Hard Boiled (1992)

This film is said to be the precursor to the popular 2007 video game Stranglehold

Summary

-A tough as nails cop and undercover police officer team up to take down a mobster and his crew importing weapons into Hong Kong

Cast

-Chow Yun-fat: Inspector 'Tequila' Yuen

-Tony Leung Chiu-wai: Alan

-Teresa Mo: Teresa Chang

-Philip Chan: Superintendent Pang

-Phillip Chung-Fung Kwok: Mad Dog

-Anthony Chau-Sang Wong: Johnny Wong

-Hoi-San Kwan: Uncle Hoi

-Wei Tung: Foxy

-Bowie Lam: Benny Mak

Did You Know?

-In the scene where Tequila is running down the hall with the baby in his arms and the hall exploding in the hospital, director John Woo was not happy with the first take. He made sure the second take had the explosions far closer than Chow Yun-fat was expecting. Chow said "He really was running for his life". He was professional enough to ask how it looked after it was done, but he turned around and said a swear word

-The teahouse where the first scene was filmed was demolished five days after John Woo had filmed in it. When filming was in progress, neighbors called the police every night to complain about the noise, but since the police were fans of Woo, they allowed him to continue each night

-John Woo was known for making movies that glamorized gangsters. In this film, he turned it around and glamorized police

-Many of the characteristics Tequila shows in this film are based on a real police officer John Woo interviewed for the film, such as playing the clarinet in a jazz band. Tequila's love of jazz is taken from John Woo himself

-The more than 200 guns used in this film were real. Hong Kong has very strict laws regarding guns, and they had to be imported from England and inspected by the Hong Kong police prior to being used on set. The production crew also had to import a massive quantity of blank ammunition. It was said that over 100,000 rounds of blank ammunition were used in the film

-Philip Chan, who played Superintendent Pang, was, in real life, a Hong Kong police commander who actually did supervise undercover officers

-The scenes in the hospital took 40 days to shoot

-This was the final Hong Kong film that John Woo made before moving to Hollywood. He was being courted by people in Hollywood, and he wanted to make films that would be popular in his home country and a passport to Hollywood

-There was a sequel to this movie released in 2007. It was in the form of a video game called Stranglehold, with Chow Yun-fat and John Woo performing their roles

-Originally, John Woo wanted a jazz soundtrack for the 1989 film The Killer, but was overruled by producer Hark Tsui. He got his jazz soundtrack in this film

-While filming the warehouse scene, John Woo learned that the film's writer, Barry Wong, had passed away. "He was a true talent which I really admired." he said

-Despite John Woo telling the cast that the film would be grittier and less stylish than his previous films, it changed as filming proceeded

-The role of Inspector Tequila is based on "Dirty" Harry Callahan (Clint Eastwood) from the Dirty Harry series and Lt. Frank Bullitt (Steve McQueen) from the 1968 film Bullitt. Like Inspector Tequila, these men were "all guts, no glory" action heroes. Both of these fictional police officers were based on SFPD detective Dave Toschi, who was the lead investigator in the "Zodiac" case

-Script problems caused production to stop for one month. John Woo was having issues with Tony Leung Chiu-wai's character. He wanted to show how far Hong Kong society had fallen, with Leung's character being a psychotic villain who was based on a real life person who had poisoned baby formula. Despite Leung willing to do the role, Chow Yun-fat felt bad about this, as he felt it would be bad for Leung's career. He urged Woo to change the script. Woo agreed, and asked his friend Barry Wong to edit the script. He died prior to finishing the script, so Woo completed the script during filming

-The lead character was named Tequila as a nod to the Sam Peckinpah film The Wild Bunch. This film served as inspiration in many ways, including William Holden's character drinking an entire bottle of tequila

-The statue that Tequila and other officers do respectful prayers at is Guan Yu, known as the God of War. He was a military general in the Eastern Han Dynasty who made a deity as early as the Sui Dynasty. He is still worshipped among the Chinese people to this day. He is a deity that exemplifies bravery, leadership, righteousness, protection and triumph. He is commonly worshipped by Chinese law enforcement agencies so that Guan Yu's blessings will protect them in life and at work. In Hong Kong, every police station has a shrine to Guan Yu

-While researching the film, John Woo interviewed real police officers, including one detective who was known for being extremely rough on criminals. "But in the meantime, he's a drummer", John Woo said. Woo put that in the movie, making a cop who works in a jazz club

City on Fire (1987)

This is one of Chow Yun-fat's earlier movies and, not surprisingly, it's in Chinese. If you watch, be prepared to read subtitles in English. It's overall a good movie. Certainly was not prepared to see Chow Yun-fat's bare backside, though

Summary

-An undercover officer looking to retire is drawn into one final case - investigating a gang of jewel thieves planning to rob a jewelry store

Cast

-Chow Yun-fat: Ko Chow

-Yueh Sun: Inspector Lau

-Danny Lee: Fu

-Carrie Ng: Hung

-Roy Cheung: Inspector John Chan

-Lau Kong: Inspector Chow

Did You Know?

