HARD BOILED and A BETTER TOMORROW Trilogy Explode Onto 4K UHD And Blu-Ray In November
Shout! Studios spent the last several days teasing its latest upcoming disc release across the socials. On Wednesday, the label finally lifted the curtain with an announcement of 4K UHD+Blu-Ray releases of some of the biggest Hong Kong action films of all time: all three of the A Better Tomorrow Films on November 18, and Hard Boiled on November 4.
All four films – releasing from Shout! Studios – currently sit among the cadre of reprised releases in the U.S. from the label as part of its Hong Kong Cinema Classics initiative, including Ringo Lam’s 1987 undercover cop thriller, City On Fire, which also released on 4K UHD+Blu-Ray from Shout! in late August.
John Woo directed the first two installments of the A Better Tomorrow trilogy in association with producer Tsui Hark, which features leading man Chow Yun-Fat across all three films, along headlining Ti Lung and Leslie Cheung in the sequel; A Better Tomorrow sees a Hong Kong cop woven into a battle with triad forces following a violent betrayal suffered by his brother and best friend who previously shepherded a counterfeiting operation. A Better Tomorrow II joins the cast of returning actors with newly-added co-star Dean Shek with a story that sees a surviving twin help take down a vicious triad boss with a vengeance, while the Hark-directed 1989 threequel, A Better Tomorrow: Love & Death In Saigon, adds screen legends Tony Leung Ka-fai and Anita Mui for a prequel add-on to the franchise.
Taking inspiration in part from the works of Clint Eastwood and Steve McQueen, Woo directed Hard Boiled from a script by Gordon Chan and Barry Wong, reuniting Woo with Chow following A Better Tomorrow and A Better Tomorrow 2, and The Killer. The film also marks one of Woo and Chow’s early partnerships with producer Terence Chang following The Killer and heist thriller Once A Thief which also stars Chow.
Hard Boiled follows a relentless detective’s pursuit of vengeance against a ruthless illicit arms dealer, ensuing an uneasy partnership with an undercover cop, and a series of explosive firefights leading up to a deadly hospital showdown. Also starring are Tony Leung Chiu-Wai, Teresa Mo, Philip Chan, Philip Kwok, and Anthony Wong, with action sequences by Kwok, and a kinetic score by Michael Gibbs.
The film was released in Hong Kong by Golden Princess Film Distribution and was a box office hit in its home region, and landing a limited release in the U.S. the following year after bowing at the 17th Toronto International Film Festival to roaring applause. In the years since home video dominated the markets, the film further enjoyed its advent on the home media market debuting on laser disc in the early 1990s, and eventually making its way to DVD in the U.S. through labels like Criterion, Fox Lorber, and Dragon Dynasty. DVDs of Hard Boiled and other properties of Golden Princess long remained out-of-print for decades due to rights issues.
Shout! announced its acquisition of more than a hundred titles comprising the Golden Princess library back in January, currently headling digital, theatrical and free ad-supported streaming releases since the late summer. As part of its Hong Kong Cinema Classics rollout, the slate includes a quintet of Jet Li titles released between 1993 and 1994.
Arrow Video is expected to follow suit in the UK in 2026.
Pre-orders are now up and running over at the Shout!Factory official website.
