Hard-Boiled (1992)

I took a long time deciding what I was going to review whenever I finally made my way back to this site. I won't bore you with the details, but I've wanted to return to writing about the things I love for a long time now. I almost went with Alan Wake 2, which was absolutely incredible, but in the end, I felt that I had to make my comeback about something with a legacy.

For that, I picked John Woo.

I'm a terrible fan when it comes to John Woo. I've only seen two of his movies, one of which is probably his least-loved, Mission: Impossible 2. The other one, however, shaped how I see action, making me realize what was truly the best way to shoot it: Hard-Boiled.

The world's introduction to Chow-Yun Fat's Inspector Tequila, Hard-Boiled follows a cop who is adamant in rooting out the Triad gangsters who are smuggling weapons into Hong Kong. In doing so, however, he begins stepping on the toes of the chief of police, who is heading an undercover operation to do the same.

This conflict is juxtaposed with the story of a good-guy gangster, Alan, who begins to be courted by that very Triad gangster, Johnny Wong. His loyalty to his current employer means that he isn't getting as big of a slice of the pie as he could, something Johnny Wong is willing to give him in exchange for his… skills.

While it isn't the first movie in the genre, this movie is an early entry into the heroic bloodshed genre. If you've ever seen a heroic bloodshed movie, then you'll never forget it: dual pistols, heroes flying through the air, and usually, a generous amount of squibs.

If you were to put a gun to my head and made me give my favorite genre of movie, I would say it's the heroic bloodshed film. I haven't seen as many of the films in the genre as I would like, but every single one that I HAVE seen is incredible, and Hard-Boiled, to me, is the absolute peak of it.

This improv’d moment from Chow-Yun Fat alone is synonymous with the genre.

Action scenes can be a messy ordeal, one that can leave the viewer confused and unsatisfied. Quick cuts, strange camera movement, and more can all add up to something that isn't thrilling, but instead is headache-inducing. The Bourne Identity is a great film, and it deserves all the respect it receives, but I feel like it also started the trend in Hollywood for action to be shaky and confusing.

In that film, it fits the story, right? Jason Bourne is VERY confused that entire movie, and many of the fights that place involve him sort of going on autopilot. He isn't actively fighting so much as letting his instincts do the work. That makes the decision to use hard cuts and shaky cameras thematic, it adds something to the scenes. In other movies, that reasoning is absent.

Heroic bloodshed movies, and none more than Hard-Boiled, are perfect at keeping the geography of a fight clear. You almost always see the entirety of the set before it gets bloody. This means that, at any given moment, the viewer can tell, spatially, where each moving element of the fight is at.

Hard-Boiled does this to incredible effect. The final third of the movie takes place on a hospital, and the first third of THAT is spent walking through the space, following the characters in their plans before it all goes sideways. This means that, at any given moment, you have a good idea of where the characters are and where they're going.

I would be remiss not to mention my favorite filming technique, one I'm sure you're all tired of hearing about at this point - the oner.

This film has a gorgeous one, which is all the more impressive when you think of the amount of work it must have taken. In a heroic bloodshed movie, the set will inevitably get trashed. Any time a bullet his an object, that object is likely to explode into fragments. Wooden walls become splinters, drywall becomes powder. The amount of explosives used in this movie alone probably could have leveled a building.

In what turns out to be a choice of necessity and exhaustion, there's an intense and grueling 5-minute oner towards the climax of the film, as Tequila and an ally push through hordes of goons in the hospital. Glass is flying everywhere, blood splatters, and it even includes a short break in an elevator, a momentary reprieve for both us and the characters. This all happened not because of artistry, but because everyone was tired.

Despite this being one of the most memorable scenes of the movie, the cast and crew shot it this way because they had spent around 40 days in the studio on this portion of the film, so much time that they started to lose track of reality and daytime. With this in mind, they decided that shooting this particular sequence in one take, with the elevator break masking the changing of the set, would be easier than trying to break it up.

Necessity breeds invention, I suppose.

Regardless, the results speak for themselves. The story is pretty decent, better than your usual action fare, but not an epic by any means. It's not that it takes away from the film, it just works as a vehicle. There are some decent twists and turns, so it never gets boring, so it does its job well.

I would say that anyone who can should watch this movie. If you like action flicks, it doesn't really get much better than this. I feel like this genre, or at least parts of it, should make a comeback. I miss squibs and exploding sets. I know they're a lot of work, but the impact of them is palpable.

Either way, I couldn't think of a better way to make a comeback than to talk about such a legendary film. I hope that this style explodes back onto screens sooner rather than later.