John Woo

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John Woo

Woo in 2005
Born (1946-09-22) 22 September 1946 (age 77)[1]
Guangzhou, China
NationalityHong Konger
Occupations
  • Film director
  • screenwriter
  • producer
Years active1968–present
Spouse
Anne Chun-Lung Niu
(m. 1976)
Children3
Chinese name
Hanyu Pinyin
Wú Yǔsēn
Wade–GilesWu23-sen1
IPA[ǔ ỳ.sə́n]
Yue: Cantonese
Yale RomanizationǸgh Yúhsām
JyutpingNg4 Jyu5-sam1
IPA[ŋ jyː˩˧.sɐm˥]
Signature

John Woo Yu-Sen

Hollywood films. He is known for his highly chaotic "bullet ballet"[3][4] action sequences, stylized imagery, Mexican standoffs, frequent use of slow motion and allusions to wuxia, film noir and Western cinema.[5]

Considered one of the major figures of

Woo is a winner of the

.

Early life

Woo was born as Wu Yu-seng (Ng Yu-sum in Cantonese) on September 22, 1946, in

communist revolution in China, and fled to Hong Kong when he was five.[1][8]
: xv, 3 

Impoverished, the Woo family lived in the slums at

Shek Kip Mei Fire of 1953.[8] Charitable donations from disaster relief efforts enabled the family to relocate; however, violent crime had by then become commonplace in Hong Kong housing projects. At age three he was diagnosed with a serious medical condition. Following surgery on his spine, he was unable to walk correctly until eight years old, and as a result his right leg is shorter than his left leg.[10]

His Christian upbringing shows influences in his films.[11] As a young boy, Woo had wanted to be a Christian minister. He later found a passion for movies influenced by the French New Wave especially Jean-Pierre Melville. Woo has said he was shy and had difficulty speaking, but found making movies a way to explore his feelings and thinking and would "use movies as a language".[5]

Woo found respite in Bob Dylan and in American Westerns.[12] He has stated the final scene of Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid made a particular impression on him in his youth: the device of two comrades, each of whom fire pistols from each hand, is a recurrent spectacle later found in his own work.[13]

Career

1969–1985: Career beginnings in Hong Kong

In 1969, Woo was hired as a script supervisor at

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, Fā qián hàn) (1977), starring Hong Kong comedian Ricky Hui and Richard Ng.[17]

1986–1992: 'Heroic Bloodshed', breakthrough and international recognition

By the mid-1980s, Woo was experiencing occupational burnout. Several of his films were commercial disappointments, and he felt a distinct lack of creative control. It was during this period of self-imposed exile that director/producer Tsui Hark provided the funding for Woo to film a longtime pet project, A Better Tomorrow (1986). The story of two brothers—one a law enforcement officer, the other a criminal—was a financial blockbuster. A Better Tomorrow became a defining achievement in Hong Kong action cinema[18] for its combination of emotional drama, slow-motion gunplay, and gritty atmospherics. Its signature visual device of two-handed, two-gunned shootouts within confined quarters—often referred to as "gun fu"—was novel, and its diametrical inversion of the "good-guys-bad guys" formula in its characterization would influence later American films.[citation needed]

Woo would make several more

Chow Yun-Fat. These violent gangster thrillers typically focus on men bound by honor and loyalty, at odds with contemporary values of impermanence and expediency. The protagonists of these films, therefore, may be said to present a common lineage with the Chinese literary tradition of loyalty among generals depicted in classics such as "Romance of the Three Kingdoms" (三國演義).[citation needed
]

Woo gained international recognition with the release of The Killer, which became the most successful Hong Kong film in America since Bruce Lee's Enter the Dragon (1973) and garnered Woo an American cult following. Bullet in the Head followed a year later, but failed to find an audience that accepted its political undertones, and failed to recoup its massive budget. Woo rebounded the following year with 1991's caper comedy Once a Thief, which was a financial success.[citation needed]

