Firstly, a massive thank you to our Patreon supporters. Your generosity touches me deeply. These supporters have become the single biggest contributing factor to the survival of DVDBeaver. Your assistance has become essential.

 

What do Patrons receive, that you don't?

 

1) Our weekly Newsletter sent to your Inbox every Monday morning!
2)
Patron-only Silent Auctions - so far over 30 Out-of-Print titles have moved to deserved, appreciative, hands!
3) Access to over 50,000 unpublished screen captures in lossless high-resolution format!

 

Please consider keeping us in existence with a couple of dollars or more each month (your pocket change!) so we can continue to do our best in giving you timely, thorough reviews, calendar updates and detailed comparisons. Thank you very much.


 

Search DVDBeaver

S E A R C H    D V D B e a v e r

(aka "Zhi fa xian feng" or "Righting Wrongs" or "Above the Law" aka "Fight to Win II")

 

Directed by Corey Yuen
Hong Kong 1986

 

Martial Arts legend Yuen Biao stars as Ha Ling-Ching, a respected prosecutor who has always followed the rule of law, but has recently found himself frustrated by the ineffectiveness of the court system. Ha is pushed over the edge by the murder of a key witness in a trial along with the witness's entire family. Fed up with the court's inability to punish the guilty and protect the innocent, Ha decides to take the law into his own hands and eliminate those responsible for the murders. Soon, Ha's actions catch the interest of C.I.D. Senior Inspector Cindy See (Cynthia Rothrock) and her slovenly new partner known as Stink Egg (Corey Yuen). While trying to stop Ha, Cindy uncovers who is really behind the recent murders and the two must put aside their differences in order to take down the criminal organization before they go unpunished. Heavily re-edited and released in different versions throughout the world, RIGHTING WRONGS - released in an English-friendly version under the title Above The Law - is one of the more infamous Hong Kong action films to be released in the 80s. Directed by prolific action director, Corey Yuen, RIGHTING WRONGS explodes with jaw-dropping fight choreography and features strong performances by Yuen Biao, Cynthia Rothrock, Corey Yuen, and Melvin Wong, along with scene-stealing fight cameos by Peter Cunningham and Karen Sheperd.

***

Jason Chan, a Hong Kong lawyer, is angry at the way the law protects criminals and decides to take the law into his own hands, dishing out vigilante justice when a key witness and his entire family are murdered. But hotshot cop Cindy Si is soon on Chan's case, and the situation unravels into a fight that only a few will survive.

Posters

Theatrical Release: November 27th, 1986

Reviews                                                                                                       More Reviews                                                                                       DVD Reviews

 

Review: Vinegar Syndrome - Region 'A' - Blu-ray

Big thanks to David McCoy for the Dragon-Dynasty DVD capture!

Box Cover

CLICK to order from:

  

Bonus Captures:

Distribution Vinegar Syndrome - Region 'A' - Blu-ray
Runtime Original Hong Kong Cut: 1:37:14.995
'Above the Law' English Cut: 1:32:04.101
Mandarin Export cut: 1:39:49.984
Video

Original Hong Kong Cut:

1.85:1 1080P Dual-layered Blu-ray

Disc Size: 49,140,455,862 bytes

Feature: 29,869,867,392 bytes

Video Bitrate: 34.90 Mbps

Codec: MPEG-4 AVC Video

'Above the Law' English Cut:

1.85:1 1080P Dual-layered Blu-ray

Disc Size: 49,556,658,986 bytes

Feature: 23,917,777,536 bytes

Video Bitrate: 31.85 Mbps

Codec: MPEG-4 AVC Video

Mandarin Export cut:

1.85:1 1080P Dual-layered Blu-ray

Disc Size: 49,556,658,986 bytes

Feature: 24,760,076,160 bytes

Video Bitrate: 29.96 Mbps

Codec: MPEG-4 AVC Vide

NOTE: The Vertical axis represents the bits transferred per second. The Horizontal is the time in minutes.

