The Criterion Collection, a continuing series of important classic and contemporary films, presents
BLU-RAY EDITION 1992 126 MINUTES COLOR MONO 1.85:1 ASPECT RATIO
Violence as poetry, rendered by a master—brilliant and passionate, John Woo’s Hard Boiled tells the story of jaded detective “Tequila” Yuen (played with controlled fury by Chow Yun-fat). Woo’s dizzying odyssey through the world of Hong Kong Triads, undercover agents, and frenzied police raids culminates unforgettably in the breathless hospital sequence. More than a cops-and-bad-guys story, Hard Boiled continually startles with its originality and dark humor.
HARD BOILED is under exclusive license from Fox Lorber TM ® © 2020 by Fox Lorber. All Rights Reserved. © 2020 The Criterion Collection. All Rights Reserved. Cat. no. CC1397L. ISBN 1-55940-541-4. Warning: unauthorized public performance, broadcasting, or copying is a violation of applicable laws. Printed in the USA. First printing 2020.
Audio:
Cantonese Dolby Digital 1.0 Mono / Cantonese PCM 2.0 Mono / English Dolby Digital 1.0 Mono / Dolby Digital Audio Commentary Subtitles: English / French / German / Spanish Main title: 1080p
Supplementary material: 480p DVD source
1992
SPECIAL FEATURES w Audio commentary by John Woo, producer Terence Chang, filmmaker Roger Avary, and critic Dave Kehr w Trailers for eleven of Woo’s Hong Kong films w “Accidentally” A student film by Woo w Guide to Hong Kong crime films w Notes on Hard Boiled by Barbara Scharres The Criterion Collection is dedicated to gathering the greatest films from around the world and publishing them in editions of the highest technical quality, with supplemental features that enhance the appreciation of the art of film. Visit us at Criterion.com
JOHN WOO’S
Design and Layout - pineapples101@gmail.com
LD 245
The Criterion Collection, a continuing series of important classic and contemporary films, presents
BLU-RAY EDITION 1992 126 MINUTES COLOR MONO 1.85:1 ASPECT RATIO
Violence as poetry, rendered by a master—brilliant and passionate, John Woo’s Hard Boiled tells the story of jaded detective “Tequila” Yuen (played with controlled fury by Chow Yun-fat). Woo’s dizzying odyssey through the world of Hong Kong Triads, undercover agents, and frenzied police raids culminates unforgettably in the breathless hospital sequence. More than a cops-and-badguys story, Hard Boiled continually startles with its originality and dark humor.
HARD BOILED is under exclusive license from Fox Lorber TM ® © 2020 by Fox Lorber. All Rights Reserved. © 2020 The Criterion Collection. All Rights Reserved. Cat. no. CC1397L. ISBN 1-55940-541-4. Warning: unauthorized public performance, broadcasting, or copying is a violation of applicable laws. Printed in the USA. First printing 2020.
Audio:
Cantonese Dolby Digital 1.0 Mono / Cantonese PCM 2.0 Mono / English Dolby Digital 1.0 Mono / Dolby Digital Audio Commentary Subtitles: English / French / German / Spanish Main title: 1080p
Supplementary material: 480p DVD source
1992
SPECIAL FEATURES w Audio commentary by John Woo, producer Terence Chang, filmmaker Roger Avary, and critic Dave Kehr w Trailers for eleven of Woo’s Hong Kong films w “Accidentally” A student film by Woo w Guide to Hong Kong crime films w Notes on Hard Boiled by Barbara Scharres The Criterion Collection is dedicated to gathering the greatest films from around the world and publishing them in editions of the highest technical quality, with supplemental features that enhance the appreciation of the art of film. Visit us at Criterion.com
JOHN WOO’S
Design and Layout - pineapples101@gmail.com
LD 245
The Criterion Collection, a continuing series of important classic and contemporary films, presents
JOHN WOO’S
DVD EDITION 1992 126 MINUTES COLOR MONO 1.85:1 ASPECT RATIO
Violence as poetry, rendered by a master—brilliant and passionate, John Woo’s Hard Boiled tells the story of jaded detective “Tequila” Yuen (played with controlled fury by Chow Yun-fat). Woo’s dizzying odyssey through the world of Hong Kong Triads, undercover agents, and frenzied police raids culminates unforgettably in the breathless hospital sequence. More than a cops-and-bad-guys story, Hard Boiled continually startles with its originality and dark humor.
Audio:
Cantonese Dolby Digital 1.0 Mono / Cantonese PCM 2.0 Mono / English Dolby Digital 1.0 Mono / Dolby Digital Audio Commentary Subtitles: English / French / German / Spanish Main title: 1080p
Supplementary material: 480p DVD source
1992
SPECIAL FEATURES w Audio commentary by John Woo, producer Terence Chang, filmmaker Roger Avary, and critic Dave Kehr w Trailers for eleven of Woo’s Hong Kong films w “Accidentally” A student film by Woo w Guide to Hong Kong crime films w Notes on Hard Boiled by Barbara Scharres
HARD BOILED is under exclusive license from Fox Lorber TM ® © 2020 by Fox Lorber. All Rights Reserved. © 2020 The Criterion Collection. All Rights Reserved. Cat. no. CC1397L. ISBN 1-55940-541-4. Warning: unauthorized public performance, broadcasting, or copying is a violation of applicable laws. Printed in the USA. First printing 2020.
