Hong Kong Synopsis
“He's a cop who believes no one is above the law.”
Nico Toscani is an Italian immigrant, American patriot, ex-CIA agent, aikido specialist and unorthodox Chicago policeman. He is as committed to his job as he is to his personalized brand of justice—expert and thorough bone-crushing.
Audience Engagement
608 audience reviews — more than 95% of Hong Kong films in our index.
Popularity sits at the 93th percentile among Hong Kong films.
Titles With Overlapping Themes
Films and series that share thematic tags with Above the Law. Number on each card indicates how many keywords overlap.
Other Titles From Warner Bros. Pictures
Action + Thriller in Hong Kong
121 Hong Kong titles in our catalog blend the Action and Thriller genres. Below: the top-rated of them (excluding Above the Law itself).
The 1987–1989 Hong Kong Window
In the crowded 1987-1989 Hong Kong release window, Above the Law sits at #41 of 55. The leaderboard below contextualises its neighbours.
The 1980s Hong Kong Landscape
Catalog density by release year across the 1980s in Hong Kong, 151 titles in total. Highlighted year (yellow) is when Above the Law premiered alongside 18 others.
Budget & Box Office Efficiency
At a 1h 39m runtime, production spent $76K per minute on screen and earned $191K per minute back.
Position in Catalog
Released alongside 18 other Hong Kong films in 1988.
The 250th Hong Kong title from Hong Kong we index (earliest catalogued entry: 1955).
Our Hong Kong catalog contains 836 titles in total (828 films).
Thematic Fingerprint
Tags on Above the Law, grouped by how common each theme is across the full Asian catalog. Rare tags are more distinctive signals.
- chicago · 2
- illinois · 2
- senator · 1
- corruption · 29
- torture · 26
- cop · 13
- cia · 12
- vietnam · 11
- drug lord · 10
- martial arts · 369
Reception Benchmarks
Ranked #513 of 836 Hong Kong films indexed here (39th percentile by TMDB audience score).
Among Hong Kong Action productions specifically: #338 of 516 (top 66%).
Production Details
| Primary Country | Hong Kong |
|---|---|
| All Production Countries | Hong Kong, United States of America |
| Original Language | En |
| Spoken Languages | English, Spanish |
| Production Companies | Warner Bros. Pictures |
| Runtime | 1h 39m |
| Release Date | April 8, 1988 |
| IMDb | tt0094602 |