Hard Boiled

[Mr_Vindictive]

Inframan,

I actually just watched King Of Comedy about two weeks ago.  It's a lot of fun, and actually very funny.

The naked child thorughout the film is disconcerting though. 

[RapscallionJones]

Hard Boiled is a pesonal favorite. I love the over the top shoot outs, I think the Killer and Hard Boiled must have the highest bullet/body count in any movies I've seen.

I just got Steven Chow's King of Comedy on netflix, haven't watched all of it but its a parody of the over the top HK action movies.

After I saw Shaolin Soccer I was hellbent on seeing more Stephen Chow movies but I was almost immediately turned off to the rest of them.  I got God Of Cookery, King of Beggars and the first Chinese Oddyssey but they had all the hallmarks of Hong Kong comedy that usually turns me off to the stuff.  Most of it relies so heavily on hokey physical comedy and REALLY dumb jokes. 

[Jim H]

Hard Boiled is a pesonal favorite. I love the over the top shoot outs, I think the Killer and Hard Boiled must have the highest bullet/body count in any movies I've seen.

I just got Steven Chow's King of Comedy on netflix, haven't watched all of it but its a parody of the over the top HK action movies.

After I saw Shaolin Soccer I was hellbent on seeing more Stephen Chow movies but I was almost immediately turned off to the rest of them.  I got God Of Cookery, King of Beggars and the first Chinese Oddyssey but they had all the hallmarks of Hong Kong comedy that usually turns me off to the stuff.  Most of it relies so heavily on hokey physical comedy and REALLY dumb jokes. 

I haven't watched God of Cookery, but I didn't much like King of Beggars or Chinese Odyssey (either of them).  I can enjoy typical Hong Kong comedys, but only in very limited doses.  Whenever he's at his best, his style actually departs from the norm somewhat...  There's a lot of spoofery and sight gags rather than the typical lame gags and untranslateable puns.  His best films I've seen include Shaolin Soccer, Kung Fu Hustle, the 60 Million Dollar Man, Forbidden City Cop and From Beijing With love.

[DistantJ]

I freaking LOVE Hard Boiled.

[Crawling_Chaos]

I remember being practically blown back in my seat the first time I watched Hard-Boiled (which was probably about 7-8 years ago now).  I had never seen an action movie that fast paced and explosive in my life. So naturally, afterward I started hunting down most of Woo's other overseas films as well.

It's to bad that most of his American work is awful(except for Hard Target, which was ok). Especially when he's responsible for bringing us some of the greatest action movies ever.

Oh btw Hi everybody. Long time lurker, first time poster.

[Andrew]

Oh btw Hi everybody. Long time lurker, first time poster.

Welcome aboard, Crawling Chaos!  Can we call you Azathoth for short?

[RapscallionJones]

It's to bad that most of his American work is awful(except for Hard Target, which was ok). Especially when he's responsible for bringing us some of the greatest action movies ever.

Oh btw Hi everybody. Long time lurker, first time poster.

Welcome aboard.

I go pretty easy on John Woo's American stuff.  I love Hard Target.  There used to be an uncut bootleg that circulated back when I traded tapes.  I never got it.  I think Revok sold it from his site but I'd heard iffy things about him.  Supposedly it was significantly longer than the theatrical cut. Always wondered if it was worth it.

I also enjoyed Face/Off like crazy. 

One of my favorite things about the success of John Woo around the time Face/Off came out were all these little video distros coming out of the woodwork with this movie or that movie that either Woo or Chow Yun Fat were involved with from the early 80's.  I rented one called Hard Boiled Killers (actual title Modern Heroes) once that I was certain was going to suck, and it did.  It starred Chow Yun Fat in a gunplay role but the action wasn't even remotely awesome.  Later on I would learn that the high flying style that John Woo is so closely associated with was literally invented in Hong Kong cinema by him.  Before A Better Tomorrow there was nothing like those movies.  Only after that movie did the heroic bloodshed wave start and every other movie was a cops and robbers shoot out with guys flying through the air, guns akimbo.  Awesome.

[Crawling_Chaos]

Welcome aboard, Crawling Chaos!  Can we call you Azathoth for short?

Personally I prefer Nyarlathotep, but hey, Azathoth works too.

[Andrew]

Personally I prefer Nyarlathotep, but hey, Azathoth works too.

Curses, I mixed up my Lovecraftian mythos!  Must be time for me to give those books a reread.

[Jim H]

It's to bad that most of his American work is awful(except for Hard Target, which was ok). Especially when he's responsible for bringing us some of the greatest action movies ever.

Oh btw Hi everybody. Long time lurker, first time poster.

Welcome aboard.

I go pretty easy on John Woo's American stuff.  I love Hard Target.  There used to be an uncut bootleg that circulated back when I traded tapes.  I never got it.  I think Revok sold it from his site but I'd heard iffy things about him.  Supposedly it was significantly longer than the theatrical cut. Always wondered if it was worth it.

I also enjoyed Face/Off like crazy. 

One of my favorite things about the success of John Woo around the time Face/Off came out were all these little video distros coming out of the woodwork with this movie or that movie that either Woo or Chow Yun Fat were involved with from the early 80's.  I rented one called Hard Boiled Killers (actual title Modern Heroes) once that I was certain was going to suck, and it did.  It starred Chow Yun Fat in a gunplay role but the action wasn't even remotely awesome.  Later on I would learn that the high flying style that John Woo is so closely associated with was literally invented in Hong Kong cinema by him.  Before A Better Tomorrow there was nothing like those movies.  Only after that movie did the heroic bloodshed wave start and every other movie was a cops and robbers shoot out with guys flying through the air, guns akimbo.  Awesome.

You're certainly right about his action style (at least, I'm not aware of anything quite like it in terms of gunbattles).  There are a couple of movies that predate A Better Tomorrow and have elements of heroic bloodshed, but none I've seen that do it all.  Long Arm of the Law is the most well known.  I've been meaning to get a copy for a while, apparently well worth checking out.  In any case, it is difficult to underestimate the influence of A Better Tomorrow.  You can divide HK films of the 80s and up til the early 90s into pre and post A Better Tomorrow categories, pretty convincingly. 

Also, there's a Shaw Bros. film I have called the Singing Killer.  Uneven, but it's early 70s and has a (short) shootout at the end which is actually quite entertaining.  Not Woo-like, but it is interesting to see how they did shootouts in Hong Kong in the days before Woo and people like Ringo Lam and Jonnie To.

As a final note, major Woo fans might want to check out the Dragon Dynasty release of Last Hurrah For Chivalry.  Not a great film, but numerous Wooisms make early appearances here - dreamy imagery, character archtypes (some claim one character is what became Chow Yun-Fat's character in A Better Tomorrow, but I don't quite buy it), use of slomo, frame compositions, even the use of violence at times.  And it's a kung fu flick.