Hard Boiled opens with a tight shot of a tumbler being filled with tequila, which is then topped off with a mixer, and covered with a napkin. The drink is picked up and slammed against the tabletop, whereupon it fizzes and is quickly consumed by our hero, played by Chow Yun Fat. This is an amazingly taught image, and one that fits Chow's reputation as an icon of Hong Kong action cinema. But then, he picks up not a gun, but a clarinet, and begins to swing out with a jazz combo. A viewer could be forgiven for thinking that they walked into the wrong film. Is this a kinder, gentler Chow Yun Fat they're seeing? Where's the heroic bloodshed that one would expect from a Chow Yun Fat/John Woo collaboration?

Fear not. Just in case there is somebody reading this that has been living under a rock for the past fifteen years, Hard Boiled is John Woo's farewell to Hong Kong cinema, and as going away parties go, this is a drunken bacchanalia of bullets, bloodshed and brotherhood of epic proportions. While the director and star worked together frequently in the 1980's, Hard Boiled was the apotheosis of not only their collaboration, but of Hong Kong action cinema as a genre.

Indeed, any worries that Chow is getting soft are evaporated in the first five minutes of the film, when a gunfight between cops and Triad gunrunners erupts in a teahouse bedecked with birdcages. Here the image of the hero with a pistol in each hand, who never misses (nor needs to reload), is permanently seared into our collective imagination. Chow had been filmed with this aesthetic earlier, but never before had he looked so righteous, as he slides down a banister, pumping lead into a pair of villains without so much as loosing the toothpick he's been chewing on.

The plot is typical Woo: a pair of honorable men find themselves as adversaries in a society that is rapidly forgetting the meaning of the word, ultimately realizing that they are on the same side and uniting against a common enemy. Chow Yun Fat is Tequila, a shoot first-ask
questions later kind a cop on the trail of Triad arms dealers. Tony Leung Chiu Wai is Alan, a cold-blooded assassin who is not all he appears to be and trapped between his sense of loyalty and survival. Anthony Wong Chau San is Johnny Wong, the psychotic gang leader who's not above killing infants and cripples if it furthers his dominion. What begins as a cat-and-mouse game evolves into one gigantic action set piece after another until the climax at a hospital where Wong's operation is headquartered. This thrilling spectacle is a prolonged exercise in carnage (it lasts over forty minutes) that rivals the body count at the end of Peckinpah's The Wild Bunch.

All of the performances in Hard Boiled are top shelf. Chow Yun
Fat provides the right mix of Dirty Harry-esque intensity, tinged with vulnerability. Tony Leung Chiu Wai (who seems so young in this picture when compared to his more recent work with Wong Kar Wai) conveys more internal conflict with just his eyes than a dozen Shakespeare soliloquies; so much so that you can almost hear your heart breaking as you watch his performance. However, the actor that manages to steal the thunder from anybody sharing the frame with him is Shaw Brothers veteran Phillip Kwok (aka Cheung Jue Luh & Kwok Choi), who plays Mad Dog, Johnny Wong's ruthlessly murderous right-hand man. Every scene he's in is positively electric, adds a level of nuance and dignity to a role that could easily be over-hammed by a lesser actor. Even the stunt people, who pirouette gracefully with each exploding blood pack, are impeccable. John Woo didn't invent the bullet ballet with Hard Boiled, but he certainly hammered the nails in its coffin, since nobody has been able to top it, including himself (although to be fair, Face/Off comes really darn close).

But as with any John Woo picture (well at least the ones he made in Hong Kong anyway), the action is a vehicle to a larger pathos. Hard Boiled was Woo's reaction to the anger he felt at the prevailing nihilism in the face of the imminent handover of Hong Kong back to China. Lawlessness was rampant and many, especially the wealthy, were planning to leave before the handover in 1997. Hard Boiled opens with Tequila asking his partner if he was ever going to leave Hong Kong. "Hong Kong is my home", he replies. "I'll live and die in this town". Later, Alan begs his Triad boss Uncle Hoi to seriously consider leaving Hong Kong, knowing that he would either have to bust him, or kill him for his rival Johnny Wong. And despite making Woo's pathos so chunky you could eat it with a fork, it was fitting to end the climactic hospital siege in the nursery, where the future of Hong Kong needs to be protected from the Johnny Wongs of the world. Hard Boiled may be an over-the-top frenzy of an action film, but it was also Woo's expression of hope for a new Hong Kong, one liberated from the tyranny of mob rule.

Disc Presentation
The Dragon Dynasty release of Hard Boiled is presented in an anamorphic 1.85:1 aspect ratio, and the image is incomparably better than the Winstar release from 2000 which had the sheen of used dishwater, even with the bit of grain that is especially evident in low-light scenes. There is a slight bit of image cropping on this release, but to my eyes, Hard Boiled has never looked better. There are occasional moments where it's obvious that a few frames have gone missing, but the effect isn't too distracting, considering the perilous fate of most Hong Kong movies (most, if they weren't simply destroyed after conversion to home video, were stored in humid vaults in varying states of neglect). There are infrequent moments where less than optimal source material was used, but again, nothing intolerable.

