Hard Boiled

Part of Heroic Bloodshed: The Films of John Woo
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 surveilling a group of weapons-smugglers that is about to make a 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. -BFI