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Righting Wrongs

Righting Wrongs
Above-the-law.jpg
International film poster
Directed by Corey Yuen
Produced by Yuen Biao
Raymond Chow
Leonard Ho Koon-cheung
Corey Yuen
Written by Szeto Chuek-hon
Barry Wong
Starring Yuen Biao
Cynthia Rothrock
Melvin Wong
Corey Yuen
Wu Ma
Roy Chiao
Peter Cunningham
Siu-wong Fan
Music by Jacky Cheung
Cinematography Tom Lau
Edited by Peter Cheung Yiu-chung
Distributed by Golden Harvest
Release date
  • 27 November 1986 (1986-11-27)
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.

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.

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).


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