John Woo

For the Judge Dredd character, see Johnny Woo.

John Woo (Chinese: 吳宇森; pinyin: Wú Yǔsēn) (born 22 September, 1946) is a Chinese film director and producer known especially for his Heroic bloodshed movies, which often include "balletic violence".

Biography

At age five Woo's parents were faced with persecution and his Christian family fled to Hong Kong. During this time, the Woo family led a hard life in the slums (shek Kip Mei) since his father had tuberculosis and could not work. Woo went to Concordia Lutheran School and received Christian education. His childhood was therefore influenced by Chrisitan thought and so does the influence appear on his moives. In 1953, the family was made homeless when their house was burned to the ground in a brush fire. It was only thanks to donations from charities that his family was able to move into another house. Unfortunately, by this time, a wave of crime and violence was beginning to infest Hong Kong's housing projects.

In order to escape his dismal surroundings, Woo would retreat to the local movie theater. It was through musicals like The Wizard of Oz —a film that still stands as his all-time favorite—that the young Woo came to realize that the world was not just filled with violence and suffering; it could be beautiful and happy as well.

Woo married Annie Woo Ngau Chun-lung in 1976 and has had three children. He plans to continue living in the United States.

Hong Kong career history

In 1969, when he was 23, Woo got a job as a script supervisor at Cathay Studios. In 1971, he became an assistant director at Shaw Studios, where the famous Chang Cheh took him under his wing. In 1974 he directed his first feature film The Young Dragons (鐵漢柔情, Tie han rou qing). Choreographed by Jackie Chan, it was a Kung fu action film that featured dynamic camera-work and elaborate action scenes. The film was picked up by Golden Harvest Studio where he went on to direct more martial arts films. He later had success as a comedy director with Money Crazy (發錢寒, Fa qian han) (1977), starring Hong Kong comedian Ricky Hui.

By the mid-1980s, Woo suffered a burnout. His films were failures at the box office and he retreated to Taiwan in exile. John Woo— once called the new comedy king of Hong Kong— seemed to be on his way out. It was then that director/producer Tsui Hark provided the funding for Woo to film a longtime pet project called A Better Tomorrow (1986).

The story of two brothers— one a cop, the other a criminal— the film became a sensational blockbuster. A Better Tomorrow singularly redefined Hong Kong action cinema with its emotional drama, slow-motion gun-battles and gritty atmosphere. The film's trenchcoat/sunglasses fashion sense, and combat style of using a gun in each hand in close quarters— often referred to as 'Gun fu'— would later inspire Hollywood filmmakers such as Robert Rodriguez, Quentin Tarantino and the Wachowski brothers.

Together with leading man Chow Yun-Fat, John Woo would make several more Heroic Bloodshed films in the late 1980s and early 1990s. His violent gangster thrillers typically focused on men who were steadfast in their honor and friendship, even though such values forced them to become outcasts in a rapidly-changing world that was more motivated by money and progress. In this respect, Woo's characters were modern-day knights who wielded guns instead of swords. He was heavily influenced by the films of French director Jean-Pierre Melville.

The most famous of these movies would be The Killer (Die xue shuang xiong) (1989), which brought Woo international recognition. Often named as the best Hong Kong movie ever made, it was widely praised by critics and fans for its action sequences, acting and cinematography, and often referred to as the perfect action film. With The Killer becoming the most successful Hong Kong film in the U.S. since Bruce Lee's Enter the Dragon (1973), John Woo became a cult favorite. One year later he made another masterpiece, Bullet in the Head, that he still considers as his most personal work. The movie was a major commercial failure in his career though.

It was only a matter of time before Hollywood took notice. By this time, John Woo had many American admirers, including the likes of Martin Scorsese, and Sam Raimi - who compared Woo's mastery of action to Hitchcock's mastery of suspense. Enormously impressed with his work, American executives green-lighted a contract for Woo to work in America. With the 1997 handover of Hong Kong fast approaching, Woo decided that it was indeed time to leave.

John Woo's last Hong Kong film was Hard Boiled (1992), which he made as an antithesis to his movies that glorifies gangsters. Upping the ante with an all-out action film, it featured a Hollywood-scale spectacle in its second half with policemen and criminals waging war inside a hospital - while helpless patients are caught in the crossfire. The sequence lasted nearly 30 minutes. There is a long take in this scene which follows Tequila and Tony go from one floor to another. It lasts 2 minutes and 42 seconds. On the Criterion DVD and laserdisc, this chapter is called 2 minutes, 42 seconds. The film climaxes with supercop Chow Yun-Fat singing a lullaby to a baby while gunning down incoming gangsters, and then jumping out of a window to safety below, baby in arm.