The Criterion Collection is dedicated to gathering the greatest films from around the world and publishing them in editions of the highest technical quality, with supplemental features that enhance the appreciation of the art of film. Visit us at Criterion.com
JOHN WOO’S
Design and Layout - pineapples101@gmail.com
LD 245
JOHN WOO’S
T
hat Hard Boiled would be action director John Woo’s last film made in Hong Kong before his emigration to the U.S. in 1992 resonates throughout the picture. While he may shoot in Hong Kong again, Woo will never again make a film like this, conceived from the perspective of a man who perceives the support systems and institutions of his society changing radically and comes to the painful decision, like tens of thousands of Hong Kong citizens before him, to bail out rather than risk an uncertain future for his family.
him, is often isolated emblematically by Woo in a virtually empty frame. Cruising in an open convertible, shrouded in swirling fog, or sunk in a blue-tinged reverie alone with his origami cranes, he projects inner emptiness and frozen emotions, best symbolized by his whimsical dream to live at the South Pole. Tequila, on the other hand, is an impulsive hothead whom Chow Yun-fat plays with ready humor and an only slightly submerged simmering anger. That his heroic demeanor seems an all-too-human mix of genuine courage and macho foolhardiness is a credit to the subtlety of Chow’s interpretation.
Understanding something of the unsettled state of Hong Kong then—where the public mood with regard to the future after 1997 fluctuated between an unfounded giddy optimism and abject fear—is part of the key to unlocking the richness and complexity of the metaphors that Woo employs in Hard Boiled. So is realizing the difference between Hong Kong’s surface, an intensely law-abiding city where gun ownership is strictly prohibited, and its underworld, where fortunes are said to be made in arms sales, and where the gangster Triads infiltrate every industry, including the film industry, allegedly in league with powerful cities in mainland China.
Woo choreographs a hellish arsenal against his characters, and there is both beauty and exquisite Zenlike detachment in the way so much chaos is unleashed with limitless diabolical precision, seemingly for its own sake. Unlike The Killer, the mood conveyed through this excess is one of futility, even when Woo’s heroes are winning. Woo takes the conflicts far beyond the personal level, and Tequila and Tony each function in a world in which they are entirely expendable, also something new for a Woo film. Tequila rails against a system that would sacrifice him to preserve bureaucratic order, while Tony’s soul has already been trashed in the line of duty.
While Woo’s work in films—including The Killer, Bullet in the Head, and A Better Tomorrow—is celebrated for its passion, Hard Boiled is relatively distanced emotionally. It is filled with images of departure and closure, of impending death, fear of the unknown, and regret for what is not to be. In terms of the bravura with which Woo stages the action, the film is unparalleled in its fiery invention and technical virtuosity, a fact which points out all the more that for the first time in one of his films the relationship between the central characters—the cop Tequila, and his compromised undercover counterpart Tony—is one of wariness and grudging respect rather than all-out trust. With their barely intersecting fates, Tequila and Tony know each other too little and too late for total bonding, and as passionate friendship is the way to redemption in a Woo film, the ending of Hard Boiled brings the bitter knowledge that there may finally be peace for his characters, but there is no redemption.
As 1997 approached, Hong Kong audiences seemed to crave images of violation. Action films became more raw and graphic, and several truly grotesque, slasher-derived sub-genres became popular. Woo moves with the spirit of the times, but his treatment of the theme of violation in Hard Boiled takes the elegantly metaphysical strategy of posing a series of lines to be crossed, each involving honor, loyalty or simple human decency. In his extended finale, a hospital under siege by legions of gangsters becomes a metaphor for Hong Kong itself. As the institution intended to nurture life is transformed into a deadly and perilous environment, for those trapped inside the choice is to remain and die or to escape and live. Revealing quite possibly his own state of mind at the time, Woo’s final image in the film is one of escape, but an escape that is weighted for the viewer with all the burden of memory.
Tony, played with a sensitivity that is characteristic of the actor Tony Leung, but a steeliness that is new to
Barbara Scharres
ON FILM / ESSAYS — MAY 5, 1998
JOHN WOO’S
T
hat Hard Boiled would be action director John Woo’s last film made in Hong Kong before his emigration to the U.S. in 1992 resonates throughout the picture. While he may shoot in Hong Kong again, Woo will never again make a film like this, conceived from the perspective of a man who perceives the support systems and institutions of his society changing radically and comes to the painful decision, like tens of thousands of Hong Kong citizens before him, to bail out rather than risk an uncertain future for his family.
him, is often isolated emblematically by Woo in a virtually empty frame. Cruising in an open convertible, shrouded in swirling fog, or sunk in a blue-tinged reverie alone with his origami cranes, he projects inner emptiness and frozen emotions, best symbolized by his whimsical dream to live at the South Pole. Tequila, on the other hand, is an impulsive hothead whom Chow Yun-fat plays with ready humor and an only slightly submerged simmering anger. That his heroic demeanor seems an all-too-human mix of genuine courage and macho foolhardiness is a credit to the subtlety of Chow’s interpretation.
