There are films, such as the John Wick franchise, that are a tour de force of raining bullets for the duration, where the protagonists seem bullet proof and who also seemingly never run out of ammo.

The makers of these films learnt all they know from the best – John Woo.

The Chinese born director carved a vibrantly violent career for himself in Hong Kong, where he made a name for himself as a unique director of action flicks, but not just in Hong Kong, but all around the world.

The films he made in the eighties and early nineties caught the eye of Hollywood, who signed him up for a number of American films, including Broken Arrow, Face/Off and Mission: Impossible 2.

The last film made in Hong Kong before his career Stateside was 1992’s Hard Boiled, that gets a welcome re-release now to the big screen, with a 4K restoration.

Fighting crime as a cop in Hong Kong is inspector ‘Tequila’ Yuen (Chow Yun-Fat). It’s getting increasingly difficult however with the rise of the triads, who are taking over with their gun smuggling.

It gets personal when a close friend and colleague dies, which only makes Tequila more determined to bring them all down.

But unbeknownst to him, there’s an undercover cop (Tony Leung Chiu-wai) within the gang led by the notorious Johnny Wong (Anthony Chau-Sang Wong), who’s so deep, he struggles to see right from wrong.

Their paths soon cross however, as Wong throws his weight around in his attempt to take down another boss, without a care for the consequences, which turns the heat up in Hong Kong like never before.

Woo’s swansong to his Hong Kong career is a spectacular one. It encapsulates all the techniques that became his signature moves, through his use of slow-motion and freeze frames throughout his action sequences, which became known as Bullet Time. It’s a technique that was adopted by the (then known) Wachowski Brothers, and refined, with The Matrix.

His work continues to be influential, as anyone who has seen Sky’s original series Gangs of London can testify to.

The result in Hard Boiled is a breathless number of over-the-top action sequences, so much so that if set pieces could be turned up by 1, they’d look like this.

They are rich with a kinetic energy, where bullets do indeed rain down, as the kick-ass, clarinet-playing cop Tequila shoots first and doesn’t bother with questions at all.

But despite being an action-fest, Woo stills anchors it to a rich story, which is something that the John Wick franchise neglected, sadly, as the fight between good and evil escalates, with more risk of collateral damage around it all.

When you see it in the cinema, with bullets flying, in 4K no less, it may encourage one specific response – to duck – as you check yourself for flesh wounds on the way out.

Despite being nearly 35 years old, the film remains a riveting experience, and the perfect showcase to the genius of the action genre that is John Woo.