John Woo is the subject of John Woo: Interviews, the first authoritative English-language chronicle of Woo’s career. The volume includes a new 36-page interview with Woo by editor Robert K. Elder which documents the years 1968 to 1990, from Woo’s early career in working on comedies and kung fu films (in which he gave Jackie Chan one of his first major movie roles), to his gun-powder morality plays in Hong Kong.

United States career history

In 1993, John Woo found himself in a new land with a new culture. He was commissioned by Universal Studios to direct the Jean Claude Van Damme film Hard Target. While Woo was used to creative freedom in Hong Kong, he was forced to deal with a compressed production schedule. Like many foreign directors who come to Hollywood, Woo found himself hamstrung at every turn by the studios, having to deal with things such as how many people could be killed in each scene, how many bullets Van Damme could pump into somebody, how Van Damme could behave and so on. When initial cuts failed to yield an "R" rated film, the studio took the film from Woo's hands and pared it down themselves in order to produce a cut that was "suitable for American audiences". A "rough cut" of the film, supposedly his original unrated version, is still circulated among fans.

It would be three long years before Woo made another American directorial attempt. Starring John Travolta and Christian Slater, Broken Arrow was a frantic chase-picture with a bigger budget. Unfortunately, Woo once again found himself hampered by studio interference and editors who did not share his sense of aesthetics and filming style. What resulted was a film that, despite modest financial success, lacked Woo's trademark style.

Still smarting from his bitter experiences, Woo cautiously rejected the script for Face/Off several times until it was rewritten to suit him (by shifting the futuristic setting to a modern one). With Paramount Pictures offering him significantly more freedom this time around, Woo set out to craft a complex story of two enemies— a law enforcement agent played by John Travolta and a terrorist played by Nicolas Cage—who embark on a fantastical surgical procedure that allows them to switch faces. Trapped in each other's identities, they play a cat-and-mouse game that allowed Woo to do what he did best: emotional characterization and elaborate action. Face/Off opened in 1997 to critical acclaim and performed well at the box office, grossing over $100 million in the United States alone. As a result, John Woo became the first Asian director to hit mainstream, paving the way for other Asian filmmakers to follow in his footsteps. Many fans and critics consider this his best American film.

John Woo has made three additional Hollywood films: Mission: Impossible II, Windtalkers and Paycheck. While Mission: Impossible II was a huge hit in 2000, Windtalkers and Paycheck have been box office duds that were lambasted by critics. It is unclear whether Woo will be able to bounce back from these disappointments.

Currently, John Woo is directing and producing a videogame called Stranglehold for next gen consoles and PC. It will be a sequel to his 1992 film, Hard Boiled. He is also slated to return to China with Chow Yun-Fat sometime in 2008 to shoot his next major project, the highly anticipated The Battle of Red Cliff, based on a historical epic battle from Romance of the Three Kingdoms, which is currently in pre-production. He is also involved in numerous projects in a producing capacity.

Directorial trademarks

• use of doves
• use of gun fu, especially dual wielding pistols
• use of rainbows
• heavy use of slow motion
• scenes in a hospital
• use of freeze frame
• use of motorcycles
• use of reflection
• use of unusual hand-to-hand weapons
• characters engaged in a Mexican standoff
• characters engaged in back-to-back banter
• Beretta 92F/FS Pistol

Trivia

• Woo discovered then television actor Chow Yun-Fat to star in A Better Tomorrow, not anticipating the level of stardom the actor would achieve. Woo said of Yun-Fat in a 1999 interview with Robert K. Elder, "This guy was so elegant and also had great charisma. He reminded me of Alain Delon, and Steve McQueen, Ken Takakura—all my great idols, all in him. And I thought, while we are shooting, I just felt, "He’s a great actor; he will be popular.” But I didn’t know he’d be that popular, you know?"
• One of Woo's trademarks is doves. He was quoted in the June 2000 edition of Premiere magazine:

"I love doves. I am a Christian. Doves represent the purity of love, beauty. They're spiritual. Also the dove is a messenger between people and God... When I shot The Killer, these two men, the killer and the cop, they work in different ways, but their souls are pure, because they do the right thing. In the church scene, I wanted to bring them together. I wanted to use a metaphor of the heart. I came up with doves —they're white. When the men die, I cut to the dove flying —it's the soul, rescued and safe and also pure of heart. So the dove became one of my habits: I used it in Hard Boiled, Face/Off, and in Mission: Impossible II".

