Hard Boiled

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For the Frank Miller and Geof Darrow comic book, see Hard Boiled (comic). For the literary genre, see Hard boiled. For the food, see boiled eggs.

Hard Boiled
Hard Boiled Criterion Collection DVD cover
Directed by	John Woo
Produced by	Terrence Chang Linda Kuk
Written by	Barry Wong John Woo
Starring	Chow Yun-Fat Tony Leung Chiu Wai
Distributed by	Rim (USA dubbed version) Criterion Collection (DVD)
Release date(s)	April 16, 1992
Running time	126 min.
Language	Cantonese
Budget	$4,500,000 US (est.)
All Movie Guide profile
IMDb profile

Hard Boiled (Chinese: 辣手神探; pinyin: Làshǒu shéntàn; literally: Hot-Handed God of Cops) is a 1992 action film by director John Woo. It is also known as God of Guns (Traditional Chinese: 鎗神/槍神; Simplified Chinese: 枪神; pinyin: Qiāngshén). It is the last film Woo directed in his native Hong Kong before relocating to Hollywood.

The film begins as an apparently straightforward film about the bond between a cop and an undercover cop as they fight a triad gang. However, it develops into an over two hour action extravaganza, with a body count of 307. [1] It is structured around three major action setpieces: the opening teahouse shootout, the warehouse betrayal in the middle and the climactic thirty-minute hospital shootout.

[edit] Cast

• Chow Yun-Fat - Insp. Yuen (Tequila)
• Tony Leung - Tony (Alan)
• Teresa Mo - Teresa Chang
• Philip Chan - Supt. Pang
• Philip Kwok - Mad Dog
• Anthony Wong - Johnny Wong
• Bowie Lam - Benny/Ah Lung
• Bobby Au-Yeung - Lionheart
• Ng Shui Ting - Tequila's assistant
• Kwan Hoi-Shan - Mr. Hoi
• Tung Wei - Foxy

[edit] Responses

Hard Boiled opened on the same weekend as Jet Li and Tsui Hark's Once Upon a Time in China 2 and suffered for it. Hard Boiled grossed $19,711,048 HKD during its Hong Kong run.

Hard Boiled is considered one of the best heroic bloodshed movies of all time, and perhaps the definitive example, if only for the bloodshed.^{[citation needed]} It increased John Woo's and Chow Yun Fat's popularity outside Hong Kong, and gained a unique cult status among genre fans worldwide.^{[citation needed]}

[edit] Long take

Hard Boiled includes a famous action sequence in a burning hospital that is a single handheld camera long take lasting 2 minutes and 42 seconds in which Chow Yun-Fat and Tony Leung alternately fight off enemies in frantically choreographed action and engage in emotional dialogue, through many corridors and rooms spanning two levels of the hospital, including an intervening elevator ride. On the Criterion DVD, an entire chapter (appropriately titled "Two minutes, forty-two seconds") is devoted to this shot.

[edit] Legacy

John Woo is currently collaborating on a console game spin-off entitled Stranglehold, which features the character of Tequila. There are also rumors of an official sequel to the film, but Woo has stated that he will not direct it.^{[citation needed]}

[edit] Trivia

• The movie was referenced in Infernal Affairs (2002), not only with Tony Leung's character again playing a cop working undercover for the triads, but an obvious homage to the scene where Leung's character receives surveillance gear from his superintendent along with a birthday gift. The only difference being that in Hard Boiled Tony Leung receives a lighter and in Infernal Affairs he receives a watch. Also the superintendent from Infernal Affairs was played by Anthony Wong Chau Sang, the main villain of Hard Boiled.
• There is a Taiwanese DVD that includes a cut of the film that is 5 minutes longer, and features radically different editing in the final hospital section of the film, with a few more shots of the violence ensuing making up the extra footage.
• Though it was only referred to after its UK video release, the film Last Blood directed by Wong Jing starring Andy Lau is sometimes released or referred to under the title Hard Boiled 2: Last Blood (despite being released earlier than Hard Boiled).
• The title of the film (辣手神探) is part of the Chinese title for the Clint Eastwood film Dirty Harry (Chinese: 辣手神探夺命枪; pinyin: Làshǒu shéntàn duómìng qiāng; literally "Hot-Handed God of Cops Killer Gun").
• In the video game The Matrix: Path of Neo, the weapons training level is an exact replica of the opening teahouse shootout in this film, down to Neo wearing the same outfit as Chow Yun-Fat.
• The video game Max Payne contains several references to Hard Boiled, including Bullet Time, a slow motion mode, and many of the relentless action sequences are undeniably similar (a warehouse shootout, for example).
• The film is referenced in Prodigy's new music video, Mac 10 Handle. "By myself in my 4 cornered room, watching Hard-Boiled, I feel like I'm crazy."

[edit] Marketing

Japanese movie poster	U.S. poster used at arthouse movie theaters.	First Hong Kong DVD from Mei Ah, a flipper disc.	Remastered Mei Ah DVD, released 2 and a half years after the first release. It comes in a slip case and is no longer a flipper disc.
Fox Lorber / Win Star Region 1 DVD, released either in 2000 or 2001 after the Criterion DVD went out of print. (now out of print)

[edit] See also

• Heroic bloodshed
• Cinema of Hong Kong

[edit] External links

• Hard Boiled at the Internet Movie Database
• Criterion Collection essay by Barbara Scharres
• Movie Body Counts Site where the film is broken into sections

[edit] Notes

^  After A Better Tomorrow (1986) ("A god is someone who controls his destiny.") and God of Gamblers (1989)