Une flic de choc

After 20 some odd years of watching HK action films, I have come to idolize the work of Jackie Chan, Yuen Biao and Sammo Hung. Since all three emerged from the Peking Opera, they have turned out some GREAT films. Keep in mind that HK action films are all about the ACTION, with little or no regard to plot, dubbing, etc...always have been, always will be (in my humble opinion). Yuen Biao turns in a solid performance as always, but if you want a Yuen Biao "showcase", it's got to be "Dragons Forever" (1987, similar story, except Jackie is the lawyer). The real show here is Karen Shepard and Cyndy Rothrock in a GREAT action sequence...every bit as good as Michelle Yeoh (Khan) vs. Zhang Ziyi in the opening fight sequence of Crouching Tiger, HD. Karen and Cyndy have made some mediocre films (Terminator Woman, Tiger Claws, China O'Brien, etc.) but NONE of those were even close to the performance turned in by both women in Righting Wrongs...a direct result of HK choreography. You will need to turn off your "believability" switch for some of it, but all in all, a fun time.

This Corey Yuen Kuei-directed actioner stars Yuen Biao as a gifted young prosecution lawyer. Disillusioned with a system that allows crime lords to buy their way out of trouble, Yuen becomes a vigilante and starts to hunt down the bad guys. On his trail is tough Gweilo cop Cynthia Rothrock, determined that nobody should take the law into their own hands.

The plot for this movie is fairly formulaic, but it remains one of the best HK action films of the 80s. The reasons for this are some strong performances from the leads (Yuen has often been unfairly dismissed as a poor relation of Jackie Chan and Sammo Hung, while Rothrock must have been sick of playing the same part over and over) and some electric action sequences. The most memorable scenes are; an attempt on Yuen's life by black American karate expert Peter "Sugarfoot" Cunningham; a bout between Cynthia Rothrock and her fellow US Forms champion Karen Shepherd; the inevitable showdown between Yuen and Rothrock; and the final confrontation between Yuen, Rothrock and the mysterious villain.

action, fights, stunts all are very good and there s plenty of high quality, the scenario (script) will really amaze any watcher, it s totally different from the usual good guys win and bad guy looses, it s really incredible. a must see and trust me i have seen many many movies and i wont forget that one. yuen biao is as usual astonishing.

Her American flicks have been lackluster or worse, but under the direction of a top-notch fight choreographer (if I'm not mistaken, Biao Yuen himself was in charge) and editors who knew what they were doing, she looks wonderful. I'd nominate "RW" as having one of the two or three best chick fights that I've ever seen,

And Biao is way, way over the edge. The extended battles are fantastic (including one with a corpse used as a Jackie Chan-style prop), so I'll forgive him the dopey opening sequence.

This is GREAT HK noir! It really passes the "Joe Bob" test, if you know what I mean, and I know you do. Tranquil moments of sappiness lead directly to mayhem and nastiness. Always.

I just got that new Dragon Dynasty version of the film, though I'd never seen it before last night. Haven't watched any of the extras yet, though from what I've read here this is the "downbeat" Cantonese cut of the film. I must admit I'm disappointed in the film, though can still justify a decent score. I really liked Yuen Biao as well as the lead villain. I just realized that Bad Egg was played by the director, haha. The film had some big laughs, perhaps occasionally unintentional, but also some great action.

There were a lot of problems with the editing and stunt-work though. I know they make these movies fast and for not much money, but this one seemed cut together more carelessly than most. Also, despite how talented all the stunt people and the leads are in the film's action scenes, there were way too many moments where I saw wires or could clearly see the faces of stunt-doubles. Especially for Rothrock. Sometimes they'd put makeup on the guy. And one of the doubles for her looked like Biao himself. I know you can never be perfect with such things, but it was just much more obvious than in many other films of the genre that I've seen.

On sort of a side note, you ever notice the ramp effect with vehicles in action movies? The most common example would be of a speedboat hitting the low end of another boat and rocketing through the air. You occasionally see this with cars too. Here in Above the Law a.k.a. Righting Wrongs, you see it with a car chasing down Yuen Biao going off of a parked car. Of course the car is in front of a railing up high on a multi-level parking garage. And I don't know my models but it's probably a Mitsubishi since they made it into EVERY Hong Kong action movie in the 80s. But the parked car wasn't particularly low to the ground. The moving car didn't hit any objects to lift it's front end up. It just jumps the other like a ramp. I don't know if this is really a complaint. It was odd, but hysterical.

If we're talking recommendations and I have to exclude anything with Jackie Chan, Sammo Hung, or Jet Li, I'd recommend any of the first four In the Line of Duty movies over this. But it's still a decent action movie and any fan of Yuen Biao in particular really needs to see it.