Hard-Boiled (1992, HK) (aka Lat Sau San Taam)

In director John Woo's great tough-guy, influential, star-making action flick (his last film made in his native China before coming to Hollywood) - it was an intense cop thriller about warring factions of Hong Kong mafia. It has been considered the ultimate shoot-out 'gun-fu' flick of all time with two major shoot-out set-pieces.

The film was notable for its highly-choreographed, stylish scenes of gunfire - it was the quintessential HK action film. Its tagline described the main character: "As a cop, he has brains, brawn, and an instinct to kill."

From start to finish, the film was filled with explosions, gunplay, and dead bodies for a high body-count, ending as the duo infiltrated a mobster's secret hideaway inside a hospital's basement level:

• the opening fierce gun battle was set in a Hong Kong restaurant-tea house (with gilded bird cages) between officers and criminals (a sinister group of gun smugglers led by criminal mobster Johnny Wong (Anthony Wong)) during a police raid, including hot-headed Inspector "Tequila" Yuen (Chow Yun-fat) and his partner Benny (Bowie Lam); the Inspector slid down a stairway railing or banister on his back, with pistols blasting and blazing, one in each hand
• during the gun-pointing standoff sequence in a warehouse shootout between Tequila and undercover cop Alan (Tony Leung) (posing as an assassin), the two held guns to each other's heads - Tequila's .357 Ruger GP100 revolver was out of ammunition when he pulled the trigger; Alan could have then shot and killed Tequila, but he slowly lowered his gun and walked away, after which Tequila opened his revolver and dumped all its blank shells
• the climactic and very lengthy 30 minute shootout scene (appearing almost like a live-action, shoot-em-up video game) occurred in the corridors, lobby, maternity ward, and offices of the burning, under-siege Maple Group Hospital (including a nursery with infants) and ended outside (notable for its single, continuous take of two minutes and forty seconds in the enemy-infested hallways)