Noah Cassidy’s review published on Letterboxd:
DirectorQuest: 66/100
John Woo: 3/5
Not everyone in the world is a bad person.
Anti-heroic bloodshed. Woo makes me go "whoo." At this point Hard Boiled seems locked in for my favorite film from the iconic Hong Kong director, but it is intriguing at least for me to see how similar yet equally different it is to The Killer. I would say Hard Boiled is more of an overt action and thriller piece, while The Killer is a character-driven tragic drama about the power of friendship and love, as well as the inevitable consequences that come from living a life of violence. What comes out of that is something that cares a whole lot for the characters that inhabit its world, where that takes precedent over the action. When that action does show up, however, it doesn't just arrive, it explodes. I am not sure characters in the filmography of any other director wield guns in quite the same way characters in John Woo films do. There's this loose grip they often have on the weapons themselves, and when a bullet comes firing out of them, it feels like a firework with each shot. The action is spectacular, yet each bit of violence reeks of carnage. When someone bleeds or gets a hole drilled into them, that's a piece of them that's gone forever. Woo's distinct sense for melodrama and connections between individuals, especially the connection between cop and criminal, justice and injustice, what is strength and what is weakness, there's really no one else out there who makes his ballets of bullets and loss so heavy. Mix all the narrative substance into stunning action with a great Chow Yun-fat performance and an absolute downer of an ending I am shocked was decided on, I am stoked I finally got to see this, and I will watch it again.
8/10
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