Bitrate Original Hong Kong Cut Blu-ray:

Bitrate 'Above the Law' English Cut Blu-ray:

Bitrate Mandarin Export cut Blu-ray:

Audio

Original Hong Kong Cut:

DTS-HD Master Audio Cantonese 1092 kbps 1.0 / 48 kHz / 1092 kbps / 24-bit (DTS Core: 1.0 / 48 kHz / 768 kbps / 24-bit)
DUBs:

DTS-HD Master Audio English 1078 kbps 1.0 / 48 kHz / 1078 kbps / 24-bit (DTS Core: 1.0 / 48 kHz / 768 kbps / 24-bit)
DTS-HD Master Audio Mandarin 1086 kbps 1.0 / 48 kHz / 1086 kbps / 24-bit (DTS Core: 1.0 / 48 kHz / 768 kbps / 24-bit)
Commentaries:

Dolby Digital Audio English 192 kbps 2.0 / 48 kHz / 192 kbps / DN -27dB
 

'Above the Law' English Cut:

DTS-HD Master Audio English 1082 kbps 1.0 / 48 kHz / 1082 kbps / 24-bit (DTS Core: 1.0 / 48 kHz / 768 kbps / 24-bit)

 

Mandarin Export cut:

DTS-HD Master Audio Mandarin 1082 kbps 1.0 / 48 kHz / 1082 kbps / 24-bit (DTS Core: 1.0 / 48 kHz / 768 kbps / 24-bit)
Commentary:

Dolby Digital Audio English 320 kbps 2.0 / 48 kHz / 320 kbps / DN -27dB

Subtitles English, None - on all three versions
Features Release Information:
Studio:
Vinegar Syndrome

 

Edition Details:

• Archival commentary track with Cynthia Rothrock
• Brand new commentary track with actress Cynthia Rothrock hosted by Brad Henderson

      - both on the Hong Kong cut
• Critical commentary track with martial arts film historians Mike Leeder and Arne Venema on the Mandarin Cut
• "Fighting Wrongs" (24:58) - a brand new interview with Cynthia Rothrock
• "Unscripted Justice" (35:32) - a brand new interview with actress Karen Sheperd
• "Kung Fu Was The Equalizer" (20:24) - a brand new interview with actor Melvin Wong
• "Fighting For Success" (20:51) - a brand new interview with actor Peter Cunningham
• "The Vigilante" (16:40) - an archival interview with star Yuen Biao
• "Action Overload" (12:52) - an archival interview with Cynthia Rothrock
• "From the Ring to the Silver Screen" (18:56) - an archival interview with Peter Cunningham
• Video essay with film historians Samm Deighan and Charles Perks (11:08)
• Cantonese (3:56) and English (2:03) theatrical trailers for RIGHTING WRONGS
• Photo gallery (1:48)
"The Best of the Martial Arts Films (1990)" (1:31:19) - feature-length documentary hosted by John Saxon and including footage and interviews with Cynthia Rothrock, Yuen Biao, Karen Sheperd, Jackie Chan, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Bruce Lee and many more!

• Trailer for The Best of the Martial Arts Films  (3:57)

• 40-page perfect bound book with essays by film programmer Pearl Chan, author and martial arts historian Grady Hendrix and filmmaker/fan Simon Barrett
Reversible cover artwork


Blu-ray Release Date:
August 30th, 2022
Custom Blu-ray Case

Chapters 6 / 5 / 5

 

 

Comments:

NOTE: The below Blu-ray captures were taken directly from the Blu-ray disc.

ADDITION: Vinegar Syndrome Blu-ray (August 2022): Vinegar Syndrome have transferred Corey Yuen's Righting Wrongs to Blu-ray. It is cited as being from a "Studio supplied master with additional color grading and restoration performed by Vinegar Syndrome". They are offering 3 different unaltered original feature-length 1080P presentations of Righting Wrongs starting with a lone Blu-ray of the original Hong Kong cut on a dual-layered disc with a max'ed out bitrate. It offers Cantonese, English and Mandarin language track options along with newly translated Cantonese-to-English subtitles. On a second Blu-ray is the extended and vastly different Mandarin language export cut with newly translated Mandarin-to-English subtitles sharing the disc with the shorter English friendly 'Above the Law" cut of the film. It also offers optional English subtitles. Vinegar Syndrome include a third Blu-ray with the feature-length 1990 documentary The Best of the Martial Arts Films directed by Sandra Weintraub.

Typical of Vinegar Syndrome - the video quality is excellent and, aside from the changes in the cuts, they look almost the exact same; strong with textured grain, rich colors and pleasing detail in the film's close-ups. We've compared some screen captures with the various subtitle translations and with the 2007 Dragon Dynasty DVD, reviewed by David McCoy HERE  

NOTE: We have added 28 more large resolution Blu-ray captures (in lossless PNG format) for DVDBeaver Patrons HERE

On their Blu-ray, Vinegar Syndrome use a DTS-HD Master tracks (24-bit) mono tracks - with Cantonese, English or Mandarin language options, plus newly translated Cantonese-to-English subtitles on the Hong Kong cut of the film. The 'Above the Law' is in English with optional English subtitles and the Mandarin language export cut has only the Mandarin language with the option of newly translated Mandarin-to-English subtitles. Righting Wrongs has plenty of aggressive actions with extensive conflicts and well choreographed fight sequences. There are the usual high-end effects sounding crisp and usual for the genre with a shade of impressive depth exported - a huge explosion before the title credits etc. The score is by Romeo Díaz (Once Upon a Time in China, City Hunter) frequently adding drama and suspense to the onscreen action. Akira Mitake's Proud is the 'theme' sung by Jacky Cheung. Vinegar Syndrome offer optional English subtitles (as described above) on their Region 'A' Blu-ray.

