Hard-Boiled (1992)

Film: Hard-Boiled

Director: John Woo

Country: Hong Kong

Released: April 1992

Runtime: 128 minutes

Genre: Action

Studio: Golden Princess

Influenced: Tarantino, Robert Rodriguez, Woo-Ping Yuen, Guy Ritchie, The Wachowskis, Zack Snyder

Chinese-born, Hong Kong-based director John Woo started out in the country's thriving martials arts movie genre in the 70s but found his niche a decade later in the 80s with a new style of over-the-top action crime drama. Woo's breakthrough movie was A Better Tomorrow (1986), an innovative new genre of action thriller dubbed "heroic bloodshed" for its stylised action sequences and themes of brotherhood and honour. Instead of kung fu, the films featured "gun fu", a new style of close-quarters fighting that combined slow-motion gunplay and hand-to-hand combat. Hard-Boiled was a culmination of Woo's "heroic bloodshed" period and his long collaboration with Chow Yun-Fat, including the internationally successful The Killer (1989) and the critically-panned Once A Thief (1991). Hard-Boiled not only took the action element to another level, most notably its 40-minute hospital sequence, but it was also a more morally complex film and less in thrall to the gangsters it portrayed.

The film revolves around Inspector Tequila (Chow Yun-Fat), a tough-as-nails cop in Hong Kong, who is determined to take down a notorious criminal triad syndicate headed by Johnny Wong (Anthony Wong). Tequila is told at one point by the bartender (played by John Woo himself) in the jazz club where he likes to hang out that he was a sensitive type in college who has become hardened by his experiences as a cop. Hard boiled, you might say. Tequila's pursuit of justice leads him deeper into a violent world of crime and corruption, where he forms an unlikely alliance with Alan (Tony Leung), an undercover cop embedded within Wong's criminal organisation. Woo creates such a cool introduction for Leung's character, driving through the streets of Hong Kong in a red sports car, and we see the ruthless side to Alan's character in the way he kills his targets and turns on his former boss, Uncle Hoi.

In Hard-Boiled, Woo's signature "bullet ballet" style is on full display, featuring intricate gunfights, dual-wielding pistols and dramatic slow-motion sequences. The stylised 90s action movie editing and jazzy music makes the film feel dated, but that's only because Woo pioneered a new style that was mimicked widely throughout the decade. Standard police drama tropes, like detective Tequila eating badly (in this case, McDonald's) while inspecting the crime scene, are part of a long film noir tradition, going back to groundbreaking directors like Fritz Lang, Howard Hawks and Jean-Pierre Melville. Woo was clearly influenced by the western genre too, especially his use of the "Mexican standoff", a tense confrontation where multiple characters point guns at each other simultaneously. This motif has since become a staple of the action movie genre. Hard-Boiled's climax features an iconic 30-minute hospital shootout, which is often cited as one of the greatest action scenes in cinematic history. It was filmed in an actual hospital in Hong Kong and many of the props used were real medical equipment.

To create a sense of authenticity and tension, the movie relied heavily on practical effects, including live ammunition, blood squibs and meticulously coordinated stunts. Hard-Boiled received critical acclaim and garnered several awards and nominations, including Best Actor for Chow Yun-Fat at the Taiwan Golden Horse Awards (1992) and Best Action Choreography and Best Editing at the Hong Kong Film Awards (1993). Chow Yun-Fat's portrayal of Tequila solidified his status as an action superstar and, like John Woo and Tony Leung, he would go on to have a successful career in Hollywood. Over the years, Hard-Boiled has gained a cult following and is often cited as the high point of the action movie genre. While some may prefer Woo's more poetic early films like The Killer, or even his more outlandish, high-concept later movies like Face/Off (1997), I just don't think anything Woo did beats Hard-Boiled for its consistency and kick-ass finale.