-Quentin Tarantino used this film as the inspiration for his film Reservoir Dogs

-In the scene where Ko Chow escaped from the police by jumping from the second floor to the eave on the first floor of the building and then down to the ground, that was not done by a stuntman; it was actually done by Chow Yun-fat himself. A stuntman had done a practice of this before shooting while the director had set up tatami mats and safety boxes for protection to keep things safe. These safety measures were hidden using specific angles

-Chow Yun-fat and Danny Lee appeared in another movie together. John Woo's 1989 film The Killer. Chow Yun-fat plays a hitman while Danny Lee plays a police officer

-In the scene where Ko Chow (Chow Yun-fat) is running along Nathan Road to escape the police, the scene was filmed when director Ringo Lam put the camera in a van and suggested Chow Yun-fat to follow the van driving along the road

I'm planning my trip to Japan!

Japan is a country I have dreamed of seeing since I was a child. I am incredibly fascinated by the culture. I love the culture, the architecture, the art, all of it. I'm in the planning stages of planning a trip there. I am doing research into the types of restaurants to be found there, where I can stay, what kind of experiences I can sign up for and more

It's so much fun doing the research. Apparently, what I discovered during my research, is that if you visit the Visit Japan website, you can do all of your pre-registration or immigrations forms there. And have them ready for the officials at the airport, meaning you can start enjoying your trip faster! Oooooo. I am fine with that, especially if the makes the jobs easier for the customs officials at the airports

I'm also in the process of learning Japanese. I wish I had more time each night than 20-30 minutes to work on my lessons. I have to work with the little time I have each night after work. But, I've been doing research and compiling information about the types of experiences one can sign up for through authorized travel sites. There is one in Akihabara where you can customize your own Game Boy or Game Boy Advance. How cool is this? It's a bit pricy, at around $347, but it's definitely worth it. I'll definitely do that. And you can also visit Tokyo Disneyland, Tokyo DisneySea or Universal Studios Japan by going through this Asia-based travel site called Klook. They help you get tickets for places like that at reasonable rates. There are even experiences where you can don the kimono and armor of samurai and learn more about these ancient, but noble warriors. You can even buy tickets for events and attractions at convenience stores, or konbini, as they are called in Japan. Places like FamilyMart, Lawson or 7-Eleven!

I did keep seeing the same concept-buy tickets ahead of time or well in advance because of their popularity. What I didn't even realize is that, in addition to Japanese restaurants there, there are other ethnic restaurants in Japan. There are pizza parlors!! Can you believe that? Pizza parlors!! I've read that many of them have won awards for best pizza. One in particular, called PST Pizza in Tokyo, had won numerous awards for World's Best Pizza. I will definitely have to try that. There are even other ethnic restaurants in Japan, such as Chinese, Thai, American, Tex-Mex and more. It sounds strange to hear these ethnic restaurants in Japan, but it's been said that Japan prides itself on meticulous attention to detail. This must explain why the food often ends up being incredible! I cannot wait to try for myself. There are even pancake places there!! Ooooooooo. One notable restaurant is called Flippers Pancakes. I believe I will definitely try this place. A lot of these restaurants don't start opening until 9am or later; which is fine with me. I'm usually not awake until then anyway. And besides, even if I were to get up earlier, I can explore while the shops are up and running. One site that keeps getting mentioned in Tabelog; it's a Japanese restaurant review site that can be used to find restaurants. I will definitely use this site

I also found plenty of sites providing information on entering / exiting the country legally. Filling out the customs forms. What you can and cannot bring in and what you can and cannot take out. About tax free shopping. The policy on tattoos and more. Despite Japan becoming more relaxed in their strict no-tattoo policy, there are some who are not comfortable seeing tattoos, because of the stigma they carry. For those who are unaware, there is a form of organized crime in Japan called the Yakuza, or Japanese Mafia. They are known for heavy body tattooing. These articles I've read about whether tattoos are safe in Japan state that, while the attitudes towards tattoos are changing, it's still better safe than sorry to cover them up. Just to avoid the risk of offending / upsetting someone. It's always better to cover them up to respect someone's wishes