His last Hong Kong film before emigrating to the United States was Hard Boiled (1992), a police thriller that served as the antithesis of his previous glorification of gangsters. Most notable of its numerous action scenes is a 30-minute climax set within a hospital. One particular long take follows two characters for exactly 2 minutes and 42 seconds as they fight their way between hospital floors.[citation needed] On the Criterion DVD and laserdisc, this chapter is referenced as "2 minutes, 42 seconds." The film was considerably darker than most of Woo's previous films, depicting a police force nearly helpless to stop the influx of gangsters in the city, and the senseless slaughter of innocents. As a result, it did not match the success of his other films, but nonetheless garnered positive critical reception and became one of his most popular films in later years.[citation needed]

John Woo: Interviews includes a 36-page interview with Woo by editor Robert K. Elder, which documents the years 1968 to 1990. It includes Woo's early career in working on comedies, his work on kung fu films (during which time he gave Jackie Chan one of his first major film roles), and more recently, his gunpowder morality plays in Hong Kong.[19]

1993–2000: Move to the United States and international success

An émigré in 1993, the director experienced difficulty in cultural adjustment while contracted with

"R" rated film
, the studio assumed control of the project and edited footage to produce a cut "suitable for American audiences". A "rough cut" of the film, supposedly the original unrated version, is still circulated among his admirers.

A three-year hiatus saw Woo next direct John Travolta and Christian Slater in Broken Arrow. A frenetic chase-themed film, the director once again found himself hampered by studio management and editorial concerns. Despite a larger budget than his previous Hard Target, the final feature lacked the trademark Woo style. Public reception saw modest financial success.

Reluctant to pursue projects which would necessarily entail front-office controls, the director cautiously rejected the script for

Sound Effects Editing (Mark Stoeckinger) at the 70th Academy Awards
.

Around this period, Woo would also produce and direct several film and TV projects. In 1996, Woo produced and directed

Chow Yun-Fat
's first international starring role.

Later, Woo directed Mission: Impossible 2, the second entry in the Tom Cruise-led action film series. Despite receiving mixed reviews, Mission: Impossible 2 grossed over $549 million worldwide, becoming the highest-grossing film of 2000,[20] as well as of Woo's career. [21]

2001-2007: Decline in Hollywood and other ventures

Woo made two additional films in Hollywood: Windtalkers (2002) and Paycheck (2003), both of which fared poorly at the box office and were summarily dismissed by critics. Also in 2003, Woo directed a television pilot entitled The Robinsons: Lost in Space for The WB Television Network, based on the 1960s television series Lost in Space. The pilot was not purchased, although bootleg copies have been made available by fans.

Woo also directed and produced the 2007 video game

Appleseed: Ex Machina, the sequel to Shinji Aramaki's 2004 film Appleseed.[22]

2008-2017: Red Cliff and return to Asian cinema

In 2008, Woo returned to Asian cinema with the completion of the two-part epic war film Red Cliff, based on a historical battle from Records of the Three Kingdoms. Produced on a grand scale, it is his first film in China since he emigrated from Hong Kong to the United States in 1993. Part 1 of the film was released throughout Asia in July 2008, to generally favourable reviews and strong attendance. Part 2 was released in China in January 2009.

John Woo was presented with a Golden Lion award for lifetime achievement at the Venice Film Festival in 2010.[23]

He followed Red Cliff with another two-part film, The Crossing, in 2014 and 2015. Featuring an all-star cast, the four-hour epic tells the parallel stories of several characters who all ultimately find themselves passengers on the doomed Taiping steamer, which sank in 1949 en route from mainland China to Taiwan and has been described as "China's Titanic".

Following the box-office disappointment of

Lion Rock Productions.[24]

Woo followed up The Crossing with

Qi Wei, Korean actress Ha Ji-won and Woo's daughter Angeles were cast in key roles in the film.[25] The film was released in China on 24 November 2017.[27][28][25]

2021-present: Silent Night and return to Hollywood

Following another hiatus, Woo returned to Hollywood to direct the action thriller Silent Night, where a normal father heads into the underworld to avenge his young son's death. Produced by Basil Iwanyk, the film starred Joel Kinnaman and was told entirely without dialogue.[29] It was Woo's first American feature film since Paycheck (2003).[30]

