User:FrostFairBlade/sandbox/Hard Boiled

• Hard Boiled (1992)
  • The creation of Hard Boiled was spurred by Woo's anger at the increase in violent crime in Hong Kong at the time; he wanted to make a film about justice featuring a virtuous hero
  • Originally, the film was about a psychopath who would poison babies' milk powder; this was changed when producer Terence Chang, who had been talking with American producers about giving Hollywood directorial work to Woo, received negative feedback from them about babies being killed
  • Tony Rayns of Sight and Sound called it "Woo's most relaxed and confident film so far, and in many ways a terrific achievement"; while he noted that the plot was ordinary, the film's "details and incidentals are gleefully idiosyncratic and the visual style is a fine mix of bluesy realism and jazzy kinetics."
  • Kenneth Turan of the Los Angeles Times praised the movie's "dazzling, energetic action sequences"
  • Marc Savlov of The Austin Chronicle declared the film "nirvana for seekers of action, and it rarely gets any better than this."
  • At the 12th Hong Kong Film Awards, Woo and David Wu won for Best Editing; Tony Leung was nominated for Best Supporting Male Actor

Legacy

Cultural influence

• Director Michael Davis was heavily influenced by the film for his movie, Shoot 'Em Up (2007), stating that he liked the "balletic, acrobatic jumping around action" of Hard Boiled and other movies in Hong Kong action cinema
• Game director Cory Barlog used Hard Boiled's hospital scene to illustrate his vision of making God of War (2018) a more intimate player experience through long takes

Critical reassessment

• In 2010, The Guardian ranked Hard Boiled number 18 in its list of the 25 best crime films of all time

References

Cited literature

• Elder, Robert K., ed. (2005). John Woo: Interviews. Conversations with Filmmakers Series. University Press of Mississippi. ISBN 978-1-57806-776-3. Retrieved 2023-11-29.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: ref duplicates default (link)
  • Elder, Robert K. "John Woo: Movie by Movie, 1968 to 1990". In Elder (2005).
  • Woo, John. "John Woo: Early Oral History". In Elder (2005).
• Heard, Christopher (2000). Ten Thousand Bullets: The Cinematic Journey of John Woo. Lone Eagle Publishing. ISBN 978-1-58065-021-2. Retrieved 2023-12-05.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: ref duplicates default (link)
• Rayns, Tony (August 1992). "Hard Boiled". Sight & Sound. Vol. 2, no. 4. British Film Institute. ISSN 0037-4806. Retrieved 2024-05-22.{{cite magazine}}: CS1 maint: ref duplicates default (link)
• Stokes, Lisa Odham (2007a). "Chang, Terence Jia-tsun (Zhang Jiacun) (1949–)". Historical Dictionary of Hong Kong Cinema. The Scarecrow Press. ISBN 978-0-8108-5520-5. Retrieved 2024-04-12.{{cite encyclopedia}}: CS1 maint: ref duplicates default (link)

External links

• Hard Boiled at IMDb
• Hard Boiled at the Hong Kong Movie DataBase
• Hard Boiled at AllMovie
• Hard Boiled at Letterboxd
• Hard Boiled at the TCM Movie Database