RATING: 4.5/5
WIDELY praised by critics as John Woo's most commercially successful film to date in Hong Kong, HARD-BOILED hits the jackpot as a rock-solid action picture you'll ever seen in recent memories.
Chow Yun-Fat is the no-nonsense Inspector Yuen who has a nickname called "Tequila" because he is just hot with guns. He's also the kind of righteous cop who doesn't mind breaking the law and make up his own justice as long as he thinks it's right. And that exactly turns out to be a bloody mess when he and his partner (Bowie Lam) battle a gang of vicious gunrunners in a local teahouse bust. The shootout massacre resulted his partner's death and Tequila wastes no time to empty his bullet to eliminate the bad guys. When his superior officer, Pang (Philip Chan) finds out about Tequila has already killed all the bad guys in the teahouse, especially one of them happened to be a key suspect, he is increasingly frustrated over Tequila's overly violent tactics on handling the job. Meanwhile, Tequila has attempting many ways to rekindle his shaky relationship with her fellow colleague, Madam Teresa (Teresa Mo), who has lately been receiving frequent gifts of white rose. Apparently the flowers come with coded messages written in numerical form from an undercover gangland source that Teresa decipher and later passes on to Pang. The mysterious undercover happens to be a dedicated cop, Tony (Tony Leung Chiu-Wai), who disguised himself as a triad assassin in which Tequila has been investigating the death of a man shot point-blank in a library. Tony is working for the criminal kingpin, Mr. Hoi (Kwan Hoi-San) who has been making serious rivalry with the heartless evil leader, Johnny (Anthony Wong) who admires Tony's working style and really wants him to join along. It doesn't take long before Tony's double identity is eventually sees more into trouble when Tequila interrupts his long-time investigation to eliminate Johnny and his gang.
While the film doesn't offer the similar melodramatic impact THE KILLER (1989) has, Woo manages to broaden his filmmaking horizon by showcasing some of the most exciting action set-pieces ever seen in cinematic history. The opening balletic gunfight in the local teahouse is one blazing start to keep the action fans glued to their seats that it could have been an excellent portion for a climatic finale.
But Woo keeps to outdo himself for the rest and the result is the film's climatic finale -- a spectacular and breathtaking action set-piece in the hospital that lasts as long as 40 minutes. The action is frantic and truly stunning, yet so addictive you can't take your eyes off but stay glued on the edge of your seat to watch the magnificent Steadicam shot, as we follow Tequila and Tony going from one floor, into an elevator, and onto another floor and into another explosive gunfight.
By contrast, the acting are similarly top-notch: Chow Yun-Fat, as usual, delivers a superbly vibrant performance as the trigger-happy cop who uphold the justice of his own; Tony Leung Chiu-Wai is perfectly typecast as the cool-mannered undercover cop, while Anthony Wong is frighteningly believable, if a bit over-the-top as the fearsome evil leader who doesn't hesitate to kill anyone who gets into his way of doing things.
However the plot is secondary and at times the dialogue are relatively cheesy, especially when Woo attempts to balance the film's in-your-face action violence with a comedy hijink that seems quite out of place.
But this is just minor missteps, considered HARD-BOILED has everything action fans come to dream for. Coupled with top-notch production values and a terrific jazzy score by Michael Gibbs and James Wong that makes you knee-tapping, HARD-BOILED is no doubt one of the Hong Kong action classics that it keeps better and better at each repeated viewings.