Hard Boiled (1992) on Netflix
In a Hong Kong teahouse, Inspector 'Tequila' Yuen loses his partner in a shootout with gun smugglers. Alan, an undercover officer posing as a Triad hitman, works inside Johnny Wong's arms ring.
- Netflix3.8/5
- IMDb7.7/1060,750 votes
- Rotten Tomatoes94%
Trailer
Plot summary
Gun smugglers are moving weapons into Hong Kong, and when police watch a deal at a teahouse, a rival gang attacks and the shootout leaves Inspector 'Tequila' Yuen's partner, Benny Mak, dead. Tequila shoots the gunman responsible instead of taking him in, and Chief Superintendent Pang, who needed the man alive as a witness, reprimands him. Alan, an undercover officer, kills on the orders of the aging Triad boss 'Uncle' Hoi, then for Johnny Wong, an upstart who is taking over the arms trade and recruits Alan for his skills. Tequila works from informants to reach the men behind the smuggling, while Alan keeps his real work hidden from Wong's crew.
Cast
- Bobbie Au-Yeungas Lionheart (as Bobby Au Yeung)
- Wai-Sun Lamas Hitman 1
- Benny Lamas Hitman 2
Did you know?!Facts and trivia about Hard Boiled (1992)
Can contain spoilers, watch the movie first.
- At the 12th Hong Kong Film Awards, Tony Leung refused his Best Supporting Actor nomination, saying he had a leading role; his protest, backed by John Woo and Chow Yun-fat, led the awards to change its rules to allow multiple leading roles from one film.
- The hospital climax's long shootout was staged as a five-minute long take to shorten filming time for the exhausted crew, with a brief 20-second elevator scene used to reset props and rig the explosions mid-take.
- Tony Leung was injured while filming the hospital sequence when glass fragments went into his eyes, and he was hospitalized before returning to the shoot after a week-long rest.
- Hard Boiled's first story had Tony Leung's character poisoning baby food; producer Terence Chang found people in the United States disgusted by that theme, which halted production for a month until a new story was written.
- Screenwriter Barry Wong, brought in to rewrite Tony Leung's character as an undercover police officer, died on a vacation in Germany after writing only the first part of the script, leaving it unfinished.
- The role of Teresa Chang was originally written for actress Michelle Yeoh, who had a long relationship with producer Terence Chang; after Teresa Mo was cast, the character was greatly rewritten.
- After scenes developing Tequila were cut, Chow Yun-fat asked John Woo to insert a mentor character and play him himself, believing Woo would then be unable to cut those scenes.
- The score heard at Hard Boiled's promotional screenings, described as "very haunting music", could not be used in the finished film because the crew could not acquire the rights to it.
