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| Hong Kong DVD | American DVD | |
| Company: | Mei Ah - DVD-255 | Winstar/Fox Lorber Films - FLV5224 |
| Year: | 1992 | 1992 |
| Stars: | Chow Yun Fat, Tony Leung, Anthony Wong, Teresa Mo, Philip Chan, Philip Kwok, Bowie Lam | Chow Yun Fat, Tony Leung, Anthony Wong, Teresa Mo, Philip Chan, Philip Kwok, Bowie Lam |
| Format: | Region ALL, NTSC, DVD-10, Non-16x9 enhanced | Region 1, NTSC, DVD-9, Non-16x9 enhanced |
| Aspect ratio: | 1.85:1 | 1.85:1 |
Audio: |
- Mandarin Dolby Digital 5.1 - Cantonese Dolby Surround - Mandarin Dolby Surround |
- English Dub Mono - Commentary Stereo |
Subtitles: |
- Simplified/Traditional Chinese, English, Korean, Japanese, Indonesia Bahasa, Maylasia Bahasa, Thai, Vietnamese | - English |
| Type: | Action | Action |
| Running Time: | 127 min* | 126 min* |
* Despite the 1 minute running time difference, there are no scenes cut/added between the two. I have simply stated what is printed on the packaging.
US Description: A roller coaster of excitement, HARD BOILED takes you on the ride-of-a-lifetime. In a ruthless world of gun smugglers and mobsters, Tequila is a die-hard cop who will stop at nothing to see justice done. To avenge his partner's murder, Tequila joins forces with a rebel cop, and the the body count mounts to a hair rasing climax. HARD BOILED marks the return of action master John Woo (Hard Target, The Killer). Once again he makes the screen explode with high-voltage energy, where the only thing harder to catch than the criminals is your breath.
HK Description: Inspector Yuen swears to sweep out the gangsters and sometimes breaks the rules in his furious drive to see justice done. An undercover cop Tony has the same mission to fight an uphill war against the triads. He painstakingly plays notorious games inorder to show faith to the underworld. Finally the two cops, both dedicate to the same ends but have different working styles, have to join forces in their ultimate battle against their maniac enemies.....
Review: Well, here we have yet another explosive package from the king of action, John Woo. Hard Boiled is placed by fans up with The Killer. A very fast-paced action movie with explosions and bullets flying every which way. Just seeing the opening shoot out in the tea house is enough to please any action movie fan. And how does John Woo follow up such a great shoot out scene? Simple, by shooting a 2min 43 sec continuous action sequence during the final act of the film. Yes that's right a two minute and forty-three second one-take action sequence tha has to be seen to be believed!
And now I have two of three DVD releases. The absent third being the now out-of-print collector's item DVD by Criterion, which would at this time be near-impossible to get a copy of.
| HK DVD vs. US DVD |
| Mei Ah | Winstar |
Comments |
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16x9 enhanced |
No | No |
Both NTSC and non 16x9 enhanced, but the Mei Ah has the better quality of the two (see below). |
Single Sided |
No | Yes | Mei Ah is a flipper (DVD-10), Winstar is a Dual Layer (DVD-9). |
Cantonese Audio |
Yes | Yes |
Winstar has Mono Cantonese, Mei Ah has DD5.1 & DS Cantonese. |
Mandarin Audio |
Yes | No |
Mei Ah has a DD5.1 & DS Mandarin dub |
English Audio |
No | Yes |
Only the Winstar DVD has a Mono English dub. |
Commentary |
No | Yes |
Winstar has commentary by John Woo and Terence Chang. |
English subtitles |
Yes | Yes |
Both have English subtitles, but I think the Winstar subs are based more on the English dub, so it's not quite the best translation but it's good enough. The Mei Ah provides a more direct translation, but suffers from several grammatical/spelling errors. |
Chinese subtitles |
Yes | No |
Winstar only has English subtitles. Mei Ah has several others. |
Trailer |
Yes | Yes |
Both contain the same HK trailer for the film. |
Other Trailers |
Yes | Yes |
Mei Ah also has the trailer for "Peace Hotel" starring Chow Yun Fat and Celia Cheung. Winstar has the US trailer for "The Killer". |
Animated Menus |
No | Yes |
Winstar has great animated menus and transitions with music and sound. Mei Ah has no animation or music what so ever. |
Biographies |
No | Yes |
Winstar has brief biographies for Terrance Chang and John Woo, and filmographis for Chow Yun Fat, Tony Leung and John Woo.The Mei Ah only has a cast/crew listings in Chinese and English. |
Notes on Hard Boiled |
No | Yes |
Winstar has a short article/review by a free-lance film critic from LA. The Mei Ah only has a synopsis which is basically the description on the back of the cover. |
Scene Selection |
Yes | Yes |
Winstar has 30 chapters, Mei Ah has 12 chapters (6 on each side). |
DVD-ROM Content |
No | Yes |
Winstar has a basic link to thier website, no big deal. |
Okay this is a tough choice here. The Winstar DVD doesn't require flipping, but the Mei Ah has slightly better sound and video but does require flipping. If I had to pick between the two, I would actually pick the Mei Ah for the quality. But since I have both, I've got nothing to worry about!
US Audio Commentary: By Director John Woo and Producer Terrance Chang. Recorded in 2000 (because there is mention of Mission Impossible 2 with the use of motor bikes). You will notice alot that the commentary consists of Terrance asking John about certain scenes, "John, why don't you tell us about....." And I'm not sure if it was my player or the disc, but the movie audio playing in the background was about 4 second ahead of the video, which made the scenes when Terrance and John weren't talking look a bit strange. All in all pretty interesting since we don't really get this sort of feature for Hong Kong films.
As you can see from the shots below, the Mei Ah DVD has much better video quality. But if you have a player that allows brightness/contrast/colour control, then the Winstar DVD can be improved for better viewing.
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