Hard Boiled


Hard Boiled is a 1992 Hong Kong action film directed by John Woo from a screenplay by Gordon Chan and Barry Wong based on a story written by Woo. The film stars Chow Yun-fat, Tony Leung Chiu-wai, and Teresa Mo. It follows a police inspector whose investigation of a brutal Triad leader entangles him in the complex world of undercover policing.
The film was John Woo's last Hong Kong film before his transition to Hollywood. After receiving criticism for making films that glamorized gangsters, Woo wanted to make a Dirty Harry-styled film to glamorize the police. With the death of screenwriter Barry Wong, the film's screenplay underwent constant changes during filming. New characters such as Mad Dog and Mr. Woo were introduced, while the original plotline of a baby-poisoning psychopath was cut.
Hard Boiled was released in Hong Kong in 1992 to generally positive audience reception. Though it was not as commercially successful as Woo's A Better Tomorrow, it still did slightly better than The Killer in the domestic box office. Reception from Western critics was much more positive, with many critics and film scholars describing its action scenes as being among the best ever filmed. In 2007, a video game sequel titled Stranglehold was released.

Plot

In a Hong Kong teahouse, Royal Hong Kong Police inspectors "Tequila" Yuen and Benny Mak surveil a group of gun smugglers while they are making a deal. When a rival gang ambushes the deal, a fierce shootout breaks out; the gangsters are defeated, but several police officers and civilians are wounded and Benny is killed. As revenge, Tequila executes the gangster who killed Benny rather than arrest him. He is reprimanded by Chief Superintendent Pang, who needed the executed gangster as a key witness. After a police funeral, Pang burns the personnel file of another smuggler Tequila killed, revealing him to be an undercover cop.
Meanwhile, Alan, an assassin working for Triad boss "Uncle" Hoi, murders one of Hoi's subordinates who had double-crossed them for a rival syndicate led by upstart Johnny Wong. Wong, who is looking to usurp the old Triad bosses through his control of the illicit arms trade, is impressed by Alan's skill and attempts to recruit him. Alan reluctantly accepts the offer, and Wong brings Alan to a raid on Hoi's warehouse as an initiation, where many of Hoi's men are killed. Surrounded, Hoi lets Alan kill him to spare his surrendering men, but Alan kills them all anyway to please Wong. Tequila, who has been watching from cover, ambushes and defeats Wong's men, but is caught by Alan, who spares him. Tequila confronts Pang, demanding to know if Alan is an undercover cop. Pang refuses to say, but reveals the teahouse friendly fire killing to Tequila and warns him to stay away from the case.
Tequila tracks Alan to his sailboat and deduces he is undercover, but they are ambushed by the remnants of Hoi's gang. The pair fight off the attackers and Tequila flees just before Wong arrives, allowing Alan to keep his cover. Wong realizes that one of his lieutenants, Foxy, is a police informant. Wong's henchman, Mad Dog, beats Foxy before Alan is ordered to execute him with a shot to the chest, but before that he manages to place cigar lighter in Foxy's chest pocket that saves his life. Foxy finds Tequila at a jazz bar and informs him that Wong's armory is hidden in a vault beneath the Maple hospital. As Tequila takes Foxy to the hospital, Wong discovers that Foxy is alive and sends Alan to kill him, while also discreetly sending Mad Dog to monitor Alan. At the hospital, Alan confronts Tequila, demanding to know the whereabouts of the vault; while the two are distracted, Mad Dog kills Foxy.
Alan and Tequila discover Wong's vault, where they briefly skirmish with Mad Dog. As Pang, officer Teresa Chang, and other inspectors evacuate the hospital, Wong and his men attempt to gain leverage by taking the staff and patients hostage while indiscriminately shooting fleeing patients and responding police officers, irritating Mad Dog with his callousness. Alan and Tequila team up to rescue the hostages and battle Wong's men; meanwhile, Pang evacuates the lobby and takes command at the police perimeter, while Chang and the Special Duties Unit rescue trapped babies from the maternity wing. As they fight their way through the hospital, Alan accidentally shoots a plainclothes officer and is overcome with guilt; Tequila consoles him by sharing his similar experience from the teahouse and encourages him to fight on.
The pair eventually confront Mad Dog again. While Tequila leaves to assist Chang and rescue one last baby, Alan and Mad Dog engage in a tense duel before ending in a standoff with a group of crippled patients between them. They allow the patients safe passage to leave, but Wong arrives and guns down the patients while trying to kill Alan, who escapes. Enraged, Mad Dog tries to kill Wong, but is gunned down by Wong when his pistol runs out of ammunition. Alan and Tequila kill the remaining gangsters and confront Wong, but he detonates bombs in the armory, setting the hospital ablaze and forcing Tequila to flee with the baby while Alan goes after Wong. As the hospital explodes, Wong drags Alan outside at gunpoint and forces Tequila to humiliate himself. Using this as a distraction, Alan wrestles for Wong's pistol and ends up shooting himself in the chest, surprising Wong enough for Tequila to fatally shoot Wong in the head, before collapsing.
Alan is revealed to have survived the ordeal. To protect Alan from the Triads, Pang and Tequila destroy Alan's personnel file and declare him dead, allowing him to leave Hong Kong to start a new life.