Understanding something of the unsettled state of Hong Kong then—where the public mood with regard to the future after 1997 fluctuated between an unfounded giddy optimism and abject fear—is part of the key to unlocking the richness and complexity of the metaphors that Woo employs in Hard Boiled. So is realizing the difference between Hong Kong’s surface, an intensely law-abiding city where gun ownership is strictly prohibited, and its underworld, where fortunes are said to be made in arms sales, and where the gangster Triads infiltrate every industry, including the film industry, allegedly in league with powerful cities in mainland China.
Woo choreographs a hellish arsenal against his characters, and there is both beauty and exquisite Zenlike detachment in the way so much chaos is unleashed with limitless diabolical precision, seemingly for its own sake. Unlike The Killer, the mood conveyed through this excess is one of futility, even when Woo’s heroes are winning. Woo takes the conflicts far beyond the personal level, and Tequila and Tony each function in a world in which they are entirely expendable, also something new for a Woo film. Tequila rails against a system that would sacrifice him to preserve bureaucratic order, while Tony’s soul has already been trashed in the line of duty.
While Woo’s work in films—including The Killer, Bullet in the Head, and A Better Tomorrow—is celebrated for its passion, Hard Boiled is relatively distanced emotionally. It is filled with images of departure and closure, of impending death, fear of the unknown, and regret for what is not to be. In terms of the bravura with which Woo stages the action, the film is unparalleled in its fiery invention and technical virtuosity, a fact which points out all the more that for the first time in one of his films the relationship between the central characters—the cop Tequila, and his compromised undercover counterpart Tony—is one of wariness and grudging respect rather than all-out trust. With their barely intersecting fates, Tequila and Tony know each other too little and too late for total bonding, and as passionate friendship is the way to redemption in a Woo film, the ending of Hard Boiled brings the bitter knowledge that there may finally be peace for his characters, but there is no redemption.
As 1997 approached, Hong Kong audiences seemed to crave images of violation. Action films became more raw and graphic, and several truly grotesque, slasher-derived sub-genres became popular. Woo moves with the spirit of the times, but his treatment of the theme of violation in Hard Boiled takes the elegantly metaphysical strategy of posing a series of lines to be crossed, each involving honor, loyalty or simple human decency. In his extended finale, a hospital under siege by legions of gangsters becomes a metaphor for Hong Kong itself. As the institution intended to nurture life is transformed into a deadly and perilous environment, for those trapped inside the choice is to remain and die or to escape and live. Revealing quite possibly his own state of mind at the time, Woo’s final image in the film is one of escape, but an escape that is weighted for the viewer with all the burden of memory.
Tony, played with a sensitivity that is characteristic of the actor Tony Leung, but a steeliness that is new to
Barbara Scharres
ON FILM / ESSAYS — MAY 5, 1998
LORBER. ALL R I G HT BY FOX S RE 020 © 2 R COPYING IS A VIOLATION ® OF SERV M O , T G AP N R I E PL ED. © T I CA RB CAS BL 202 LO AD X E O R O LA 0 T F ,B W HE M CE S. O N P A
4 -5
. 1-4
ESERVED. CA RIGHTS R T. NO ALL . CC ON. NTING 2020. I I R 13 9 T P EC FIRST 7L L L . . IS A O S C BN U N HE O 1-5 I T R 59 E IN T I ED 40 C R NT I R
HARD BOILED IS UN DER EX WARNING: UNAU C T H L O U RIZ E D SI V E PU L B LIC ICE PE NSE R FO F R RM
Criterion Collection - Laserdisc Preservation Hard Boiled: Special Edition #245 (1992) [CC1397L] https://www.lddb.com/laserdisc/06071/CC1397L/Hard-Boiled:-Special-Edition Blu Ray - Region A/B/C DVD - Region All Audio: Cantonese Dolby Digital 1.0 Mono / Cantonese PCM 2.0 Mono / English Dolby Digital 1.0 Mono / Dolby Digital Audio Commentary Subtitles: English / French / German / Spanish Main title: 1080p Supplementary material: 480p DVD source
Artwork Criterion Blu Ray Case - Inlay 273mm x 160mm Standard Blu Ray Case - Inlay 269mm x 148mm Standard DVD Case - Inlay 272mm x 182mm Criterion 4 Page Booklet - Exterior Fold down middle 240mm x 160mm Criterion 4 Page Booklet - Interior Fold down middle 240mm x 160mm Standard 4 Page Booklet - Exterior Fold down middle 235mm x 145mm Standard 4 Page Booklet - Interior Fold down middle 235mm x 145mm Blu Ray Disc Art 115mm x 115mm