At the end of the ’80s and early ’90s, Hong Kong action films became all the rage of hip cinema lovers. You’d read about their next level gun fights and death defying stunts. The magazine articles would be photocopied and passed around in this age before the internet happened. I would drive over an hour to Dave’s Videodrome in Carrboro in the hopes that the VHS tape would still be on the shelf. While hundreds of titles from Hong Kong have found their way to America on high definition transfers over the last few years, the vault that contained the seminal work of John Woo, Tsui Hark, Ringo Lam and others remained closed for years. Now the movies from the vault are being restored and released in high definition from Shout! Studios’ Hong Kong Cinema Classics line. The first two titles arriving digitally are John Woo’s Hard Boiled and Ringo Lam’s City On Fire in June. Both films star actor Chow Yun-Fat at his peak coolness on screen. Here’s the press release from Shout! Studios with all the details and the schedule for more Hong Kong Cinema Classics digital releases during the summer:
What’s New & Upcoming Digital Releases for June 2025
SHOUT! STUDIOS PRESENTS HONG KONG CINEMA CLASSICS
HARD BOILED
Directed by John Woo
Starring Chow Yun-Fat and Tony Leung Chiu-wai
CITY ON FIRE
Directed by Ringo Lam
Starring Chow Yun-Fat, Sun Yueh, Danny Lee
Available On Demand and Digital | JUNE 24, 2025
Apple TV, Amazon, Google Play, YouTube, Fandango At Home,
Microsoft, and other digital platforms
Hong Kong cinema in the ’80s and ’90s, renowned for its thrilling action choreography, distinctive visual styles, and emotional storytelling, represents a remarkable era in cinematic history, whose crime thrillers, martial arts classics, and action films, in particular, have left an indelible mark on Hollywood, profoundly influencing everything from Quentin Tarantino’s movies to the iconic Matrix and John Wick franchises. Among these are many acclaimed and popular early works by renowned filmmakers John Woo, Ringo Lam, Tsui Hark, Corey Yuen, Gordon Chan, Johnnie To, and internationally renowned actors Jet Li, Michelle Yeoh, Chow Yun-Fat, Tony Leung Chiu-wai, Leslie Cheung, and Tony Leung Ka-fai. Many of these highly sought-after movies from Shout!’s Golden Princess library and seminal Hong Kong classics have been dormant and out–of–print for decades outside of Asia.
Shout! Studios, in collaboration with the Hong Kong Film Archives, has been working diligently to remaster and restore several prized hits, all scanned in stunning 4K from the original camera negatives. The video and audio have been restored, and the subtitles have been newly translated. Action fans and martial arts and movie enthusiasts will relish these definitive releases of Hong Kong cinema masterpieces, available for digital download and on-demand across major digital entertainment platforms in the U.S.
Presented by Shout! Studios, the first titles to be made available digitally in 4K include:
HARD BOILED in 4K (*Newly remastered and restored)
Directed by John Woo
Starring Chow Yun-Fat, Tony Leung Chiu-wai
A tough-as-nails cop teams up with an undercover agent to shut down a sinister mobster and his crew.
Chow Yun-Fat stars as a cop hell-bent on bringing down the gun smugglers responsible for his partner’s death. Along with an undercover cop whose secret identity as a hitman hangs by a thread. The film raises gunfights to an art form, with some of the most celebrated action sequences ever.
CITY ON FIRE in 4K (*Newly remastered and restored)
Directed by Ringo Lam
Starring Chow Yun-Fat, Sun Yueh, Danny Lee
Chow Yun-Fat (Hard Boiled, A Better Tomorrow) stars in this sizzling, highly influential crime drama from director Ringo Lam (Full Contact, Prison On Fire, Maximum Risk).
Ko Chow is an undercover cop torn between his duty as a police officer and his loyalty to his friends on the wrong side of the law. He wants out – and his commanding officer Inspector Lau reluctantly approves his resignation – but only after he completes one final assignment. Tasked with infiltrating a notorious gang of criminals, Chow bonds with their leader (Danny Lee, The Killer), building a relationship based on mutual trust and respect. But when a planned heist turns into a violent shootout with the law, the tension among the thieves heats up … and they begin to suspect there is an informant in their midst.
HONG KONG CINEMA CLASSICS | UPCOMING DIGITAL RELEASES
June 24, 2025 John Woo’s HARD BOILED in 4K (starring Chow Yun-Fat, Tony Leung Chiu-wai).
June 24, 2025 Ringo Lam’s CITY ON FIRE in 4K (starring Chow Yun-Fat, Sun Yueh, Danny Lee).
July 8, 2025 John Woo’s A BETTER TOMORROW in 4K (starring Leslie Cheung, Chow Yun-Fat), A BETTER TOMORROW II in 4K (starring Leslie Cheung, Chow Yun-Fat), and A BETTER TOMORROW III in 4K (starring Chow Yun-Fat, Tony Leung Ka-fai).
July 22, 2025 Tsui Hark’s PEKING OPERA BLUES in 4K (starring Brigitte Lin, Sally Yeh, Cherie Chung).
July 22, 2025 John Woo’s THE KILLER in 4K (starring Chow Yun-Fat, Danny Lee).
August 5, 2025 Tony Ching’s A CHINESE GHOST STORY (starring Leslie Cheung, Joey Wang), A CHINESE GHOST STORY II (starring Leslie Cheung, Joey Wang), and A CHINESE GHOST STORY III (starring Tony Leung Chiu-wai, Joey Wang).
August 19, 2025 John Woo’s BULLET IN THE HEAD in 4K (starring Tony Leung Chiu-wai).
About Shout! Studios
Shout! Studios is a multiplatform media company specializing in film and TV distribution, development, and production. The company has evolved with the changing entertainment landscape to excel in all forms of content distribution, including theatrical, digital streaming, broadcast and in-flight licensing, physical media, and more. Shout! Studios owns Gravitas Ventures and manages a large portfolio of feature films, series, anime, animation, and documentaries. The company’s creative acquisition mandate has established it as a leading independent distributor, with partners and properties including Aardman Animations, The Carol Burnett Show, GKIDS and Studio Ghibli (including the latest Academy Award® -winning masterpiece from Miyazaki, The Boy And The Heron), LAIKA Studios, Mystery Science Theater 3000, Golden Princess movie library, alongside many others. Shout! Studios operates two successful imprints – Scream Factory for genre horror films and TV, and Shout! Kids for family animation and live-action entertainment. Shout! Studios also operates the acclaimed streaming service Shout! TV and its family of FAST channels. Shout! Studios produces, acquires, and distributes new films, including Shout! Studios’ original film Old Henry (Tim Blake Nelson), acclaimed Western The Dead Don’t Hurt (Viggo Mortensen, Vicky Krieps), Linoleum (Jim Gaffigan, Rhea Seehorn), Shekhar Kapur’s What’s Love Got To Do With It (Lily James, Emma Thompson), family comedy A Sudden Case of Christmas (Danny DeVito, Andie MacDowell), and the upcoming Western thriller Killing Faith (Guy Pearce, DeWanda Wise, Bill Pullman). Shout! Studios is based in Los Angeles, California. For more on Shout! Studios, visit ShoutStudios.com
