Disc Reviews
Hard Boiled 4k Review
Arguably, John Woo and Chow Yun Fat’s crowning hour, Hard Boiled, was one of the lynchpins of Hong Kong action cinema that made its way over to the UK in the early 90s when audiences welcomed foreign cinema with hungrier eyes. This wasn’t period dramas about ancient China, this was modern action on a level that made Hollywood blush with embarrassment. There was a very kinetic style to the action and direction of these movies – who cares if they had subtitles or poor English dubbing – what was “on” the screen is what counted, and it was head and shoulders above the majority of what the West was capable of.
So, Hard Boiled is very good! Too good in fact, there hasn’t been much that has come along since it that has been its equal, which is the sad history of action cinema.
Chow Yun Fat plays hardened detective Tequila, who’s relentlessly chasing the Hong Kong mob. Orders don’t seem to mean much to this guy, but walking up to the bad guys in the street in the middle of the day and full-on punching their lights out is fair play to him (he actually does this in one scene!). The other side of the tale comes from Tony Leung’s more mysterious hitman – working for the mob, with his loyalties torn between two warring gangs and the person who handles him. Both of these men are ticking time bombs and are on a collision course, and when they do finally collide on screen, the results are magic and very explosive.
John Woo directed the ever-living s***! out of this film and has secured his place as one of Hong Kong’s best, and one of their primary exports in the 1990s. Next stop was 1993’s Hard Target, which saw him team up with Van Damme, earning it a cult brand. But there is also plenty of Hong Kong action before this film, and by the looks of it, we are going to be getting some of it soon, starting with The Killer (also Woo and Fat).
The bonus material is very impressive. Two archival commentary tracks and two brand new tracks. John Woo is on three of them, so he has a lot of love and pride for this film. And everyone has a lot to say about these films. The more recent commentary is perhaps the weakest as Woo isn’t quite as on the ball, but he’s still chatty with the moderator. But 4 commentaries are hardly something to sneer at.
There is some deleted material, trailers and images on disc one as well, and then the rest of the extras are on the second disc. John Woo shows up again in a new interview, and there are further new interviews with the screenwriters, composer and even bad guy actor Anthony Wong.
Beyond the filmmakers, there are also interviews with experts on the genre to further fatten up the text.
Fat and Leung show up in some of the archival interviews, which is a shame as their thoughts today would have been nice to hear, but as with the rest of the package, this is a very decent effort and should keep the die hardest of fans pretty damn happy.
Quite frankly, had this been a bare bones edition, then it would still be worth it because the picture is phenomenally better than previous editions. I have seen the film on VHS (it looked shocking), I’ve seen it on DVD (Still shocking”, and even on Blu-ray “Still nothing to get impressed about). Here, the film looks so much better than it ever has. It’s clear without losing the grain.
Sound, I always say, is an issue when most or all of it has to be replaced by Foley work and dubbing. I’m actually fairly surprised that the sound work on this one isn’t as bad as I expected it to be. It’s not great, but I feared the worst.
The words “SOLD OUT” spring to mind very quickly for the box set edition of this film. I pre-ordered mine, did you?
Steven Hurst
4K ULTRA HD BLU-RAY LIMITED EDITION CONTENTS
• Reversible sleeve featuring original and newly commissioned artwork by Tony Stella
• Double-sided foldout poster featuring original and newly commissioned artwork by Tony Stella
• Collectors’ booklet featuring new writing on the film by Priscilla Page and archival writing and an interview with John Woo by Stéphane Moïssakis
• Six postcard-sized artcards
DISC ONE – FEATURE AND EXTRAS (4K ULTRA HD BLU-RAY)
• 4K Ultra HD (2160p) Blu-ray presentation in Dolby Vision (HDR10 compatible)
• Original lossless Cantonese mono and Dolby Atmos audio, and English mono audio
• Optional newly translated English subtitles for the Cantonese soundtracks and optional English for the deaf and hard of hearing subtitles for the English soundtrack
• Brand new audio commentary with director John Woo and film journalist Drew Taylor
• Brand new audio commentary with film historian Frank Djeng
• Archival audio commentary with John Woo and producer Terence Chang
• Archival audio commentary with John Woo, Terence Chang, film critic Dave Kehr and filmmaker Roger Avary
• Deleted and extended scenes
• Original trailers
• Image gallery
DISC TWO – EXTRAS (BLU-RAY)
• Violent Night, a brand new interview with John Woo
• Boiling Over, a brand new interview with actor Anthony Wong
• No Room for Failure, a brand new interview with Terence Chang
• Hard To Resist, a brand new interview with screenwriter Gordon Chan
• Boiled to Perfection, a brand new interview with screenwriter Chan Hing-Ka
• Body Count Blues, a brand new interview with composer Michael Gibbs
• Hong Kong Confidential: Inside Hard Boiled, a brand new interview with author and Hong Kong cinema expert Grady Hendrix
• Gun-Fu Fever, a brand new interview with author Leon Hunt
• Chewing the Fat, a brand new interview with academic Lin Feng
• American Cinematheque 2025 Q&A with John Woo
• The Test of Time, an archival documentary featuring interviews with John Woo, Terence Chang, editor David Wu and actor/stunt coordinator Philip Kwok
• Archival interviews with actors Chow Yun-Fat and Tony Leung
LIMITED EDITION BLU-RAY CONTENTS
• Reversible sleeve featuring original and newly commissioned artwork by Tony Stella
• Double-sided foldout poster featuring original and newly commissioned artwork by Tony Stella
• Collectors’ booklet featuring new writing on the film by Priscilla Page and archival writing and an interview with John Woo by Stéphane Moïssakis
• Six postcard-sized artcards
DISC ONE – FEATURE AND EXTRAS
• High Definition (1080p) Blu-ray presentation
• Original lossless Cantonese mono and Dolby Atmos audio, and English mono audio
• Optional newly translated English subtitles for the Cantonese soundtracks and optional English for the deaf and hard of hearing subtitles for the English soundtrack
• Brand new audio commentary with director John Woo and film journalist Drew Taylor
• Brand new audio commentary with film historian Frank Djeng
• Archival audio commentary with John Woo and producer Terence Chang
• Archival audio commentary with John Woo, Terence Chang, film critic Dave Kehr and filmmaker Roger Avary
• Deleted and extended scenes
• Original trailers
• Image gallery
DISC TWO – EXTRAS
• Violent Night, a brand new interview with John Woo
• Boiling Over, a brand new interview with actor Anthony Wong
• No Room for Failure, a brand new interview with Terence Chang
• Hard To Resist, a brand new interview with screenwriter Gordon Chan
• Boiled to Perfection, a brand new interview with screenwriter Chan Hing-Ka
• Body Count Blues, a brand new interview with composer Michael Gibbs
• Hong Kong Confidential: Inside Hard Boiled, a brand new interview with author and Hong Kong cinema expert Grady Hendrix
• Gun-Fu Fever, a brand new interview with author Leon Hunt
• Chewing the Fat, a brand new interview with academic Lin Feng
• American Cinematheque 2025 Q&A with John Woo
• The Test of Time, an archival documentary featuring interviews with John Woo, Terence Chang, editor David Wu and actor/stunt coordinator Philip Kwok
• Archival interviews with actors Chow Yun-Fat and Tony Leung
Hard Boiled is out on 4K Blu-Ray March 30th