10 Things You Didn’t Know About Righting Wrongs
Vinegar Syndrome has been a real blessing for fans of “The Lady Dragon” Cynthia Rothrock, having released several titles starring Rothrock and even including Cynthia in their big New York Ninja restoration project.
While I anxiously await Vinegar Syndrome’s China O’Brien set, I thought I would pass the time diving into the special features included in another of their Cynthia Rothrock releases that is already in my collection, 1986’s Righting Wrongs.
After listening to the commentary track featuring Cynthia Rothrock, I learned things I never knew about Righting Wrongs and now I’ll share some of my new found knowledge with you as I present 10 Things You Didn’t Know About Righting Wrongs…
1. Cynthia Rothrock ended up on Golden Harvest’s radar after she was interviewed on World News Tonight with Peter Jennings and she mentioned an upcoming movie she would be filming in Hong Kong. Sammo Hung saw the interview and started to ask around about the movie Cynthia was referring to. It turns out Cynthia had signed on to do a movie with Ng See-Yuen at Seasonal Films, but Golden Harvest stepped in, bought Cynthia’s contract from Seasonal and put her in Yes, Madame! with Michelle Yeoh. Yes, Madame! was such a big hit, Golden Harvest immediately signed Cynthia to a three picture deal.
2. The first movie in that new deal ended up being Righting Wrongs, however according to Cynthia that was not the initial plan. Cynthia was set to be a part of Armour of God with Jackie Chan. However, Jackie Chan’s head injury while filming caused production to halt and that delay opened up the door for Rothrock to be re-assigned to Righting Wrongs with Yuen Biao. Rothrock mentioned what would have been her role in Armour of God ended up going to Linda Henley.
3. Righting Wrongs was shot in 5 1/2 months with everyone usually putting in 14 to 16 hour days on set.
4. Cynthia considers Righting Wrongs one of her best films and Yuen Biao as her favorite on-screen opponent. Cynthia credits the fact that she and Yuen Biao had similar timing, fluidity and speed… Cynthia noted she wouldn’t mind reuniting with Yuen Biao for a Righting Wrongs 2.
5. Prior to filming Righting Wrongs, Cynthia blew out the ACL on her right leg while doing a jumping hook kick at her martial arts school. Since her right leg is her kicking leg, Cynthia had to tape up her right knee and switch things up and kick with her left leg in Righting Wrongs or in this case more like Lefting Wrongs, amirite?
6. Despite being rivals in the world of martial arts competitions and not on the friendliest of terms personally, it was Cynthia who suggested Karen Shepherd for the movie since they were looking for a female fighter proficient in the steel whip and Cynthia knew that was Karen’s specialty. The two ended up burying the hatchet over the course of filming and Karen is now somebody Cynthia considers a friend.
7. Speaking of Karen Shepherd, she had no idea her character dies in the movie until she actually sat down and watched Righting Wrongs for the first time. This is because a stunt man was used for the big fall her character takes at the end of her epic fight scene with Cynthia’s Sandy Jones. The last thing Karen actually shot was her running away from Sandy.
8. While on the subject of falls, Yuen Biao actually hurt his back when he jumped off the second story balcony to the ground below after his character tangles with Sandy Jones for the first time. While Yuen Biao was insistent on doing all of his own stunts, the producers drew a line at the big airplane plunge at the end of the film.
9. The physical Hong Kong action style took its toll on everyone, but Cynthia only had one minor injury and it came during the hangar fight when she was supposed to get choked out by a chain, but the chain ended up catching her in the nose, causing her nose to swell up temporarily. Cynthia noted that she did 90% of her stunts in Righting Wrongs.
10. Righting Wrongs famously has two endings. Cynthia said she actually liked the fact that the original ending saw her character and Yuen Biao’s characters perish, since it was something different. But Cynthia was in the minority there. Early audience reactions to the original ending was hugely negative and Cory Yuen called Cynthia back in to reshoot the film’s finale giving it an ending that would send audience’s home happy.
