As anyone who’s seen it knows, Hard Boiled is a pretty
amazing action flick—arguably John Woo’s best, it’s packed with
enough blistering explosions and searing bullets to fill 20 less
impressive action films. But frustratingly, Hard Boiled has also
been hard to find on American DVD shelves. Until Dragon Dynasty.
It’s not often that a DVD label is worth singling out. But such is
the case with Dragon Dynasty, an imprint specializing in Asian action
flicks that was founded last year by the Weinstein Company (dragondynasty.com). Hard Boiled is one of the line’s flagship titles, but there are others: Tony Jaa’s
The Protector, Jackie Chan’s Police Story flicks, and the
excellent Infernal Affairs trilogy (now famous as the basis for
Scorcese’s The Departed). All are films that normally wouldn’t
get an American DVD release—but thanks to some impressive efforts
from Dragon Dynasty, fans of Asian action films are no longer forced to
scour eBay for region-free, special feature-less bootlegs.
Three titles are most indicative of the imprint: Hard Boiled (1992), the kung fu classic The 36th Chamber of Shaolin (1978),
and 2006’s The City of Violence. Hard Boiled still holds
up, as punctuated by Chow Yun-Fat’s classic performance as a detective
with chronically itchy trigger fingers. 36th Chamber might not
be as well known, but it’s one of the best and coolest kung fu flicks
ever made, featuring a young Gordon Liu (who’d go on to play a few
roles in Tarantino’s Kill Bill films). And then there’s the fun
The City of Violence, Ryoo Seung-Wan’s stylish revenge epic.
Not all of Dragon Dynasty’s releases are as impressive (witness the
painful direct-to-DVD-ness of 2005’s Dragon Heat, produced by
Steven Seagal and starring B-listers Sammo Hung and Michael Biehn). But
the above titles—and otherwise forgotten films like Woo’s Last
Hurrah for Chivalry (1993), Tsui Hark’s Seven Swords (2005),
and Chan’s Crime Story (1993)—cement the Weinstein
Company’s label as something well worth supporting. Dragon Dynasty is
merely filling a niche, yes—but it’s a niche that’s needed
filling for too long.