The sound is presented in its original Cantonese with DTS, 5.1 and mono options. I can't speak to the DTS, but if it's anything like the 5.1, your system will get a good workout. The sound of gunfire has rarely sounded so sweet, and the mix also compliments Michael Gibbs propulsive soundtrack. The English dub laughably bad. I'm pretty sure it's the same dub used on the Winstar, but on this release, mixing it in 5.1 made it sound tinny, like everybody recorded their parts in a bathroom with an over-modulated microphone.

The English subtitles are actually dubtitles, as they are exactly the same as what's spoken on the English dub. Some viewers dislike this, as the dub is made to fit the mouth movements as closely as possible, while a subtitle is a closer interpretation to what is being spoken. The dubtitles on this release are more or less the same as what are on the Winstar release with a few exceptions. I've never seen the Criterion Collection version of this film, and I don't understand Cantonese in the slightest, so I can't raise too much of a ruckus on this issue. Since both earlier editions of Hard Boiled are now out-of-print, I guess it's a moot point. At the end of the day, the dubtitles get their point across adequately and should cause little frustration to all but the most fluently bilingual viewer. There are also options for English for the hard-of-hearing and Spanish.

Disc Extras
Again, Dragon Dynasty delivers some beefy extras for the fanboys. There is an audio commentary by the Weinstein Company's resident expert on Asian cinema Bey Logan. I've said it before on this site and I'll say it again: he is one of the most competent critics of Hong Kong cinema, and his commentary here reaffirms my claim. While Logan's commentary here often rehashes a lot of John Woo's commentary on the Winstar release, it often updates that information in light of current events. For example, customers no longer bring their birdcages to teahouses or restaurants because of the Avian Flu epidemic. It may not seem like much, but it does make the commentary a bit fresher. Plus, Logan makes some interesting observations on Woo's Hollywood output, and how his lack of an on-screen alter ego of Chow Yun Fat's caliber has hampered his artistic vision. Again, Logan occasionally veers into the needlessly personal on this commentary as he has in others, but either he's doing it less, or I'm getting used to it. Regardless, his love for the film is made abundantly clear in this commentary, and it truly enhances the viewing experience, especially for folks who don't have access to earlier commentaries made by Woo himself. Truth be told, Woo could be a bit wooden in his commentaries (most likely due to the language barrier) and it was often up to his producer Terrance Chang to prod him into conversation about the films under discussion.

There are also several interviews on the disc and they all either overlap each other in terms of the information given or repeat a lot of what was discussed in earlier commentaries. What's surprising is how long they are. Baptism of Fire: An Interview With Iconic Director John Woo is over a half-hour long, with Woo discussing the genesis of the film and his pride in the finished product. Partner In Crime: An Interview With Producer Terrance Chang clocks in at 24 minutes and he discusses not only his relationship with John Woo, but also the state of Hong Kong cinema circa 1991. Art Imitates Life: An Interview With Co-Star Phillip Chan is the most animated of the interviewees, recalling his days as a cop in Hong Kong and his transition into acting. Lastly there is Mad Dog Bites Again: An Interview With Leading Villain Kwok Choi, where Mad Dog discusses his days with Shaw Brothers, how he came to work with John Woo and how they came up with some of the amazing stunts presented in the film. In all, the interviews are interesting, but, as I mentioned earlier, they do tend to repeat a lot of the same information and on-set anecdotes. What would have worked better, in my opinion, would have been to have a Hard Boiled reunion, getting all of these folks, along with stars Chow, Leung and Wong, in the same room. That could have produced some unpredictable results.

The disc also includes the Hong Kong trailer and the Dragon Dynasty trailer for the film. The first lets the film do the talking, while the second suffers from DD's usual "when you're a cop on the edge" style of voiceover. There is also a short location guide to Hard Boiled hosted by Kea Wong. This, sadly, is fairly pointless, as most of the locations no longer exist. And, when our chipper hostess does get to a spot, it's shown for about a nanosecond before there is a cut to footage from the film. The last feature worth mentioning is an advertisement for a videogame sequel to Hard Boiled called Stranglehold. It may only be a commercial, but it manages to accomplish two things: it reminds the viewer of how influential the film has been on post-Playstation game development and it will light a fire under the ass of anybody who has been dragging their feet in buying the newest next generation game consoles.

Bottom Line
Whether you enjoy action films, or just solid filmmaking, Hard Boiled is a must-own. If you've held out paying outrageous sums for the Criterion Collection, your patience is finally being rewarded. It's a time capsule of a genre and filmmaker at their peak. While quantity doesn't equal quality in the extras department, it's nice to see the effort put into this release and Dragon Dynasty continues its excellent track record. It's nice to see that the Brothers Weinstein are finally treating the films in their vaults with this measure of respect.