Film Review: John Woo's Hardboiled (9/10)

Ari Brisbon
Dec 20, 2025
5 min read

The Most Action-Packed Film of All Time!

I'm excited! In 1992, legendary action director John Woo wrote and directed this master class of an action flick starring Chow Yun-Fat and Tony Leung Chiu-Wai. Inspector 'Tequila' Yuen, played by Chow, is a tough-as-nails cop who plays by his own rules. He eventually teams up with an enigmatic undercover agent, Alan (Tony Leung), to shut down a massive gun-smuggling ring led by a sinister mobster and his crew.

It isn't just a movie; it's a curriculum on how to shoot action.

STORY (2/2)

Our story begins with the inspector doing what he does best: "John McClane-ing" things up in a one-man army fashion. He gets himself into a heap of trouble right out of the gate, opening up this world with cool jazz undertones that clash beautifully with the violence. It starts with a shootout in a traditional teahouse that transitions into a chaotic bird-cage-shattering bloodbath. Only John Woo would find a bird-filled teahouse a brilliant setting for a shootout, while saving the jazz club for Tequila’s quiet moments of reflection. He does it with ease and grace.

Each character has some type of vendetta, a passion, or a craft—something that gives them depth and a reason to actually exist in the world beyond just being targets. In the simplest way, the story can at times feel predictable; there is no extreme complexity to the "cops vs. mobsters" plot. But it is delivered with such raw authenticity that you cannot take your eyes away. What makes this story interesting is its ability to keep you invested in the characters instead of just the plot points. I personally appreciate that quality. Even if you watch it dubbed in English, it does not take away from the vision.

VISUALS (2/2)

Now here comes the mastery at work. The visual style, especially for the times, is astounding. The framework of giving twenty different angles for one shootout seems overdone on paper, but John Woo somehow pulls it off in a style that clearly puts him into his own class. He has always been known to think like a cameraman as well as a director, so you can say he puts you into the passenger seat while he is driving the action.

There's never anything that distracts you, and if it seemed like it was getting chaotic, then it was intentional to bring focus to the mayhem. There is a multitude of colors and lighting, blending stagecraft with gritty real-world locations. The absolute standout moment is honestly the hospital shootout. I think almost every director and cinematographer can agree what a piece of work it must've been for the set designers. There is a famous "long take" where the actors step into an elevator, and for about 20 seconds while the doors are closed, the crew frantically replaces the set signage outside to make it look like a different floor. Mind you, it happened all in one continuous shot. I don't know if that was planned or a beautiful accident of necessity, but it doesn't matter.

Tip of the cap to the production.

SOUND (2/2)

Honestly, this film's production team knew exactly what they were doing. You will hear acoustics, drums, rattles, and shell casings hitting the floor. All the elements that a modern Sound Cut Pro suite could give you today, the sound department had to find and make work practically back then. Not once was there a moment where you felt, "Oh, that didn't sound right."

I could've watched this film with the subtitles and no audio and still would've been impressed, but the sound adds so much texture. Every tense moment is underscored by a keyboard style of '90s thriller tones, which I found vaguely nostalgic (almost like an after-school special), but it oddly made sense. The fact that Tequila is a jazz clarinet player reflects his cool, improvisational, yet bad-ass persona. The jazz gave this film extra cool points for me and added levels to its creativity. It was a real benefit to the vibe, culture, and flow of the movie.

CHARACTER (1/2)

Inspector 'Tequila', played by Chow Yun-Fat, is a complex hero who stands for good but has to have things his way—and often pays for it with the lives of those around him. Chow Yun-Fat is most certainly giving a career performance here; he is truly a leading man who can handle a baby in one arm and a shotgun in the other.

Alan, played by Tony Leung Chiu-Wai, is a smooth, calm, and collected killer. You can tell in his delivery that he has almost forgotten he is a cop; he has blended the reality with the mission he is bestowed to the point where he loses himself in that underworld. Tequila's loud exploits make Alan's deep-cover investigations problematic, building the tension between their two lives. It adds the realization that both share a twisted morality in how a job is performed.

The two actors definitely carried the story, but it was a shared effort from the rest of the ensemble. The villains, especially the eyepatch-wearing "Mad Dog," played their parts perfectly to tilt the story into chaos. The costume design (those suits!), the cars, and the practical effects of fake glass being broken gave all of this development so much to look at. It was truly theatrical.

FACTOR X (2/2)

This film is honestly a statement that Woo is in a class of his own. It isn't just an action movie; it is the DNA for everything that followed. If you love the lobby scene in The Matrix or the tactical ballet of John Wick, you have Hard Boiled to thank. It perfected the "Gun Fu" genre—the sliding down bannisters while firing two guns, the infinite ammo, the doves flying in slow motion.

But what really pushes this to perfect on the "X Factor" scale is the audacity of the tone. Who else but John Woo could direct a scene where the hero engages in a bloody shootout while holding a newborn baby, plugging its ears with cotton balls so it doesn't cry? It is the perfect blend of high-stakes violence and absurd sentimentality. It features crazy stunts, wonderfully shot shootouts, and intense moments mixed in with hilarious humor. It is no wonder John Woo went on to direct films like Face/Off and Paycheck, but Hard Boiled remains his undisputed masterpiece.

I urge you to go and watch Hard Boiled. It is a classic in the action film genre. If you enjoy Mission: Impossible 2, Windtalkers, or any of his films from the past, go on Tubi, Plex, or Prime Video and watch what really elevated the juggernaut into the stratosphere he helped shape.