Inside the Painstaking Restoration of John Woo’s ‘Hard Boiled’ Set for Cannes Classics Spotlight (EXCLUSIVE)

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Chow Yun-fat’s bullet ballet is reloaded and ready to fire again on the Croisette.

In 2023, John Woo’s iconic 1992 action movie “Hard Boiled” is set to be screened prominently at Cannes Classics. Interestingly, we discovered that EbMaster played a crucial role in preserving this riddled-with-bullet masterpiece from becoming a cinematic relic by using their expertise in blood, sweat, and digital magic.

As a dedicated cinephile, I’m thrilled to share that the long-awaited film starring Chow Yun-fat is finally gracing the Cannes Film Festival screens! This masterpiece, previously absent due to rights complications, now brings fresh insights into the intricate preservation process it underwent.

In the movie, a tough police officer (Chow), whose partner was killed in a gunfight with illegal arms dealers, embarks on a quest to apprehend them. To get near the masterminds, he teams up with an undercover cop (Tony Leung Chiu-wai) posing as a ruthless mob assassin. They employ extreme methods to track down their targets. The cast includes Teresa Mo, Philip Chan, Philip Kwok, and Anthony Wong.

In the movie, a gritty police officer (Chow), who lost his partner in a firefight with gun traffickers, sets out to bring them to justice. To get close to the top bosses, he collaborates with an undercover cop (Tony Leung Chiu-wai) posing as a cold-blooded gangland killer. They resort to brutal tactics to find their quarry. The cast includes Teresa Mo, Philip Chan, Philip Kwok, and Anthony Wong.

Jordan Fields, senior VP acquisitions and originals at Shout! Studios, explains that the films ‘Hard Boiled’ and all 156 movies from the Golden Princess library have been mostly inaccessible outside Asia. This is due to the fact that the rights for these films have long been held by Kowloon Development Company (KDC), a Hong Kong property developer, which has shown little interest in the film business since the closure of Golden Princess Film Production in 1995.

For the initial time, experts working on the restoration have outlined the intensive labor involved in returning this iconic action film to its original splendor. Originating from the Hong Kong Film Archive and digitally preserved by Interface Video Production Ltd in Hong Kong, the original negative posed numerous difficulties.

Michael Coronado, a specialist in film restoration at Duplitech, stated that the condition of the film was far from ideal. It showed clear indications of age and usage, with numerous tears appearing across various reels. The most conspicuous issue was the frequent tearing, but the hospital action sequence filmed in one take was heavily affected by a thick layer of dust and deep scratches running vertically. These imperfections seriously impaired the scene’s visual sharpness and impact.

He notes that the substance displayed obvious changes in position and occasional distortions, primarily because it was contracting.

As a cinephile, I’ve been thrilled by the meticulous work done by the restoration team. They’ve utilized an advanced blend of Filmworkz Phoenix and Pixel Farm’s PF Clean technologies to bring old films back to life. The journey started with Phoenix DVO Frame Lock, a tool that ensured the image was steady before moving on to tackle flicker and distortion problems.

One of the key discoveries made during the process of restoring ‘Hard Boiled’ was the high degree of human intervention needed. As Coronado explains, the action-packed nature of the film, with frequent explosions, gunfire, and swift movements, posed a challenge for automated dirt removal. Consequently, these dynamic scenes necessitated painstaking manual restoration, frame by frame.

Towards the final part of reel number four, we faced a tough spot. As Coronado shares, our team discovered a large tear that had split the visual content right across the screen. To fix this problematic section, our talented restoration artists employed clone-painting methods, essentially blending undamaged footage from adjacent frames to mend the torn segment.

The process of adjusting colors for ‘Hard Boiled’ presented several complex issues. As revealed by supervising colorist Blake David-Blasingame of Duplitech, the movie features more than 2900 shots over its 128-minute duration, many of which are optical shots requiring dynamic keyframes for corrections. Moreover, the original footage was uneven, necessitating scene-by-scene and occasionally shot-by-shot re-timing to ensure consistency.

The final stage of the restoration resulted in a Dolby Vision High Dynamic Range master. All variations, including the one intended for screening at Cannes based on the P3 Digital Cinema standard, were produced using this source.

Henry Weintraub, the restoration supervisor at Shout! Studios, expresses the personal commitment towards the project by stating, “Restoring the film was not just a task, but a cherished endeavor. ‘Hard Boiled’ holds immense significance for countless individuals, including myself, and I felt it necessary to do it proudly. It was crucial to maintain the authentic aesthetic and sound design of the time, while simultaneously refining these aspects to maximize their impact.

Director John Woo has endorsed the project, expressing his satisfaction with the restoration. “He shared that he was extremely pleased with it,” Weintraub verifies, which was particularly gratifying considering how much the movie means to him personally.

Choosing the restoration of this iconic action movie for Cannes Classics provides a perfect return to its roots, offering contemporary viewers the chance to witness director Woo’s graceful violence and exceptional skill in cinema technique just as it was meant to be viewed, on the large screen.

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2025-05-16 10:17