Inspector Yuen nicknamed 'Tequila' is a courageous cop who shoots from both hips never reloads and never misses. A tough guy with a soft spot and infinite charm Tequila is the only man for the job of cleaning up the city and when his partner is killed in a spectacular shoot-out he decides to take the investigation into his own lethal hands. With a body count well into three figures more firepower than you can shake an Uzi at stylised adrenalin-pumping action sequences which
It is known in Hong Kong as the "Bullet Ballet", that genre of film that emerged full bore in the late 80's and early 90's to a public that was ready for just this type of action. The king of this genre for many years was John Woo. There is debate about his greatest feature, but it generally circles around two films, The Killer and Hard Boiled. I find myself in the Hard Boiled camp. This is a near perfect action film, complete with wonderful acting turns by two of Hong Kong's greatest contemporary actors, Chow Yun-Fat, and Tony Leung Chiu-Wai. The story is a classic Triad (Hong Kong gangster) tale, a mole in the Triad is poised to take them down when an unsuspecting Triad Bureau cop goes in and nearly louses up the whole deal. Chow plays "Tequila", the gung-ho, victory at any costs Triad who gets kicked off an arms case when he steps a little bit too close to Leung's "Tony" and nearly ruins years of undercover work. When he can't get a satisfactory reason for his dismissal from his superior, he goes in on his own. Eventually Tequila and Tony meet and figure out who the other is and decide to take the Triad boss down together, outside the law. This sets the scene for some completely ridiculous action, and I mean that in the most flattering way possible. The film closes with a shoot-out in a Hospital. Bullets fly everywhere, and neither our heroes, nor the baddies ever seem to empty their clips, except... Except when they are face to face at point blank range. This is a classic John Woo move, and in fact, many of his signature moves are perfected in this film, the slow motion tactics, Chow Yun-Fat diving about with two fists full of firearms firing manically at anything that moves. There are some impressively lengthy tracking shots and the cinematography is outstanding. Tony Leung and Chow Yun-Fat are international superstars, and in this film they show why. The film has been batted around many different companies and produced on DVD many times around the world to varying effect. This Tartan collector's edition seems to be the winner so far in the English-speaking world. The picture is fairly clean, the disc includes the original Cantonese soundtrack as well as an English language dub and a fresh set of newly translated subtitles that match the actual Cantonese dialogue better than ever before. The extras are nil in this edition however, except for the original theatrical trailer, if extras are your thing and you are multi-region compatible, the upcoming US Dragon Dynasty 2 disc set may be of interest. However, this Tartan edition is very reasonably priced and a wonderful buy, I plan on keeping mine for a long while!
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Please note this is a region 2 DVD and will require a region 2 (Europe) or region Free DVD Player in order to play. Inspector Yuen, nicknamed 'Tequila', is a courageous cop who shoots from both hips, never reloads and never misses. A tough guy with a soft spot and infinite charm, Tequila is the only man for the job of cleaning up the city, and when his partner is killed in a spectacular shoot-out, he decides to take the investigation into his own lethal hands. With a body count well into three figures, more firepower than you can shake an Uzi at, stylised adrenalin-pumping action sequences which make Hollywood blockbusters look like Bambi, this is still John Woo's most outrageous flick! Actors Chow Yun-Fat, Tony Leung, Teresa Mo, Philip Kwok, Anthony Wong Chau-Sang & Bowie Lam Director John Woo Certificate 18 years and over Year 1993 Screen Widescreen Anamorphic Languages Cantonese - DTS Additional Languages Dolby Digital (5.1): Cantonese ; English Subtitles English Duration 2 hours (approx)
The film that opened up the Western market for the Hong Kong action genre. John Woo's characteristic mix of anarchic humour and high body-counts coalesce in this action-thriller about a renegade cop who takes on a group of Triad gun-runners who have been hiding their product in a hospital morgue. The film is famous for the scene where Chow Yun Fat attempts to evacuate a maternity ward amidst raining bullets before the hospital explodes. Available in various versions: dubbed or subtitled.
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