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No Steven Seagal here, just the hard-hitting action of the justice system! Above the Law is a violence happy film about a dead-eye prosecutor who’s handy with a pistol and his hands and feet, and he’s out to find justice! Seriously. Intermixing bits of foreign silly-humor with hard hitting action and a strong plot (seriously) this movie has a following for all the right reasons.

Now, by serious plot, I may be stretching slightly. The premise is solid. In a corrupt justice system what must one do to achieve justice? When the law is abused to protect the guilty, what can the innocent do? That is solid. The answer the movie finds, less solidly, is have a tough as nails prosecutor with a full arsenal of ass-kick in his briefcase take the law into his own hands and kill those who evade justice.

Cynthia Rothrock co-stars as an English Detective on the trail of our prosecutor (Yuen Biao) who she believes to be another criminal, no matter who he’s killing. Biao and Rothrock have a great on-screen flow and their fight sequence is the best in the film.

Our main villain is the recognizable and frightening Melvin Wong, who is awesome as always. We get a few side characters thrown in for comic relief, though you won’t be laughing much because the plot is often dead serious and tragic. If you took out the few silly parts this would be on the level of The Departed if The Departed was a film about karate. Heh. Seriously, it’s not kid stuff in this film.

Dragon Dynasty is the company behind this DVD release and as always they turn in a good product. The picture and audio are both good, the subtitles are well transcribed and the dubbing isn’t even that bad. Funnily enough, Cynthia Rothrock is dubbed on both audio tracks.

For extras we get a few interviews, some alternate endings, and some commentary. Bottomline is if you like imported cinema, this is a good one. Check it out.