Hard Boiled

Hard Boiled (1992)

Director: John Woo

Writers: John Woo (story), Barry Wong (screenplay), Gordon Chan (screenplay)

Cast: Chow Yun-Fat, Tony Chiu-Wai Leung, Teresa Mo, Phillip Chan, Phillip Chung-Fung Kwok, Anthony Chau-Sang Wong, Hoi-San Kwan, Wei Tung, Bowie Lam, Meng Lo, John Woo

Synopsis:

Inspector Tequila (Yun-Fat) is a hard-nosed Hong Kong detective who loses his partner in a shootout with a group of gun smugglers. The loss of his partner devastates the detective, who becomes focused on bringing the Triads to justice. However, his superior, Superintendant Pang (Chan), wants Tequila to back off the investigation because there's more going on than he realizes. Seeking only vengeance for his lost partner, Tequila ignores his orders and wages a one-man war against the Triads, during which he encounters Alan (Leung), a high-level Triad enforcer in the employ of the notorious Johnny Wong (Wong). The pair start as bitter rivals, but Tequila learns that there is more to Alan than meets the eye, and they eventually team up to stop Wong's illegal activities. 

First Impressions:

This film never got anywhere near a cinema where I lived, so I didn't get to see it in theaters. I didn't see it until it reached home video a couple years later. It was not a movie that I usually would have been interested in at the time, as foreign language films held no interest for me. However, my brother had seen and was constantly talking up how cool the movie was and kept trying to get me to watch it. I had previously seen Hard Target and enjoyed it, so my brother used the fact that both films were directed by the same dude to convince me to give it a try. I enjoyed the film immensely upon first viewing. While I wasn't too concerned with things like story and soundtrack at the time, I thought the action was over-the-top and wild, which appealed to my teenage brain. It's a film I go back to every now and then but not too often as I have to be in the right frame of mind (not a huge fan of subtitles). It's been many years since I last saw it, and I'm interested to see if it holds up. 

Story/Direction:  

"Give a guy a gun, he thinks he's Superman. Give him two and he thinks he's God."

The story here was tough for me to judge. Whenever one watches a film performed in another language, the plot and the characterization can often suffer due to translation issues. I don't speak Cantonese, so I can't judge the quality of the translation, but it seemed to result in a lot of corny dialogue, and I'm assuming some concepts were glossed over because they have to keep the subtitles on pace with the conversation. Fortunately, Hard Boiled isn't a high-concept film like Woo's American films at the time like Hard Target or Face/Off. It's really just a standard crime thriller set in Hong Kong, and it uses many of the same tropes we see in Western films of the genre. Honestly, though, one doesn't watch a John Woo film for the story; they watch it for the bonkers action sequences and gunplay ballet, which this film has in spades.

From a directorial standpoint, Woo does a few things that look a little weird to a Western viewer. I'm not sure if these things were common in Asian cinema at the time, but they induced a few chuckles from me. The most noticeable was Woo's tendency to freeze-frame right before a cut, holding on to a character's face for a second or two and then shifting to a new scene. It was a tad jarring for me, and I thought it was a little silly, but that may have been all the rage in early-90s Hong Kong action fare. The story moves along at a brisk pace, and there isn't a lot of downtime. There's also no time for a tacked-on romantic sub-plot, which helps the pacing move along. All-in-all it's not exactly an award-winning story, but it serves the action well enough and isn't terribly ridiculous. 

Acting/Characters:

Again, the acting was difficult to judge for me because it's hard to keep an eye on the actors when you're reading subtitles simultaneously. That being said, I think Chow Yun-Fat is a pretty awesome hero. It's a shame he never quite took off in Hollywood because he's such a great combination of coolness and intensity. As Tequila, Yun-Fat is abrasive and aggressive, not unlike Martin Riggs from the Lethal Weapon series, except maybe not as affable. It would be easy in a film like this, with all of the insane action going on, to play the character more tongue-in-cheek, but Yun_fat plays Tequila completely straight, which serves the film better.

I also enjoyed Tony Leung's performance as the conflicted Alan, and it's a fantastic counter-performance to Yun-Fat's. While Tequila wears his heart on his sleeve and is absolute in his convictions, Alan is more conflicted, which has to be conveyed subtly. Leung does an excellent job showing the audience that conflict is a good performance overall.

The rest of the cast does alright, I think. But, again, it's hard for me to judge entirely, but, again, I'm not watching a John Woo movie for the acting.

Visuals/Action:

There is not much more than the standard explosions, gunfire, and blood-filled squibs as far as special effects go. Therefore, I'm not going to dwell too much on the visual effects.

On the other hand, there is plenty of action, most of which is incredibly well-done. The opening shootout at the teahouse is a particular highlight. Likewise, the shootout at a warehouse was also very well put together. The final shootout at the hospital (spoiler alert, there are a lot of shootouts)  was also really interesting as that's not a setting you often see in a hard-core action film. Then, of course, Woo punctuates the action with flying leaps and guns akimbo and a fair amount of slow-motion photography that makes the action seem more akin to a dance than a gunfight. Solid marks for the action.

Score/Music:

The music was composed by Michael Gibbs and is all over the place. Since Tequila is a lover of Jazz music, there's a fair amount of that in the film. But, let's be honest, a cop thriller without some saxophone music just wouldn't seem right. There's also a more traditional soundtrack infused with many Asian influences, which I thought was a bit weird at first but started to enjoy as the movie went on. It's been nearly a week, and I'm still humming it, so I guess it's safe to call the music in Hard-Boiled a success. 

Final Verdict:

Honestly, I still like this film. The plot is a bit goofy, and the subtitles are a pain in the ass, but the action is well worth the price of admission. Fans of Hong Kong action should definitely give it a try.