Woo commented in 2015 that he will remake The Killer for American audiences. Initially, actress

Universal Studios and released exclusively on Peacock.[34]

Unrealized film projects

In May 2008, Woo announced in Cannes that his next movie would be 1949, an epic love story set between the end of World War II and Chinese Civil War to the founding of the People's Republic of China, the shooting of which would take place in China and Taiwan. Its production was due to begin by the end of 2008, with a theatrical release planned in December 2009. However, in early April 2009, the film was cancelled due to script right issues. Reports indicated that Woo might be working on another World War II film, this time about the American Volunteer Group, or the Flying Tigers. The movie was tentatively titled "Flying Tiger Heroes" and Woo is reported as saying it will feature "The most spectacular aerial battle scenes ever seen in Chinese cinema." It was not clear whether Woo would not be directing the earlier war film, or whether it was put on the back burner. Woo has stated that Flying Tiger Heroes would be an "extremely important production" and will "emphasise US-Chinese friendship and the contributions of the Flying Tigers and the Yunnan people during the war of resistance."[35] Woo has announced he will be using IMAX cameras to film the Flying Tigers project. "It has always been a dream of mine to explore shooting with IMAX cameras and to work in the IMAX format, and the strong visual element of this film is incredibly well-suited to the tastes of cinemagoers today [...] Using IMAX for Flying Tigers would create a new experience for the audience, and I think it would be another breakthrough for Chinese movies".[36]

Personal life

Woo has been married to Annie Woo Ngau Chun-lung since 1976. They have two daughters, Kimberley Woo, Angeles Woo, and a son Frank Woo.[8] He is a Christian and told BBC in an interview that he believes in God and has utmost admiration for Jesus, whom he calls a "great philosopher".[5]

His three favorite films are David Lean's Lawrence of Arabia, Akira Kurosawa's Seven Samurai and Jean-Pierre Melville's Le Samouraï.[5]

Filmography

Film

Year Title Director Writer Producer Notes
1968 Dead Knot Yes Yes No
Ouran Yes No No
1974 The Young Dragons Yes Yes No
1975 The Dragon Tamers Yes Yes No
1976 Princess Chang Ping Yes Yes No
Hand of Death Yes Yes No Also actor (as Scholar Cheng)
1977 Money Crazy[17] Yes Yes No
1978 Hello, Late Homecomers Yes Yes No
Follow the Star Yes No No Also actor (as Mr. Chen)
1979 Last Hurrah for Chivalry Yes Yes No
1980 From Riches to Rags Yes Yes No
1981 To Hell with the Devil Yes Yes No
Laughing Times Yes Yes No
1982 Plain Jane to the Rescue Yes No No
1984 The Time You Need a Friend Yes Yes Yes
1985 Run, Tiger, Run Yes No Yes
1986 A Better Tomorrow Yes Yes Yes Also actor (as Inspector Wu)
Heroes Shed No Tears Yes Yes Yes
1987 A Better Tomorrow II Yes Yes No
1989 The Killer Yes Yes No
Just Heroes Yes No No
1990 Bullet in the Head Yes Yes Yes Also actor (as Police Inspector)
1991 Once a Thief Yes Yes No
1992 Hard Boiled Yes Yes No Also actor (as Bartender)
1993 Hard Target Yes No No
1996 Broken Arrow Yes No No
1997 Face/Off Yes No No
2000 Mission: Impossible 2 Yes No No
2002 Windtalkers Yes No Yes
2003 Paycheck Yes No Yes
2008 Red Cliff: Part I Yes Yes Yes
2009 Red Cliff: Part II Yes Yes Yes
2010 Reign of Assassins Yes No Yes Co-directed with Su Chao-pin
2014 The Crossing: Part I Yes No Yes
2015 The Crossing: Part II Yes No Yes
2017 Manhunt Yes No No
2023 Silent Night Yes No Yes