• In reply to a studio executive who said "I suppose Woo can direct action scenes," Quentin Tarantino has been quoted as saying "Sure, and Michelangelo can paint ceilings!"
• When Jean-Claude Van Damme was trying to get Woo for Hard Target he described him as "the Martin Scorsese of Asia".
• John Woo likes the look of the Beretta 92F/FS pistol and had featured it in many of his movies. He stated in an interview that it "is a great character" and added that "it's so strong and elegant." He also mentioned that other pistols looked dumb to him.
• John Woo was at one point signed up to direct film adaptations of two video game series: Metroid and Rainbow Six.
• John Woo enjoyed watching Western movies during his youth, especially the final scene in Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid where the two comrades run out gun blazing (where he got the inspiration of holding two guns). Woo is also a fan of Hollywood musicals and at one point, was a contender for the director's chair for Phantom of the Opera.

References in other media

• In the anime series, R.O.D the TV which features three girls named after real life Hong Kong action stars, 'John Woo' is the name of a mysterious carrier pigeon.
• In another anime series, FLCL, two characters can be seen watching the climactic end sequence of an action movie. Although the screen in not visible, it can be surmised that it is indeed a John Woo film, as one of the film's characters exclaims, "What are all these pigeons doing in here?" and a multitude of flapping wings heard. The screen was then broken, and a flock of white doves flew out of the TV set. Also the episode uses gun fu and frequent slow motion, as common in John Woo films. Also in the preview of the above mentioned episode (a preview of the next episode is alway shown at the end of the previous, as with most anime series), the character Haruko mentions humorous things to keep in mind when seeing a John Woo film.
• Japanese professional wrestler SUWA, of the promotions Dragon's Gate and Pro Wrestling NOAH, utilizes a seated dropkick that frequently sends its victim flying back-first into the corner. As a fan of Hong Kong action cinema, he calls this move the "John Woo", as a homage to the impact of shotgun blasts on the human body in Woo's films.
• In the video game Max Payne there are many homages and references to John Woo. For example, the black suit and tie Max is seen wearing at the beginning, as well as the dual guns and jumping and shooting in slow motion. One of the game's difficulty levels is named "Hard Boiled," and John Woo's name is mentioned as a password for entering into a gangster hideout.
• In the PC game F.E.A.R., the developer admitted that they been inspired by John Woo action movies that they wanted the action to be exactly epic to Woo movies.
• The Christian rock band Newsboys has a song called "John Woo" which makes reference to the religious symbolism he often employs in his films.
• "I've got more action than my man John Woo" is a lyric from the Beastie Boys song "Sure Shot" from Ill Communication.
• in one of the versions of the PC game "Unreal Tournament", when a character is killed by another wielding dual pistols, the deceased character is listed by the kill readout as having been "john woo'd" by the victor.
• Typing the cheat code "JOHNWOO" in the PC game Rise of the Triad gives the player dual pistols.
• Picking up a second submachine gun in the PC game Shadow Warrior causes the player's avatar Lo Wang to quip "Look out Mr. Woo!"

Filmography

• Fist to Fist (1973)
• The Young Dragons (1974)
• The Dragon Tamers (1974)
• Hand of Death (1975)
• Princess Chang Ping (1975)
• From Riches to Rags (1977)
• Money Crazy (1977)
• Follow the Star (1978)
• Last Hurrah for Chivalry (1978)
• Hello, Late Homecomers (1978)
• To Hell with the Devil (1981)
• Laughing Times (1981)
• Plain Jane to the Rescue (1982)
• When You Need a Friend (1984)
• Run, Tiger, Run (1985)
• Heroes Shed No Tears (1986)
• A Better Tomorrow (1986)
• A Better Tomorrow II (1987)
• Tragic Heroes (1989)
• The Killer (1989)
• Bullet in the Head (1990)
• Once a Thief (1991)
• Hard Boiled (1992)
• Hard Target (1993)
• Broken Arrow (1996)
• Once a Thief (1996)
• Face/Off (1997)
• Blackjack (1998)
• Mission: Impossible II (2000)
• Windtalkers (2001)
• Paycheck (2003)
• All the Invisible Children (2005)
• The Battle of Red Cliff (2008)

Other works

• Hostage (short BMW film) (2002)
• Stranglehold (video game) (2006)

See also

• Cinema of China
• Cinema of Hong Kong
• Hong Kong action cinema
• A Better Tomorrow

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