clash a bit with them tonally. The action sequences are absolutely top notch and will probably be the only reason some people will watch this. The movie seems to be considered something of a cult classic among genre fans.
One major problem with this movie though is the hassle of actually watching it. There's like three different versions of it all featuring different scenes, dialog, cuts, and even endings. A lot of people seem to prefer the Hong Kong version which I watched. It's a bit more brutal in the action department. It also features what seems to be the movie's original ending, while other versions seem to have a new, re-shot ending, that ends the story in a dramatically different fashion.
There's also the issue of dub vs sub. The version I watched had pretty, sloppily, poorly translated subtitles with characters saying ridiculous things like, "When I storm. I don't turn around" and a bad guy telling his goons to attack Cynthia Rothrock's character by saying, "Polish her apple!". There are two dub tracks if you count the one from the VHS release. Like many English dubbed, Asian/Hong Kong, movies you have dialog that doesn't sync up with mouth movements and rather unimpressive acting. Plus, I just hate hearing voices that don't actually belong to the actors, although Cynthia Rothrock's voice may actually be hers that we're hearing.
In short, it's damn near impossible to recommend the best version of this movie to watch as they are all flawed in some way or another. I'd suggest the Hong Kong version with Chinese audio and English subtitles. This movie needs some kind of ultimate edition, blu ray, release like Jackie Chan's Armour of God 2 got from 88 films