Wednesday, May 6, 2009

Hard Boiled (Hong Kong Movie - 1992)

Trailer for 2008 DVD Re-release

Hard Boiled is the last Hong Kong film directed by John Woo, and is considered (without hyperbole) one of the most influential action films ever made. It is, without question one of the best action movies I have ever seen.

The plot (without giving away too much) is as follows: ultra cool cop Tequila (played by Chow Yun Fat and one of the best characters in movie history) in his pursuit of the Triads (the Hong Kong Mafia) crosses paths with Triad member Alan (Tony Leung, who also starred in Infernal Affairs) and almost kills him, but stops after finding out Alan is a member of the police, working undercover as a Triad member. The main crux of the story concerns Tequila trying to find the Triad's enormous weapon stash and trying to bring them down, and when it is found, the climatic scene of Tequila and Alan versus what feels like a million triad members in a hospital in a literally 40 minute action scene with millions of shots fired, a scene where he saves babies, and moments where you will swear you've seen things from other movies, and you have, because this scene inspired so many future movies and the iconic scenes in them, the moments between cop and his loved one before he leaves, the heroic sacrifice, the running from explosions, just on and on and on.

The only bad thing about this movie is it was so good that Hollywood immediately snatched up Chow Yun Fat and John Woo and ended what really was a golden age in Hong Kong cinema.

(The film is referenced in 2002's Infernal Affairs (which is the Hong Kong film which is remade in the US as The Departed) and clearly influenced that film. I will need to do an Infernal Affairs post fairly soon.)

There are some films that everyone should see and unless you are completely action movie averse Hard Boiled is one of them. Highest Recommendation possible.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hard_boiled - Wikipedia entry. As with all wikipedia movie entries tread lightly as they are plot heavy.

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