Vinegar stack this Blu-ray release starting with a new (2022) commentary track on the Hong Kong cut with actress Cynthia Rothrock hosted by Brad Henderson covering her recollections on the film, her career and much more. It's light but informative. Also included is an archival commentary track with Rothrock who was World Champion in forms and weapons five times between 1981 and 1985 and she holds black belt rankings in seven styles of martial arts. She has a lot to say on making Righting Wrongs. On the Mandarin cut is what is termed a 'critical commentary' track with martial arts film historians Mike Leeder (editor of 100% Jackie Chan: The Essential Companion) and Arne Venema. Their insights are always welcome. They have done excellent commentaries for the above two films and Eureka's Blu-rays of Odd Couple and The Shaolin Plot - plus 88 Films Blu-rays of The Fearless Hyena and Dragon's Forever. This one digs quite deep. There are a number of new interview; 25-minutes with Rothrock entitled "Fighting Wrongs", 35-minutes with actress Karen Sheperd called "Unscripted Justice", with actor Melvin Wong for 20-minutes entitled "Kung Fu Was The Equalizer" and with actor Peter Cunningham for 20 more minutes in a piece called "Fighting For Success". There are also archival interviews with star Yuen Biao, Rothrock and Cunningham plus a video essay with film historians Samm Deighan and Charles Perks. The package has trailer and photo galleries for the film but many will enjoyed the 1.5 hour 1990 documentary The Best of the Martial Arts Films directed by Sandra Weintraub - narrated by John Saxon (Enter the Dragon) including footage and interviews with Cynthia Rothrock, Yuen Biao, Karen Sheperd, Jackie Chan, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Bruce Lee and others. It's in the 2.35:1 aspect ratio, 1080P with DTS-HD Master audio. Lastly, in this astoundingly complete package is a 40-page perfect bound book with essays by film programmer Pearl Chan, martial arts historian Grady Hendrix (author of These Fists Break Bricks: How Kung Fu Movies Swept America and Changed the World) and filmmaker/fan Simon Barrett. The package has reversible cover artwork (see below).

Corey Yuen's Righting Wrongs is done to the nines here with this loaded Vinegar Syndrome Blu-ray package; 3 HD version/presentations of the film, three commentaries, the inclusion of the feature length documentary in 1080P; The Best of the Martial Arts Films, hours worth of new and archival interviews, a video essay and the 40-page book - all in a beautiful case with reversible cover artwork. I don't see how they could possibly do any more. Righting Wrongs is the one of Yuen Biao's best films made without film industry icons Jackie Chan and Sammo Hung. Wikipedia tells us that the film's original ending was met with a negative reception in Taiwan; because of this, Rothrock flew from Los Angeles to Hong Kong to re-shoot the ending for the Mandarin and international versions. This is a fun, wildly energetic martial arts film and fans of the genre will covet this fabulous Blu-ray release!

Gary Tooze

 


Menus / Extras

 

Blu-ray 2

Blu-ray 3


CLICK EACH BLU-RAY CAPTURE TO SEE ALL IMAGES IN FULL 1920X1080 RESOLUTION

 

1) Genius Products - Region 1 - NTSC TOP

2) Original Hong Kong Cut  Blu-ray  BOTTOM

 

1) Original Hong Kong Cut Blu-ray TOP

2)'Above the Law' English Cut Blu-ray MIDDLE

3) Mandarin Export cut Blu-ray BOTTOM

 

 


 

 


 

 


 

 


 

 


 

 


 

 


 

More full resolution (1920 X 1080) Blu-ray Captures for DVDBeaver Patreon Supporters HERE

 

 

 
Box Cover

CLICK to order from:

  

Bonus Captures:

Distribution Vinegar Syndrome - Region 'A' - Blu-ray


 


 

Search DVDBeaver

S E A R C H    D V D B e a v e r

 

Hit Counter

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

DONATIONS Keep DVDBeaver alive:

 CLICK PayPal logo to donate!

Gary Tooze

Thank You!