On November 4, 2025, Shout is releasing the 4K Ultra HD + Blu-ray for Hard Boiled, John Woo’s 1992 Hong Kong action masterpiece.
A tough-as-nails cop (Chow Yun-fat) hell-bent on bringing down the gun smugglers responsible for his partners’ death, along with an undercover cop (Tony Leung Chiu-wai) whose secret identity as a hitman hangs by a thread. The film raises gunfights to an art form, with some of the most celebrated action sequences ever.
Deluxe Edition Bonus Content:
DISC 1 (4K UHD):
- NEW 4K Scan From The Original Camera Negative
- Presented In Dolby Vision
- NEW Optional English Subtitles Newly Translated For This Release
- NEW Audio Commentary With Director John Woo And Film Journalist Drew Tayler
- NEW Audio Commentary With Film Historian Frank Djeng
- Audio Commentary With Director John Woo, Producer Terence Chang, Filmmaker Roger Avary, And Critic Dave Kehr (Recorded By The Criterion Collection)
DISC 2 (Blu-ray):
- NEW 4K Scan From The Original Camera Negative
- NEW Optional English Subtitles Newly Translated For This Release
- NEW Audio Commentary With Director John Woo And Film Journalist Drew Tayler
- NEW Audio Commentary With Film Historian Frank Djeng
- Audio Commentary With Director John Woo, Producer Terence Chang, Filmmaker Roger Avary, And Critic Dave Kehr (Recorded By The Criterion Collection)
DISC 3 (Bonus Disc Blu-ray):
- NEW “Violent Night” – Interview With Director John Woo
- NEW “Boiling Over” – Interview With Actor Anthony Wong
- NEW “No Time For Failure” – Interview With Producer Terence Chang
- NEW “Hard To Resist” – Interview With Screenwriter Gordon Chan
- NEW “Boiled to Perfection“ – Interview With Screenwriter Chung Hang Ku
- NEW “Body Count Blues” – Interview With Composer Michael Gibbs
- NEW “Hong Kong Confidential” – Inside Hard Boiled With Author Grady Hendrix
- NEW “Gun-Fu Fever” – Interview With Author Leon Hunt
- NEW “Chewing The Fat” – Interview Academic With Lin Feng
- Deleted And Extended Scenes
- Trailers
- Image Gallery
Watch Shout’s Trailer below:
Great news! I would like to see it here in the UK as well, maybe 88 Films or Eureka Entertainment would pick this up for distribution, as I have only the DVD edition from Tartan Video. Time will tell…
I own the DVD, two Blu-ray editions. Not that long ago I saw a video on youtube where it was explained why there weren’t proper high quality physical media around of Hard Boiled. It’s because some real estate broker owns the rights to Hard Boiled and other films but wasn’t willing to sell just one film, but the whole collection, which of course is a very expensive affair. Seems like either this is a different version entirely or someone was so mad enough to buy the whole collection.
On behalf of every heroic bloodshed fan in the world, I thank you people for making this happen.
Looks like Arrow Video picked up the rights for the entire GP library from Shout.
As far as I know Shout Factory bought the whole library of titles from the company, so let us see how the things will unfold.
Probably should include this trailer, as it’s the same trailer, but with the 4K restoration being shown at Cannes.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CgvK_qhyqgA
Thanks for the heads up, Ben!
Let’s hope the actual release is better than this fanmade trailer “4k remaster”. Looks sheetier than my DVD from 1998
Always that one guy⬆️
Always that one guy who reads the headline and never the article. If you actually clicked and watched the trailer and thought this was a 4K remaster from the film negatives…..may I suggest a visit to the opticians.
Then why are you here if the source material doesn’t suit you? All you do is complain and talk a bunch of crap in the comment section? Go find another alternative website. Wait a minute is this Yilong from the old skool kung fu threads? Lmfao
Everybody be cool! This is just a gentleman’s misunderstanding (& I don’t give out comments easily!) between 2 of our longtime patrons. In fairness, the fanmade trailer that SK refers to was definitely not 4K, so as Big Ben recommended in the comment above, we’ve now updated it to the actual 4K one. As a sidenote, I think I have the same DVD from 1998 laying around somewhere…
I have no idea who Yilong is but if he has beef with you then I think the issue isnt me but actually…you?
Talking a bunch of crap? Pointing out that a supposed 4k trailer isnt actually 4k. Right ….we live in post truth world now where facts are woke. Let me guess…..you celebrated when Orange Mussolini slapped tarriffs against the rest of the world cos paying more to import your blurays is absolutely winning
I remember when we thought it wouldn’t get better than Criterion’s DVD back in the day. I was annoyed to find out that the subs didn’t properly translate the dialogue back then.
I actually liked the Mei Ah DVD because I felt like we were getting the real dialogue (and there were much less grammatical errors than expected) and the picture and sound were nice. I was never embarrassed to bring this DVD to friends houses.
I wish Shout could do limited screenings like WellGo.
Shout factory has won best home video of the year!! The competition is over!
Courtesy of Shout on IG: The restoration of HB. https://variety.com/2025/film/news/john-woo-hard-boiled-restoration-cannes-classics-1236398697/
Anyone catch this on streaming? If the 4K disc is similar to 4K HDR streaming then everyone needs to keep their expectations in check. Is it better than the old 1997(8?) Criterion DVD? Yes of course. Is it upgrade over the HD bootlegs such as the Hong Kong rescue bluray? Only slightly. Detail is overall fine and film grain is thankfully not completely AI’ed out. But from scene to scene the color grading doesn’t look quite right. And some scenes looks like its been taken from a completely different print cos of the dfference in fine detail and sharpness. The 4K disc should be less compressed than streaming which may help out? Who knows.
I’d give it a 3.5 for picture quality. Good but not amazing. Doesn’t wow you like the Fortune Star remasters for Hong Kong 1941 or An Autumns Tale. Looking forward to seeing the quality on Shouts next release.
The new cover is really cool (and I usually hate new covers).
But…that…green…is…atrocious.
Really decent set of extras. Got the itunes version but probably double dip again for the higher bit rate. Not feeling the artwork though. Looking forward to see what Shout do with Bullet in the head in terms of extras. Will they be able to reconstruct the longer version with a proper source so that it doesnt look like a pis$poor fanedit like the german bootleg. The restored theatrical version up on looks stunning at times
i do wish they were able to bring chow yun fat back to talk about these classics.
New Shout trailer. https://youtu.be/EF42unwGhyY?si=TiA3UP5LPyA41CbO
Theatrical trailer with dates. https://youtu.be/KrQpH1ZhSf8?si=7bKDC0SJATJ61TUN
Restoration clip. https://youtu.be/lVQ-diI9PTs?si=xgLvpdYTejv7AqQZ
Tony Leung interview. https://youtu.be/YYkT6OwHwZY?si=5I4CYuBPwg2p8sUX
Woo Q&A. https://youtu.be/WRdcr1-5oOk?si=rhkWBwEXEBv-MFW3
More screenings February 1, because of the winter storm. https://bsky.app/profile/gkids.com/post/3mdjbf77hes2s