Rating: **
Review Date: 10/16/99
Alternate Titles: Above The Law 2, Lady Reporter
Producer: Samo Hung, Corey Yuen Kwai
Director: Mung Hoi
Cast: Cynthia Rothrock, Chin Siu Ho, Mung Hoi, Billy Chow, Ronnie Yu,
Roy Chiao, Wu Ma, Melvin Wong, Jeffrey Falcon
Only very loosely considered a sequel, assuming of course that you saw the international version of "Righting Wrongs" (1986) where Cynthia Rothrock DIDN'T get killed. Unlike Corey Yuen's excellent original film, this is a nonsensical and laughably stupid action comedy that suffers horribly from poor direction and lame-brained comedic pratfalls. Ronnie Yu (yes, that Ronnie Yu) is a nasty villain who is printing counterfeit American money in Hong Kong, and FBI agent Cynthia Rothrock is assigned to the case posing as a newspaper reporter. While in Hong Kong, she teams up with another reporter (sheepish Mung Hoi) and an arrogant cop (Chin Siu Ho), and wacky high jinks ensue. Eventually, they manage to crack the case and send poor Ronnie off a cliff.
This is an excellent example of "make it up as you go" filmmaking, with an extremely disjointed and confusing story. The continuity suffers as well, with my favorite continuity glitch being that Cynthia's hair style and color changes radically between and within scenes. To her credit, Ms. Rothrock takes the comedic tone of the film and hams it up to full effect, and her fight scenes range from good to very good. Unfortunately, the film doesn't seem to take her character very seriously, and her fight scenes all seem to have an element of the absurd in them. She is also seriously outclassed by Chin Siu Ho and Billy Chow, and their vicious exchange in the middle of the film offers the film's biggest pay-off. Nice work, gentlemen. Overall, the film is a disappointment, but it did (unintentionally) make me bust out laughing on several occasions, and Cynthia Rothrock fans will delight at seeing her bubble bath and pillow fight scenes.