John Woo's Movies Will Stream Very Soon. It's a Huge Deal.

Dive into interviews about the making of classics such like The Matrix, John Wick—or simply listen to Quentin Tarantino speak for five minutes, and you'll hear mention of one name as an influence: John Woo. The internationally renowned master of action cinema is your favorite director's favorite director. Yet Woo's most celebrated pictures, such as A Better Tomorrow, The Killer, and Hard Boiled—almost all of them produced in Hong Kong circa the late '80s and early '90s—have been unavailable to stream or buy on Blu-ray for decades outside Asia. Thanks to home video distributor Shout! Factory, that will change very, very soon.

On April 28, Shout! Factory announced its summer 2025 rollout plans for its newly-christened label Hong Kong Cinema Classics. The new label, created to houses Shout!'s January acquisition of the vast Golden Princess film library, will debut with a slew of titles becoming available to watch digitally via VOD platforms on June 24, while its first physical release (as in, 4K Blu-ray discs) will release July 29.

The inaugural releases are a doozy, a murderer's row of the greatest action movies ever made during the Hong Kong New Wave, all remastered for the 4K era. Most are directed by the aforementioned Woo, who spent most of the 1990s in Hollywood as the director of cult classics such as Hard Target, Face/Off, and Mission: Impossible II. Tsui Hark, another revered auteur of Hong Kong cinema, will have several movies available through the new label as well.

Chow Yun-Fat in The Killer, directed by John Woo. During Woo’s "Heroic Bloodshed" heyday, Chow Yun-Fat was one of Woo’s most frequent collaborators, appearing in other films like A Better Tomorrow, Once a Thief, and Hard Boiled.

Here's a quick rundown of all the titles Shout! Factory announced for the opening salvo of Hong Kong Cinema Classics:

June 24

• Hard Boiled (1992), directed by John Woo
• City on Fire (1987), directed by Tsui Hark

July 8

• A Better Tomorrow (1986), directed by John Woo
• A Better Tomorrow II (1987), directed by John Woo
• A Better Tomorrow III: Love & Death in Saigon (1989), directed by Tsui Hark
• Peking Opera Blues (1986), directed by Tsui Hark

August 5

• A Chinese Ghost Story (1987), directed by Ching Siu-tung

August 19

• Bullet in the Head (1990), directed by John Woo

On top of these digital releases, Hong Kong Cinema Classics' first physical release will revolve around superstar Jet Li, in the aptly-titled "The Jet Li Collection" on July 29. The 10-disc 4K UHD + Blu-ray box set will have some of Li's pre-Hollywood bangers such as Fist of Legend (a remake of Bruce Lee's Fist of Fury from 1972), Tai Chi Master, The Bodyguard from Beijing, and the Fong Sai Yuk duology.

If you can't make heads or tails about what any of this means, don't worry. Just know that this is a historic moment for action movie buffs everywhere, many of whom dreamed of the day these movies finally leave whatever vault they've been locked behind. While the Criterion Collection and the now-defunct Dragon Dynasty label (formerly owned by, sigh, Harvey Weinstein) released DVDs of these films throughout the 2000s, they have been long out of print. The movies were also unavailable to stream on platforms like Netflix and Hulu.

Although today's generation of action filmmakers rave about these movies, Byzantine distribution laws have prevented them from enjoying any kind of official release outside Asia. Imagine enjoying today's music but not having any access to the likes of Led Zeppelin, The Rolling Stones, or The Beatles. That's what it's like to be a fan of the John Wick movies and not get to see The Killer.

Don't know where to start? Check out Hard Boiled, which is conveniently the first title coming digitally June 24. The last Hong Kong movie directed by John Woo before he spent the rest of the '90s in Hollywood, Hard Boiled stars Chow Yun-fat as a trigger-happy police officer who teams up with a more careful undercover cop—played by Tony Leung (Marvel's Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings)—to take down a ruthless Triad boss. The movie boasts all of Woo's artistic touches, from elaborate slow-motion to extravagant gunplay, and culminates in a balls-to-the-wall climax that blows up a hospital. The movie is often hailed as one of the greatest action movies of all time, and for good reason: It kicks so much ass.

The aforementioned movies will be made available to purchase digitally on VOD platforms, beginning with City on Fire and Hard Boiled on June 24.

It's unknown if the aforementioned Hong Kong action movies will be available on streaming platforms such as Netflix, Prime Video, and Max. But Shout! has its own streaming service, Shout! TV, which houses the vast majority of its content library. If movies like Hard Boiled still aren't available on Netflix, the best bet would be to check out Shout! TV.