Cast

  • Chow Yun-fat as Inspector "Tequila" Yuen Ho-yan: A clarinet-playing, alcoholic police sergeant with a reputation for defying his superiors and bending police rules. Chow had previously worked with director John Woo on several of his films, including A Better Tomorrow, The Killer and Once a Thief.
  • Tony Leung Chiu-wai as Alan: An undercover cop posing as a high-ranking triad assassin. He makes an origami crane every time he kills someone, a trait which was influenced by Woo's daughter when he saw her making them. Alan is shown as living alone on a yacht and considers himself to be asocial. Woo stated that this was influenced by Alain Delon's character in the French crime film Le Samouraï. Leung had previously worked with Woo on his film Bullet in the Head.
  • Teresa Mo as Teresa Chang: A fellow police officer who is the girlfriend of Tequila. She helps to decode the secret code songs that are sent to the police by Alan written on cards attached to bouquets that he has delivered to her.
  • Philip Chan as Supt. Pang: Tequila's superior. Prior to the film, Chan was a police officer for about fifteen years. He felt that certain scenes in the film were very familiar as they were similar to real police work.
  • Philip Kwok as Mad Dog: A skilled gunfighter and gang enforcer working for Johnny Wong.
  • Anthony Wong as Johnny Wong: A scheming triad boss who plans to seize complete control of Hong Kong's gangs using the earnings from his gun smuggling business, most of which are stored in the basement of a hospital.
  • Bowie Lam as Benny Mak: Tequila's long-time partner and fellow jazz musician. He dies in the opening shootout after accidentally killing a civilian.
  • Anjo Leung as Benny's son.
  • Bobby Au-yeung as Lionheart: An officer who works under Tequila's supervision.
  • Kwan Hoi-san as "Uncle" Hoi: Alan's boss, an aging gangster who turns down an opportunity to leave Hong Kong as he considers it to be irresponsible. Alan is forced to kill him after Johnny takes control of his gun warehouse.
  • Stephen Tung as Foxy: Johnny's lieutenant who secretly informs on his gang to Tequila. After he is exposed as a traitor, Alan intervenes to save his life. Foxy is later killed by Mad Dog at the hospital in which the final shoot-out takes place.
  • John Woo as Woo, the Bartender: A former cop who runs the jazz bar where Tequila performs and offers him advice.
  • Jun Kunimura as the Tea-House Gunman: A gun smuggler who kills Benny Mak at the teahouse and is subsequently gunned down by a vengeful Tequila. Credited as Y Yonemura in the film's opening credits

    Production

Development

The film was originally developed in 1990. After creating films which focused on the lives of gangsters, director John Woo wanted to make a film that glorified the police instead. Woo admired Clint Eastwood's and Steve McQueen's characters from their films Dirty Harry and Bullitt respectively, and wanted to make his own Hong Kong-style Dirty Harry police detective film. While creating this character, Woo was inspired by a police officer who was a strong-willed and tough member of the police force, as well as being an avid drummer. This led to Woo having Tequila's character be a musician as well as a cop.
Before production started, Woo told his actors that he was not going to make the film as stylish as his previous films, but to have it be more of an "edgy thriller". The role of Teresa Chang was originally made for actress Michelle Yeoh, who had a long relationship with producer Terence Chang. After casting Teresa Mo, the character of Teresa Chang was greatly re-written.
The film's initial story was about Tony Leung's character being a psychopath who would poison baby food. When Terence Chang was making connections to have Woo make films in the United States, he found people uninterested and disgusted with the theme of babies being poisoned. This halted production for a month to develop a new story. Screenwriter Barry Wong was brought in to write a new story about Tony Leung's character being an undercover police officer. After writing the first part of the script, Wong went on a vacation in Germany, where he died, leaving the script unfinished.