Day 9: Hard Boiled (1992)
“Hard Boiled,” our second John Woo / Chow Yun-fat action film of the “Criterion Summer,” is truly an action movie as art. Though the plot and characters are relateable and engaging, the true star of this picture is the very ferocity of the action, as guns blaze and explosions rise high into the air. Now, most of the time, action for action’s sake is mind numbing at best and a trivial attempt at escapism, but, with “Hard Boiled,” Woo brings a level of genuine inventiveness and expertise to the scenes, keeping the audience well beyond the edge of their seats. Never do we know what’s around the corner and the creativity in which our heroes blast their way from point A to point B can sometimes be only defined as gleefully absurd.
In “Hard Boiled,” Inspector “Tequila” Yuen (Yun-fat) is heavily pursuing a gun smuggling syndicate, who have killed his partner. Though he’s hot on their trail, his vengeful mindset ends up in the way of his duty and the higher brass in his department strip him of the case. But what Tequila doesn’t understand is that his investigation has put Tony, an undercover officer already deep in the syndicate’s chain of command, in danger and, as he continues snooping around, the two will eventually have to join forces if they ever will bring the whole syndicate to its knees.
As I’ve said before, there can’t be enough praise for “Hard Boiled’s” over the top action, but, what solidifies the film as a staple of its genre is its third act. Taking place in a hospital run by the syndicate’s leader, the law confronts the mobsters in a battle that can only be described as “explosion-palooza.” But, with all great things, this scene was some of the hardest work for both the film’s cast and crew.
Of the 123 days of shooting “Hard Boiled,” the hospital scene took 40 of them and was so time consuming that the crew, at one point, worked for almost four days straight. At the centerpiece of the scene, Woo and his crew constructed a five minute one take shot that followed Tequila and Tony as they fought their way between two floors of the hospital. The kicker is that Woo only had one floor to shoot on. To accomplish his insane task, he had our heroes eventually enter an elevator for twenty seconds to reach the next floor and, in that small amount of time, had his crew change the entire set so the elevator could open once again to a “new floor” and the firefight could continue. And if that isn’t impressive enough, it’s rumored that the crew had only one take to accomplish the scene.
As you might expect, in scenes of violence such as these, an actual danger is present for the actors and, in “Hard Boiled,” it was no different. A great example of this is when Chow Yun-fat was supposed to run down an exploding wing of the hospital, just barely making it to safety. After one take, Woo didn’t find the danger to Yun-fat’s Tequila at the level he desired and so, after having the charges reset, he took a try at triggering the explosives himself. What occurred next would be remembered by all on set that day, especially Yun-fat. Seconds after Woo said action, he activated the explosives, nearly incinerating his actor, who barely made it through the hallway and out of the scene. At cut, Yun-fat ran to the producers proclaiming, “John’s trying to kill me! John’s trying to kill me!” and, when Woo went to apologizes, he realized how close he might have come. The back of Yun-fat’s head and his coat had literally been singed by the explosives.
While maybe not the deepest of films, there is certainly a sense of artistry in how Woo can film and edit a roaring gun battle and, for any fan of a good old shoot’em up, “Hard Boiled” is one not to be missed!
To learn more about, “Hard Boiled,” check out Criterion’s page here.
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