Playback: Hard Boiled (1992) | SIDEBAR FOREVER

In 1992, the Hong Kong crime-thriller Hard Boiled was released internationally and blew the minds of audiences everywhere. The film established actor Chow Yun-Fat as a worldwide star and director John Woo as an absolute master of cinematic action. We discuss Hard Boiled’s influence on American moviemakers, the electric performance by Fat playing a Dirty Harry-styled cop, the film's somewhat fraught production, and other movies in the gun fu subgenre such as The Killer, Equilibrium, and John Wick. We also debate Hard Boiled's legacy against the long and vast canon of action films.