by Anthony O'Connor
Worth: Discs: 3, The Film: 4.5/5, The Extras: 4/5, Overall: 8.5/10
FilmInk rates movies out of $20 — the score indicates the amount we believe a ticket to the movie to be worth
Cast:
Chow Yun-fat, Tony Leung Chiu-wai, Teresa Mo, Philip Chan, Philip Kwok, Anthony Wong
Intro:
… an absolute, unmissable classic.
The Film:
We’ve talked about the influence and legacy of John Woo before, but it bears repeating: the dude changed the action game. Thanks to films like A Better Tomorrow (1986), The Killer (1989) and Bullet in the Head (1990), the Hong Kong filmmaker formalised a new style of kinetic, bullet ballet action that continues to influence cinema to this day. However, it wasn’t until 1992’s Hard Boiled that Woo truly showed the extent of what he could do and launched one of the most lauded action movies of all time on a world that was scarcely prepared for it.
But friends, 1992 was a long-arse time ago (at least that’s what our calendars claim), so how does it fare in 2026, some 34 years later? Does this action classic maintain its lofty ranking or has time been as cruel to it as it has been to the rest of us?
Thanks to a brand-spanking new 4K edition, we can answer that question right now. Spoiler alert: this thing still slaps.
Hard Boiled is the tale of intense copper “Tequila” Yuen Ho-yan (Chow Yun-fat), who goes a bit berko after the death of his partner, Benny Mak (Bowie Lam), during a shootout. Not only does Tequila straight up murder the gangster who killed Benny, he makes it his personal mission to take down the whole damn gun-smuggling organisation responsible, one crook at a time.
Elsewhere, undercover cop Alan (Tony Leung Chiu-wai) is getting in deeper and deeper with the very mongrels Tequila wants to shitmix, setting up an unlikely and uneasy alliance as the pair struggle to suppress their mutual animosity and remember what’s important: shooting, like, hundreds of blokes in the face with their guns.
The plot of Hard Boiled functions less as a narrative and more as an excuse to set up a series of spectacular action set pieces. Hell, the last 45 minutes of the movie takes place in a hospital and basically ratchets up the stakes and tension to an outrageous degree, leading to a final explosion of ballistic insanity that truly needs to be seen to be believed. This is action filmmaking the likes of which we’ll never see again, before ubiquitous CGI and digital trickery, when all filmmakers had to rely on were stuntmen mad enough to do the gags, wire work and an absolute staggering surplus of chutzpah. This is wild, heady stuff and a real credit to the boundless creativity of everyone involved in the production.
Back in the ‘90s, the only way to see this film was either on horribly degraded VHS copies attained by dodgy means or via the many late night sessions at shonky inner city cinemas that very often smelled like beer and/or wee. In 2026, things have improved mightily, with 4K versions from both Imprint and Arrow available. Personal taste varies on which is superior, but the Imprint version features less colour correction and is likely closer to Woo’s original, gritty vision.
Regardless, any right-thinking cinephile who is even a casual action genre enjoyer needs to own a copy of this absolute barnstormer from John Woo.
The Extras:
A bullet riddled maternity ward’s worth of extra babies here, legacy and new ones alike. There are two new audio commentaries: one with John Woo and film journalist Drew Taylor, and another with film historian Frank Djeng. There’s also an older audio commentary with John Woo, producer Terence Chang, filmmaker Roger Avary and critic Dave Kehr.
In terms of featurettes, there’s Violent Night – a brand new interview with John Woo, Boiling Over – interview with actor Anthony Wong, No Time For Failure – interview with producer Terence Chang, Hard to Resist – interview with screenwriter Gordon Chan, Boiled to Perfection – interview with screenwriter Chung Hang Ku, Body Count Blues – interview with composer Michael Gibbs and Chewing the Fat – interview with film historian Lin Feng.
There are multiple legacy features including more interviews with Woo and various older featurettes, there’s the 131-minute Taiwanese cut of the movie and a bunch of deleted and extended scenes.
Best in show is, once again, Hong Kong Confidential – an interview with author Grady Hendrix as he gushes passionately about a film that he clearly loves. Plenty of interesting revelations here, including the fact that Hard Boiled was largely written on the fly, had its screenwriter die during the shoot and owes its best sequence in the hospital to the fact that Woo didn’t want his crew getting bored and decided to shoot the whole damn thing in one take to keep everyone sparky!
This is a fascinating treasure trove of extras for superfans of this unforgettable flick contained in a beautiful steelbook case which itself is in a hardbox bundled with a 60-page hardback booklet.
The Verdict:
Hard Boiled was John Woo’s final Hong Kong action film (he headed to the States the next year to direct Broken Arrow) and the final time he worked on a feature with Chow Yun-fat. It’s both a tearful farewell and victory lap by a director who changed the face of action cinema and then moved onto other stuff.
Presented here in a gorgeous 4K print with plenty of extras in a glorious hardbox, it’s the perfect way to have one of the best action flicks of all time sitting on your shelf looking at you coquettishly. Believe the hype, Hard Boiled remains an absolute, unmissable classic.
