Hard-Boiled / (Asia)

It is surprisingly hard to find decent quality copies of a lot of the old Woo movies. I had been previously disappointed by the dragon dynasty edition I got of The Killer, but I was overall very satisfied with this edition of Hard Boiled. The movie itself is an action packed lead-fest and very entertaining. This edition had a pretty solid sounding audio track, and good quality visuals. The subs aren't as good as others I've seen, but they get the point across well enough to enjoy the film anyhow. Overall worth a buy if you're looking for a copy of Hard Boiled.

One of John Woo's greatest!

Another great one with plenty of shooting. An extremely well madeaction movie.

Yes, I do mean, YES, the stuntwork and the gunplay in HARD BOILED is freakin' awesome but the final result became (to me, obviously) ok enough already this shoulda' been over 15 minutes ago. I was laughing at the preposterously ridiculous conclusion because I realized the John Woo direction would not stoop to killing one "character" while displaying this is just a movie, don't take this too seriously (not a bad thing) when our hero cop (Chow Yun-Fat) has officially turned into a gun-wielding, people saving, comic book super hero.Dare I say I like my action movies and shootouts with at least a hint more plausibility (like, even, Die Hard had/has) with a barrage of bullets a little less "selective" in NOT finding their mark because our hero can't get killed.Anyways, did I mention the freakin' stunts and shootouts were freakin' awesome?!What a body count! What mayhem! Whew! I didn't even let the endless display of hurtling bodies on sometimes obvious wires spinning and twisting through the air after another explosion deter my entertainment. It was just too cool not too appreciate.I gotta' mention after seeing Chow Yun-Fat again (saw The Replacement Killers first) that it is easy to see why this guy became an international star. Also, the second-lead action star was portrayed very well and very cool by the slighter of frame but very convincing as smooth, tough guy Tony Leung.HARD BOILED had an effective plot twist or two and Director John Woo has a great eye for film making on display with the opening sequence of neon lit Hong Kong shone like classic noir as credits roll and our cop hero to be (with his cop partner on drums) playing some nice jazz saxophone. Love that sh**. Hong Kong looks awesome. The Tea House (with those birds 'visiting') is a place you'd love to visit that you'd hate to see shot-up ... And you can guess how that goes...HARD BOILED boils down (sorry) to being an entertaining ride, but sometimes less is more. One less outrageous shootout of explosions would have rated HARD BOILED better than 4 stars.As it is the xtras are worth a peek with a couple actors (not Yun-Fat or Leung, though), Producer and Director giving interviews (if you can understand John Woo he's kind of amusing). I liked the location filming guide segment that pointed out the Avian Flu closed the Tea House not long after completion of HARD BOILED. No more birds permitted in Tea Houses anywhere.Oh, and I probably never would have realized (without xtras) John Woo plays the bartender in HARD BOILED.Another Chow Yun-Fat movie is in the foreseeable future as is a second look at Woo's Face-Off (with Travolta and Cage).

Hardboiled was John Woo’s last Hong Kong movie before he left for Hollywood. He went out with a bang.First Hardboiled had an iconic movie poster with Chow Yun Fat as Inspector Yuen Ho-yan holding a shotgun in one hand and a baby in another.Second it continued Woo’s love of gun play. The first scene has Yuen trying to arrest a gang selling guns in a restaurant that turns into a huge battle with great choreography and a lot of dead bodies. That includes one of Yuen’s fellow cops.Third the ending was completely over the top as a gang takes over a hospital and guns down people as they try to escape.The story revolves around Inspector Yuen trying to bust the gang that killed his friend in the restaurant at the start of the movie led by Anthony Wong as Johnny Wong. Wong is expanding his business against his rival Uncle Hoi played by Kwan Hoi-Shan. That includes recruiting Hoi’s own henchman named Alan played by Tony Leung.Woo revolutionized the action genre and Hardboiled is an example of how.

The Good Things*The video/sound quality is great. The picture is a bit grainy, but still clean, sharp, colorful, and vivid.*Includes a commentary and a bunch of featurettes and interviews.*Includes English dubbing, as well as the original Chinese and optional English subtitles.*Contains a huge amount of great action scenes. The last hour is especially awesome; it's like a nonstop sequence of shoot-outs. Like any John Woo movie, it has a lot of slow-motion jumping and flying and crashing-through-glass, but none of it is hoaky or cliched (no darn doves either).*Photography is good.*Fight scene choreography is good.*Production design (sets, props, costumes) were good. One of the bad guys (who incidentally only had one eye) had a way cool gun.*The story is good.*The characters are quite good. They are well-acted and well-written.*Music is not bad.*It dawned on me, as I was watching this, that this is the predecessor to the video game "Stranglehold." Cool.The Bad Things*I think the sides of the screen may have been cut off or something. Other people seem to have a "skewered" image. Either way, there's something weird about the aspect ratio.*Subtitles translate only the English dubbing, not the original Chinese dialogue.*Not for the squeamish; contains lots of bloody violence, brutality, and lots of swearing.The Questionable Things*Some things are quite absurd (I can't remember what specifically, but I remember seeing some of the action scenes and thinking "yeah right!"). If you prefer movies to be totally realistic, you may wind up laughing at a lot of things. But if you can suspend disbelief, it's not so bad.*The first hour had some slow parts to it.Once, I said that "Invisible Target" resembled "Die Hard," but now I see that I spoke way too soon. This movie is much more like a Chinese "Die Hard," and it's equally thrilling, if not moreso. Although the first hour of this movie seemed a bit long, the second hour was a non-stop extravaganza of violent action. Above all, it was well-made and John Woo's style is most original and fresh in this film. This DVD edition is not the best, but I found it suitable; die-hard fans, or fans of Hong Kong cinema, may be dissapointed. Still, highly reccomended to anybody who enjoys action!

