Hard Boiled is charged with the kinetic energy and the flamboyantly choreographed action sequences which constitute the cinema of John Woo. The dreamy slow-motion opening turns abrubtly into a frenetic scene of chaos and violence during a raid on a seedy teahouse. Woo never allows this pace to slacken for the duration of the moive – in fact he accelerates it in the later stages, building to the breathlessly paced finale of sheer mayhem inside a hospital where Inspector Yuen stands his ground with an automatic weapon in one hand an a baby in the other.