Hard Boiled, 1992.
Directed by John Woo.
Starring Chow Yun-Fat, Anthony Wong, Tony Leung, Teresa Mo, Philip Chan, Phillip Kwok, and John Woo.
SYNOPSIS:
A tough maverick cop and an undercover agent team up to take down a ruthless Triad gang leader.
Often cited as the definitive Hong Kong action movie, inspiring the likes of The Raid, The Matrix, John Wick and countless other action movies since its original release in 1992, Hard Boiled makes its way to 4K UHD via Arrow Video with a plethora of extras and gorgeous packaging, but is it still the gold standard when it comes to adrenaline-filled excitement?
Inspector ‘Tequila’ Yen (Chow Yun-Fat) is a tough cop who doesn’t always play by the rules, but he always gets results. After a shoot-out in a tea house that involved the murder of his partner and the execution of the chief suspect, Tequila has a shouting match with his superior, Chief Superintendent Pang (Philip Chan), who wanted to take the suspect alive, but Tequila is now after Triad boss Johnny Wong (Anthony Wong), an arms trafficker who is known to be hiding a huge stash of weapons somewhere in the city.
Wong has poached Alan Long (Tony Leung) from a rival Triad gang, forcing the young assassin to kill his former boss to prove his loyalty, but Long is really an undercover agent placed there by Pang without Tequila’s knowledge. With the hot-headed Tequila and the deep undercover Long both trying to take Wong down, the two must team up and take on the might of the Triads once they locate the weapons stash, which is hidden underneath the local hospital.
A relatively straightforward plot that manages to avoid many of the complications that double-cross-based stories tend to get bogged down with, Hard Boiled keeps things flowing with economical writing and easily identifiable characters. Oh, and don’t forget the action, because when it comes to bullets flying, vehicles exploding and all manner of brutal combat this movie still hits hard.
It could be argued that Hard Boiled doesn’t have a lot of character depth, that Tequila is a typical cop-on-the-edge, Pang is a stereotypical shouty police chief and Wong is a villain just because he is, but to have gone any deeper with those traits would have meant taking away from the kinetic direction that John Woo employs, making each scene clear and concise as to who is doing what to whom before dazzling you with gritty violence. That said, there are brief moments of humour that make Tequila a bit more relatable – such as his dubious relationship with a female colleague, that pays off to some degree – and whilst a bit more background on Wong might have made him a little less likeable – because, try as he might, Anthony Wong cannot not be endearing and is always an engaging presence – we know he is a psychopath and must be put down at all costs.
The final shoot-out in the hospital is where everything comes together and John Woo takes no prisoners as he barely lets his actors pause for breath. With Wong taking the patients’ and staff hostage – including several newborn babies – and Tequila and Long trapped deep inside the hospital in the hidden morgue with Wong’s chief assassin Mad Dog (Phillip Kwok), the action is intense and gloriously OTT, culminating in a five-minute single take set piece, which was really done to reduce filming/setup time rather than for any artistic merits but it works tremendously well, adding another layer to an already exciting and memorable finale.
Presented in 4K UHD Dolby Vision and HDR10, Hard Boiled has never looked so vibrant. Remember, this is a movie from 1992 and shot on film with a softer look so it isn’t going to be as sharp and clear as a modern, digitally-shot movie, but the neon pinks still pop and the finer details are all there, even down to the markings on Tequila’s shotgun, and as for the explosions? Well, CGI and Health & Safety on film sets have come a long way in the past 30-or-so years but nothing can replace the warming glow of a real fire – especially when it is Chow Yun-Fat causing it – and it all looks fantastic.
Accompanying the main feature is a standard Blu-ray disc chock-full of extras, mainly consisting of new interviews with the likes of John Woo, Anthony Wong and several crew members and academics, plus archival interviews with Woo and Chow Yun-Fat, and you also get a double-sided poster featuring the original artwork and the fantastic new artwork by Tony Stella, art cards, a collector’s booklet featuring essays and an interview with John Woo, all housed in a stunning rigid slipcase.
So yes, Hard Boiled does still hold up when it comes to adrenaline-filled excitement. After this movie, John Woo went to Hollywood and made the JCVD classic Hard Target before going on to direct Broken Arrow, Face-Off and Mission: Impossible II, all of which are successful and credible movies but were artistically beholden to the American studio system, the raw style he demonstrated with Hard Boiled something of a sign-off to his Hong Kong career and a benchmark he never quite hit again, despite returning to China in 2008 to make the two-part historical epic Red Cliff. Nevertheless, Hard Boiled remains his peak, cementing John Woo’s reputation, making an international star out of Chow Yun-Fat (both would go on to make the videogame Stranglehold in 2007 as a sequel to this movie) and is quite simply one of the greatest action movies ever made.
Flickering Myth Rating – Film: ★ ★ ★ ★ / Movie: ★ ★ ★ ★ ★
Chris Ward
