Justice … or Revenge? Righting Wrongs

When a trip to visit a New Zealand justice exposes Hong Kong prosecutor Hsia Ling-Cheng (Biao Yuen) to the violent assassination of a local judge, he loses his shit, chases the bad guys down, and ends their reign of terror with a fireball explosion. Has he righted the wrong he set out to right?

Well, even if he hasn’t, the deed opens doors in his heart and mind. So when he returns home to fight evil within the boundaries of law and discovers some gangsters have eluded justice because the informant who was testifying against them was murdered (along with his entire family), Ling-Cheng loses his shit again. Or maybe he never recollected his shit in the first place. He stalks the escaped felons, sneaks into one’s high rise apartment, takes him out, and sets himself on a rough road to justice. Or is he really seeing his way to vengeance for all the wrongs that never got righted through the System?

Cindy Si (Cynthia Rothrock) is a tough-as-nails detective who is investigating the crimes. She’s onto Ling-Cheng’s involvement and looking for a way to prove it. Because Superintendent Wong Jing-Wai (Melvin Wong) has forced her to work with a partner, she’s picked Stink Egg (Corey Yuen), one of the worst cops on the force. His father, Uncle Tsai (Wu Ma), is doing his best to whip his son into proper shape, but he’s having no luck. Maybe working for a tough-as-nails detective will do the trick … providing Egg doesn’t get into too much danger.

When the plucky young thief Yu Chi-Wen (Siu-Wong Fan) witnesses the real big bad executing one of his partners, a crime that Ling-Cheng has been wrongfully accused of, can he bring the truth to light? Or will he end up as another corpse in the colorful city of Hong Kong, someone who had the misfortune of seeing a wrong and speaking out against it? Will Cindy Si and Ling-Cheng overcome their differences to work together, or will their pride not allow this and therefore doom them? Honor, justice, and revenge collide in director Corey Yuen’s fast paced, cops who kick actioner: Righting Wrongs (1986).

Hong Kong action-adventure films from the 1970s and 1980s are pretty special, near and dear to my heart. The creativity on display both in scenes of characterization as well as mayhem are unparalleled for their wildness, their crazy risks, and their beautiful aesthetic touches. It’s impossible to watch Police Story (1985) and Police Story 2 (1988) without marveling at the risks taken with this or that action scene (I absolutely love the playground fight, which is a masterclass in using familiar fixtures in unfamiliar ways).

It’s equally impossible to watch Righting Wrongs without a similar kind of breathless appreciation for the action. A guy concluding a fight by using his martial arts to handcuff his opponent to a second story balcony railing before taking a leap off the side, landing on a little bit of padded grass and then walking away? A complicated parking garage fight scene involving one man alone versus four speeding cars? A woman being propelled all over an airplane repair hangar by baddies in coveralls, who use every rack, tool, and weapon at their disposal in an effort to smash, stab, or otherwise obliterate her? Amazing stuff, truly.

Cinephiles who tell you that you always need a complicated plot or deep character arcs to propel a movie are incorrect. Sometimes, amazing stunt work is more than enough to carry a viewer through one hundred minutes of screen time, sometimes the creativity of action choreography is enough to make art that is worth considering and commenting about. It is certainly true in the case of the hallmarks of Hong Kong action cinema. Some of those films have twisty plots, sure, and some of those films provide intense character studies, sure. But it is difficult to work such elements into a film that will also translate to all the territories of the world. And evoking the visceral responses through a solidly crafted action sequence can be just as challenging as creating those plots or character arcs.

So, one of the major draws for me to see the flick was, of course, catching an early film appearance from Cynthia Rothrock, and she does not disappoint. This was Rothrock’s second film, following 1985’s Yes, Madame (starring Michelle Yeoh). Prior to the action movie career, she was an award winning martial artist, and the hard work, dedication, and honed skills are on terrific display here. She’s not as plucky as she would be in American flicks like Martial Law (1990) or Martial Law II (1991), but she certainly handles the kicks, the jumps, the fluid physicality required to sell these stunt sequences.

