HARD BOILED (Hong Kong, 1992)
Directed by: John Woo
Starring: Chow Yun-fat, Tony Leung, Anthony Wong, Philip Kwok

What can be said about HARD BOILED? Possibly the most influential action movie ever made, John Woo’s farewell to Hong Kong cinema is a massive, go-for-broke film about one tough cop named Tequila (Chow Yun-fat) and an undercover cop whose job has destroyed his soul (Tony Leung). From its opening fight in a teahouse (featuring Chow Yun-fat’s now-famous slide down the banister, big blazing guns in each fist) to its fiery finale in a hospital, HARD BOILED will serve as a crib sheet for action filmmakers for decades to come.

Woo’s last movie before going to Hollywood, everything about HARD BOILED is a tribute to Hong Kong and Hong Kong movies, a city and a way of filmmaking that are now gone with the wind. Originally about a psycho played by Tony Leung who was poisoning baby formula, rumor has it that Chow Yun-fat begged Woo to re-write the movie in order for it not to tar Leung with the “psycho” brush so early in his career. Woo agreed and the script was re-written a mere week before shooting began. The famous, unbroken two minute and forty-five second shot of Tony Leung and Chow Yun-fat blowing away their opponents while running through a busy hospital (including a relaxing elevator ride in the middle of their gunfight) was improvised on the set that day because the crew was getting bored. Stunt choreographer and henchman, Mad Dog, is played by Philip Kwok, one of Shaw Brothers’ Five Venoms, the legendary martial arts team that starred in dozens of martial arts movies in the 70’s. Even the opening teahouse shoot-out took place in a famous old teahouse that was demolished five days after its scenes were wrapped.

To celebrate the release of the sequel to HARD BOILED, Midway’s video game “John Woo Presents Stranglehold” come on down and watch Woo’s personal print of his now-classic farewell film, a movie that reminds you of the days when Chow Yun-fat was a god and John Woo was putting things onscreen that no one had ever seen before.