Hard Boiled

Police and gangsters collide in John Woo’s explosive shoot ‘em-ups – one of the coolest action films ever made.

  • Director

    John Woo

  • With

    Chow Yun-fat, Tony Leung Chiu-wai, Teresa Mo

  • Hong Kong 1992. 128min

  • Digital 4K

  • Certificate

    18

  • English subtitles

  • An Arrow Films release

John Woo’s police-action masterpiece about a vengeful cop taking down an weapons-smuggling syndicate looks sensational newly restored in 4K. In a Hong Kong teahouse, police inspector ‘Tequila’ Yuen heads a team surveiling a group of weapons-smugglers that is about to make deal. The operation goes badly wrong when a rival gang arrives and a fierce shootout breaks out. Tequila’s partner is killed, sending him spiralling with rage and vengeance on quest to hunt down the gang. Woo’s explosive film is a landmark of ‘heroic bloodshed’, a stylistic movement of 80s and 90s Hong Kong action cinema that fused visual flare with melodramatic themes of brotherhood and honour. The filmmaker’s signature style is in full force here: elegant, swirling, slow-motion camera work captures intricately choreographed fistfights and shootouts. Quite simply, action has rarely looked this good.

Kimberley Sheehan, Lead Programmer

Contains scenes of graphic violence.