Rothrock’s co-star Biao Yuen is just as strong in the action department. There is a feast of creativity on display through the film, not a single repeated action sequence. However, Yuen also has the majority of the character stuff to work with. His prosecutor has to deal with a smarmy opposing lawyer, he has to weigh in on philosophical debates with his Magistrate chum (Roy Chiao), he’s got to balance a romantic subplot with Yu’s sister (Gei Ying Chan), and he’s got to carry the film’s biggest physical metaphor, a book of laws sporting several bullet holes. And he has to be an action star on top of all this. Biao handles these different roles effectively (though the romantic subplot is half baked in the script; there’s just not enough time for it to go anywhere).

And then there is the director, Corey Yuen, who takes on the comic sidekick role. It’s a thankless one, what with him constantly getting insulted for his hygiene, his compulsive eating, his poor skills, and other negative traits. As one might expect from the action genre, the character manages to shine just before he’s rendered no longer relevant to the story’s progress. It’s a fun turn to watch, particularly in his introductory scene where he badmouths Cindy Si in Cantonese because he doesn’t believe she can speak it (her being a no good foreigner) only to have the truth smack him in the face. The scene is perfectly stages, a live action Looney Tunes cartoon that ends with a hilarious boggled expression and a fast repercussion. Yuen is a hoot.

However, it is Melvin Wong who manages to provide the most enjoyable performance. His character, Superintendent Wong Jing-Wai, is a man who constantly talks about how good will triumph, how virtue is rewarded. However, he’s also talking out the side of his face since he’s the bad guy. Corruption always presents a virtuous face, after all, but Wong manages to sell his big brotherly, paternal kind, nurturing exterior. So when we learn of his duplicity and witness the brutality of his different action scenes, it comes as something of a nasty shock. The man acts well.

Righting Wrongs is a film that many Hong Kong film fans may actually be familiar with, though not necessarily under that name. When it was first filmed, it featured a surprisingly dark ending that appealed to Chinese opera. It’s a powerful, shocking ending. However, it did not necessarily play well outside of Hong Kong at the time, so the filmmakers returned to film a different ending, re-editing the film into a different edition with a tweaked title. As it appeared around the world, it got a few different cuts. So, readers who’ve seen Above the Law or Fight to Win II will have seen different version of the film.

Leave it to boutique label Vinegar Syndrome to bring a few of these variations together into a single 3-disc Blu-ray set. The set includes the original, 96-minute, Hong Kong cut of Righting Wrongs as well as two others. There’s a 100 minute version that played in mainland China as well as the 92-minute American release, Above the Law. The three cuts are particularly intriguing when viewed with respect to one another. These films are accompanied by a bevy of bonus materials, including multiple commentary tracks, new interviews with Rothrock, Karen Sheperd, Melvin Wong, Peter Cunningham, an archival interview with Biao Yuen, Rothrock, and Peter Cunningham. There’s a video essay from film historians Samm Deighan and Charles Perks. There’s a booklet with essays, as well as the expected supplements like trailers and photo gallery. It’s a lovely presentation, comprehensive and insightful. Will this renewed interest catapult the film into the pantheon of those directed by Tsui Hark, John Woo, Jackie Chan, and similar? Only time will tell, of course. But a presentation like this is certainly an inviting one.

What Righting Wrongs lacks in a twisty plot or deep character arcs, it more than makes up for with an adventure story of heroism and consequences. The action sequences are worth the price of admission, careening from jaw-dropping insanity stunt work, to wild gun play, to incredibly fast martial arts. It’s well executed action with heart, grit, and terrific creativity.

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Righting Wrongs is available in the aforementioned comprehensive 3-disc Blu-ray edition as well as a streaming edition.

Next week, we take a look at something completely different with the horror flick, Shriek of the Mutilated (1974). It is available in DVD, Blu-ray, and streaming editions.

Writing for “Justice … Or Revenge? Righting Wrongs” is copyright © 2022 by Daniel R. Robichaud.

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