-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
                             Hard Boiled (1992)
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

STARS...........: Chow Yun-Fat, Tony Chiu-Wai Leung, Teresa Mo
DIRECTOR........: John Woo
WRITERS.........: John Woo, Barry Wong, Gordon Chan
GENRE...........: Action, Crime, Thriller
IMDB............: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0104684
RUNTIME.........: 2h 07mn
SIZE............: 8.96 GB
VIDEO CODEC.....: HEVC (Main10@L4)
BITRATE.........: 8500 Kbps (2-pass)
RESOLUTION......: 1920x1080
ASPECT RATIO....: 1.78:1
FRAMERATE.......: 23.976 fps
AUDIO1..........: Cantonese AC3 5.1 640kbps [Dragon Dynasty]
AUDIO2..........: Cantonese AC3 2.0 Mono 192kbps [Laserdisc]
AUDIO3..........: English AC3 5.1 448kbps [Dragon Dynasty]
AUDIO4..........: Commentary by John Woo, Terence Chang, Roger Avery, Dave Kehr
AUDIO5..........: Commentary by Hong Kong cinema expert Bey Logan
AUDIO6..........: Commentary by John Woo and producer Terence Chang
SUBTITLES.......: ENG
SOURCE..........: Japanese/Dragon Dynasty Blu-ray, Criterion/HKvideo/Winstar DVD
ENCODE DATE.....: 2021-12-07


Hard-Boiled is the last film directed by Hong Kong action auteur John Woo before his arrival in the U.S. This 1992 thriller, along with The Killer, is widely seen as one of his best from his Hong Kong days. Every ingredient of the quintessential Woo thriller is present, including his ever-present anti-hero (Chow Yun-Fat). Yun-Fat portrays a maverick, clarinet-playing cop nicknamed "Tequila" whose partner is killed in the dizzying chaos of a restaurant gunfight with a small army of gangsters. It is soon revealed that one of the mob's high-ranking assassins is Tony (Tony Leung), an undercover cop who, despite his badge, is dangerously close to the edge. Tequila and Tony must team up in a tense partnership, and their common pursuit of a vicious crime lord results in a brilliantly elaborate climax in a hospital, where the heroes must rescue newborn babies from the maternity ward while fighting off dozens of mob soldiers. The characters Tequila and Tony are two sides of the same coin, another trademark theme of Woo's films that would later be most fully realized with Nicolas Cage and John Travolta in the American hit Face/Off.


Extras

• Making Of feature [HKVideo DVD]
• Interview with director John Woo [Dragon Dynasty Blu Ray]
• Interview of star Tony Leung [HKVideo DVD]
• Interview with producer Terence Chang [Dragon Dynasty DVD]
• Interview with star Philip Chan [Dragon Dynasty Blu Ray]
• Interview with star Kwok Choi [Dragon Dynasty Blu Ray]
• Hard Boiled Location Guide [Dragon Dynasty Blu Ray]
• Alternate opening scene [HKVideo DVD]
• John Woo's Student Film [Criterion DVD]
• Audio Commentary by John Woo, producer Terence Chang, filmmaker Roger Avery, and critic Dave Kehr [Criterion DVD]
• Audio Commentary by Hong Kong cinema expert Bey Logan [Dragon Dynasty Blu-ray]
• Audio Commentary by John Woo and producer Terence Chang [Winstar DVD]