8.2 | / 10 |
Users | 3.2 | |
Reviewer | 3.5 | |
Overall | 3.5 |
Criticized for "unnecessary violence," Inspector Yuen continues his investigations into the sales and smuggling of guns. Tony is a hired killer and the right hand man of Hoi, the head of the criminal consortium. He has a single rival, Johnny, who plans to double-cross Hoi in a gun deal.
Starring: Tony Leung Chiu-wai, Teresa Sun-Kwan Mo, Chow Yun-Fat, Anthony Chau-Sang Wong, Philip ChanForeign | 100% |
Crime | 27% |
Melodrama | 11% |
Thriller | Insignificant |
Drama | Insignificant |
Action | Insignificant |
Video codec: MPEG-4 AVC
Video resolution: 1080p
Aspect ratio: 1.85:1
Original aspect ratio: 1.85:1
Cantonese: DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 (48kHz, 24-bit)
English: Dolby Digital 5.1 (448 kbps)
Cantonese: Dolby Digital 2.0
English, English SDH, Spanish
50GB Blu-ray Disc
Single disc (1 BD)
Region free
Movie | 4.0 | |
Video | 3.0 | |
Audio | 4.0 | |
Extras | 3.0 | |
Overall | 3.5 |
John Woo is one of the few foreign born directors who has managed to become an above-the-title with A-Film-by-credit sort of helmsman of near superstar status to many American cineastes. Those who flocked to Face/Off, Mission: Impossible and other Woo blockbusters slowly became more and more aware of the director’s early work in the Hong Kong industry, and a number of his first films quickly became at the very least cult items, with more than respectable box office. If The Killer may still be Woo’s best remembered early opus, it’s certainly in a neck and neck race with Hard Boiled, a film which perhaps even more than The Killer exploits Woo’s penchant for hyperbolic action sequences mixed with an odd sort of visual poetry that includes things like an undercover cop hitman molding elegant origami cranes after each of the murders he commits. Hard Boiled follows the well worn technique of matching a crusty cop, “Tequila” (Chow Yun-Fat) with the undercover cop posing as a hitman, Tony (Tony Leung), as they work together to help bring down a nefarious underworld kingpin, Johnny Wong (Anthony Wong). But plots in these early Woo epics (and truth be told even in some of the American films) often take a back seat to the thrill ride of nonstop action sequences, and that penchant is played pedal to the metal (and then some) in Hard Boiled, where shootouts occur in everything from a teahouse to a maternity ward.
Unfortunately Hard Boiled suffers from one of the shoddier looking Blu-ray transfers in the Dragon Dynasty releases from Vivendi, which may be in large part due to the shape of the master. Encoded via AVC, in 1080p and a 1.85:1 aspect ratio, Hard Boiled is one of the softer, grainier films in this series. It may be a slight improvement over the unbelievably shoddy early 1080i releases from Dragon Dynasty, but not by much. In fact the bulk of this film has the soft, artificial appearance of an upconverted SD-DVD. Colors are reasonably robust here, with agreeable sharpness in close-ups at least. But the print is littered with damage and debris, and opticals especially look pretty bad. One bungled special effect in the jazz club will leave you wondering if this was mastered from a mistracking VHS tape. While there may be a slight uptick in quality from the SD-DVD, I doubt too many lovers of Hard Boiled are going to be very excited by this Blu-ray presentation from an image standpoint, and that's a real shame.
Considerably better is Hard Boiled's repurposed lossless Cantonese DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 mix. This doesn't have the blistering immersion one might expect from a newer film, but the reworking of the original Cantonese mono track (also included via a Dolby Digital 2.0 mono mix which purists will want to stick with) is quite striking at times, especially (as might be expected) in the many exciting action sequences. Gunfire erupts from a variety of surround channels, with bullets whizzing through the soundfield with abandon. Screams intrude from every nook and cranny, and the rapid fire of automatic gunfire fills the subwoofer with some impressive LFE. This entire film was post-dubbed, and so there are some odd synchronization issues which are not the fault of the track itself, but the source elements. It actually gives Hard Boiled that same slightly surreal quality that populates the similarly recorded Cinecitta films including the Fellini classics. There isn't any egregious damage to the stems, though there is noticeable compression and thin highs at times. An English DD 5.1 dub is also included.
Hard Boiled, like most of the Dragon Dynasty release, comes with some excellent supplements:
Hard Boiled is early Woo, and as such it's not the fully formed action masterpiece that later Woo films have been. That may only add to its quaint (if something this violent can be called quaint) charms. Chow Yun-Fat is graceful and vicious in the lead, and the supporting cast is uniformly excellent. There are certainly enough flashes of the Woo action genius to keep most audience members on an adrenaline high for the bulk of this film. This Blu-ray unfortunately suffers from a pretty shoddy looking transfer, so even fans of this film may want to rent it first before deciding to add it to their collections. Warts and all, though, the film itself is Recommended.
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