[NeoFilmShop.com] Hard Boiled (1992) – Hong Kong

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Billed as director John Woo’s final Hong Kong action film before embarking his Hollywood journey in the early 1990s, Hard Boiled is filled with extravagant and over the top gun fights and explosions. Famous for unlimited guns blazing without the need for reloading and Chow Yun Fat holding a baby with a shot gun. This is the ultimate action blockbuster local production that we will most probably never witness again.

Chow Yun Fat plays the hard boiled cop who is out to avenge the death of his mate at the tea house shoot out. Hot on the heels of the villainous crime boss played by Anthony Wong, Chow eventually teams up with undercover cop Tony Leung Chiu Wai. Leung lifts his game above genre conventions and his conflicted emotions is beautifully captured in the scene where Wong forced him to kill his former boss. Loyalty and police duty as well as constantly living in the darkness are inner emotions that Leung ended up displaying. He will later reprise a similar award winning role in Infernal Affairs.
However, the star attraction is clearly Chow Yun Fat and his on screen charisma which translate through extremely well especially in the final extended hospital shoot out. A film without white dove flying around is not a true John Woo film and we get plenty. Hard Boiled is one of those all time cult classic that is not only review proofed, but a step above anything the genre have tried to give us. Woo showed the world what can be accomplished with creative freedom. Hong Kong used to make this kind of films and we should be proud of it.

I rated it 5/5

Reviewed by Andrew Chan

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