Righting Wrongs
Review
Format: VCD
Stars: Yuen Biao, Cynthia Rothrock, Melvin Wong, Fan Siu Wong

I really don't wanna give any of the story away. Let's put it simply: when crime wears a badge, the law ceases to be enough to bring justice to a society. Biao plays Ha Ling Ching, a prosecutor, who believes in this statement quite sincerely, and having him play that role so well makes me wonder why he hasn't been in American blockbusters yet.

So, Biao can act. That's no surprise, but he can REALLY ACT. He can make himself into a hero, *snap* like that. I think that when I watched this movie the first time, I walked away thinking Biao WAS a hero in real life. This is the kind of acting that tends to be missing from many movies that focus on mainstream entertainment like explosions and choreography, only. RW has lots of that, but the characters are so well developed and played out that it can only add to everything else. Even Rothrock started impressing me a little. The video cd version I bought had legible subtitles, too, so I was very happy that I could follow the story easily.



RW's point, or I should say Biao's point, was that there is no final judgement, and there will be no judgement if people depend on "us law enforcers" (the way he put it was so well done), then anything can go, and that the legal system was made to cater to cold blooded murderers, not the innocent. I liked this statement, and it seemed to be Biao's most emotional part of the movie, which makes me wonder if he really feels that way. I wouldn't be surprised, since he's done stuff like this in other movies like Dragons Forever, and others that I've heard of. And so, had this film been only the plot, I'd STILL be excited. Very well written, although the kid music they put in during the emotional points almost ruined the mood, but I got past that. Even Fan Siu Wong made an appearance, as a youngin', and did a good job too.



The action was great too. Car chases, martial arts (4 or 5 well done fights), stunts, stunts, stunts, stunts, ... In this, you'll see Biao hang from a rope sticking out of the door of an airplane, while it's flying around a mile high. You'll see him run over a car, with three times the gracefulness of Jackie in Twin Dragons. You'll see him drop down a skyscraper on a small cable, on his own. He does this all. Hell, Rothrock couldn't do some stuff, SO HE DOUBLED FOR HER!! It almost passed my eye, but while Rothrock was in a casino, she jumped up onto a table doing a kick, but Biao was her double for the move! Awesome, I was impressed, and proud of the Little Tiger, skirt and everything. I think the way I could tell was how his mouth was open, and he didn't have a wig, since Rothrock had short hair. Now that I think about it, all the action that was done by anyone in the movie had a double at some, if not too many, point(s), except for Yuen Biao, who keeps to his devices and knows that he can do this stuff, and he can do it the best. His fight with Melvin Wong at the end was great too. Very fast, and Willie Chan can move pretty well, but he had a double for some spots. Biao does the best looking kick I've ever seen here, too, which is on the movie stunts page, and it actually hits the guy. You can tell. Obviously not Willie Chan.



But Rothrock, sadly, didn't impress me too much. Her acting was fine, but she had a double so often that they cut the scenes every second to make her look like she was doing this stuff. I think we know better. There was a fight with her against some other lady, and they both had doubles. The double for the other woman wore a wig that was fake beyond imagination. It had locks the size of pool balls. And Biao fought a black american guy, which was pretty ugly. He moved like he was carved out of stone, and should have been replaced altogether for the scene. Not good looking. His movements were so bland and CHOREOGRAPHED that I really didn't care about the fight.



All that aside, the movie is great, and the ending is very heroic indeed, the plot satisfies, and overall the whole thing is ten material. Biao stole the show, which is how it should have been too. He deserved it.




10/10

UPDATE 10/9 - Rating System Change

5/5 - Biao's best solo role.

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