Firstly, this to me this and The Killer, are the definitive John Woo films. Made relatively early in his career before Holywood heard of him. Full of super cool beautifully choreographed, almost balletic shoot outs. The film oozes that HK kinetic action style. Chow Yun-Fat is excellent to watch, as ever......BUT.....BUT.....this is the ridiculous dubbed version,which completely ruins the atmosphere, with awful american-english voice acting (where do they find these people??), hence the two stars.Do yourself a favour, pick up the undubbed version. And while your at it, pick up "The Killer" as well. Then you're all set for a good night in! Nobody does it like John Woo.

I bought this to replace my aged Video Cassette which is now so badly worn you can almost see through it. The DVD Collectors edition is excellent. I was thrown at first as the opening credits suggest its going to be a boxed version of the film, but afterwards it shifts to a full screen. Its an excellent re-mastered copy of what I regard as a classic and still John Woo's best.Now for the film itself. Well I put it on when I received it to just watch the first five minutes to check the quality, which was a stupid thing to do because I was immediately sucked back into this action masterpiece and ended up watching the whole movie. This you must understand is a film I've watched more times than I can remember.I hadn't watched it for some years, but John Woo's direction, the cast, the stunts, plot and just sheer pace and narrative just held me spell bound all over again. This film from 1991 doesn't use any CGI, so its three big action packed, stunt filled scenes are all real, no computers involved, just jaw dropping, bone crunching, explosive action packed cinema at its very best.When John Woo made 'Broken Arrow' apparently John Travolta wasn't convinced he should do the movie with this 'unknown' Chinese director. It took Christian Slater going round to Travolta's house with a copy of Hard Boiled, and made Travolta sit down and watch it to get him to come on board.The cover states 'Its better than a dozen Die Hards', oh yes, its true and in fact when I watch any action movie Hard Boiled is my yardstick, especially as John Woo didn't have access to any CGI, so very rarely does any modern 'action' movie measure up. In fact I've seen so many copy or even steal scenes from Hard Boiled its embarrassing.So, before I ramble on any further, buy it. This is John Woo at the very top of his game, along with Chow Yan Fat, and Tony Leung giving superb performances. Quite frankly the best of the best when it comes to gun toting explosive action.

I'm afraid that this edition is the best transfer available at the moment ( 28th May 2015) which is a real shame because at present it's $399.99 from Amazon. Com.I'm sure that you know the film inside out so I'll just give you the tech stuff.126 mins, Cantonese Dolby digital mono, English Dolby digital mono (Dubbed), English subtitles.The special features: Dual layer (It's never looked better).Audio commentary by John Woo,Producer Terence Chan,filmmaker Roger Avery and critic David Kehr.Trailers for 11 of Woo's Hong-Kong films.A student film by Woo called Accidentally.1968,10 mins.A guide to Hong-Kong crime films by David Chute.Notes on Hard Boiled.If you're lucky enough to find this particular version second hand, snap that hand off. At the time of writing there is a Vivendi Visual edition that's affordable but apparently it suffers the same problematic transfer as all the other versions, which is such a shame as I think that this is no less worthy of proper bluray transfer as say Kurosawa, Park Chan -Wook or Scorsese. My own opinion, of course, I'm sure others may disagree.This particular edition has been out of print for ages, so good luck, it's well worth buying.

Never seen it at the movies, of course! It is the sort of film that can't pass censorships. But it was intriguing - althoug the plot is spiderweb thin. It was amazing - with an ordinary crime story. It was interesting despite all the déjà vu of the kind. The directing and framing are absolutely attractive, hypnotizing, and keep your eyes glued to the screen. No wonder the director had to emigrate to Hollywood. among the "violent" B-movies it has turned out to be a masterpiece. Glad I got it!

This is action at its loudest,fast so you can't see through the plot,humour in partsIt's not a film to think about but a good way to pass a couple of hoursIt is violent,but it's artistically doneThe acting and directing is impressive,and you can't take your eyes off the DVDIt's a guy movie,I enjoyed it