The best of Hong Kong action-film making: John Woo’s Hard Boiled, explosive crime thriller starring Chow Yun-fat and Tony Leung Chiu-wai

Hong Kong director John Woo’s 1992 film Hard Boiled, starring Chow Yun-fat and Tony Leung, is the epitome of his graceful, violent style of filmmaking

Woo’s anger about rising crime in Hong Kong spurred him to create the film, which his manager Terence Chang pitched as ‘Die Hard in a hospital’

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Chow Yun-fat in a still from Hard Boiled, in which he co-starred with Tony Leung Chiu-wai. John Woo’s 1992 film epitomised the director’s stylised filmmaking and storytelling.

Richard James Havis

Published: 4:15am, 4 Feb 2024Updated: 9:04am, 4 Feb 2024

Released in 1992, Hard Boiled still stands as Hong Kong film director John Woo Yu-sum’s most accomplished work.

Starring Chow Yun-fat as a tough police officer out to avenge a friend’s death, and Tony Leung Chiu-wai as the undercover policeman who helps him, the film is the epitome of Woo’s graceful, violent filmmaking style.

Below we look at some of the stories behind the making of this classic Hong Kong film.

Look back in anger

Woo was feeling angry, and it was that emotion that spurred him to make Hard Boiled.

The filmmaker said he was mainly angry about the rise in violent crime in Hong Kong – at that time, criminal gangs could outgun the police in shoot-outs.

Hard Boiled - Trailer - (1992) - HQ

“I felt that crime in Hong Kong was getting out of hand,” he said. “The criminals were stronger than the police, and they were even using hired gunmen from the Philippines. After one crime, the public cheered the criminals. That made me very angry.”

As a result, Woo decided to make a film that had a positive message about justice and featured a hero who was a force for good.