Producer only

Year Title Director Notes
1989
A Better Tomorrow III: Love & Death in Saigon
Tsui Hark
1995
Peace Hotel
Wai Ka-fai
1996 Somebody Up There Likes Me Patrick Leung
1998 The Replacement Killers Antoine Fuqua Woo also choreographed the action sequences
The Big Hit Kirk Wong
2003 Bulletproof Monk Paul Hunter
2005 The Glass Beads Angeles Woo Short film
2007
Blood Brothers
Alexi Tan
Appleseed Saga: Ex Machina
Shinji Aramaki
2009 My Fair Gentleman Li Ju-Yuan
2010 A Better Tomorrow Song Hae-sung
2011
Seediq Bale
Wei Te-sheng

Television

Year Title Director
Executive Producer
Notes
1996 Once a Thief Yes Yes TV movie
1997–98 Once a Thief No Yes
1998 Blackjack Yes Yes TV movie

Other works

Accolades

Year Title Award/Nomination
1986 A Better Tomorrow Hong Kong Film Award for Best Film
Nominated–Hong Kong Film Award for Best Director
Nominated–Hong Kong Film Award for Best Screenplay
1989 The Killer Hong Kong Film Award for Best Director
Nominated–Hong Kong Film Award for Best Screenplay
1990 Bullet in the Head Nominated–Hong Kong Film Award for Best Director
1991 Once a Thief Nominated–Hong Kong Film Award for Best Director
1993 Hard Target Nominated–Saturn Award for Best Director
1997 Face/Off Saturn Award for Best Director
2008 Red Cliff: Part I Nominated–Asian Film Award for Best Director
2009 Red Cliff: Part II Nominated–Hong Kong Film Award for Best Film
Nominated–Hong Kong Film Award for Best Director

See also

References

  1. ^ ]
  2. ^ "John Woo". Archived from the original on 1 November 2014. Retrieved 10 January 2009.
  3. ^ Kehr, Dave (14 July 2002). "John Woo: Ballets full of bullets". the Guardian. Archived from the original on 29 October 2022. Retrieved 29 October 2022.
  4. from the original on 29 October 2022. Retrieved 29 October 2022.
  5. ^ a b c d e f Pierce, Nev (24 September 2014). "Calling The Shots: John Woo". BBC. Archived from the original on 29 January 2020. Retrieved 22 December 2019.
  6. ^ "WOO John - Festival de Cannes 2014 (International Film Festival)". Archived from the original on 1 November 2014. Retrieved 10 January 2009.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link). Festival de Cannes fiche artiste (artist profile)
  7. ^ "John Woo". Variety. 7 November 2013. Archived from the original on 23 December 2017. Retrieved 11 December 2017.
  8. ^ .
  9. ^ Leydon, Joe (3 January 1993). "COVER STORY New Gun in Town John Woo, Hong Kong's legendary action director, teams with Jean-Claude Van Damme for his first American thriller, 'Hard Target'".[permanent dead link]
  10. ^ "Famous Persons with Disabilities". Tampagov.net. Archived from the original on 8 October 2012. Retrieved 19 October 2012.
  11. ^ June 2000 edition of Premiere magazine
  12. ^ amiamcable (27 October 2015). "John Woo". N/A. Archived from the original on 1 March 2018. Retrieved 1 March 2018.
  13. from the original on 5 March 2024. Retrieved 19 September 2020.
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  15. ^ "John Woo". IMDb. Archived from the original on 18 July 2021. Retrieved 24 June 2021.
  16. ^ Havis, Richard James (3 October 2021). "Being a stunt double for Bruce Lee made Jackie Chan want to be a star". South China Morning Post. Archived from the original on 19 March 2022. Retrieved 19 March 2022.
  17. ^ a b Andrew Saroch. "Money Crazy (1977) - Review". Far East Films. Archived from the original on 24 May 2022. Retrieved 21 June 2022.
  18. IMDb
  19. .
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  21. ^ "John Woo - Box Office". Archived from the original on 4 December 2023. Retrieved 16 October 2023.
  22. ^ Kelly, Kevin (17 December 2007). "io9 Links Up With 'Appleseed: Ex Machina' Director" Archived 29 September 2019 at the Wayback Machine. Gizmodo.
  23. ^ Woo awarded Golden Lion for lifetime achievement Archived 7 September 2010 at the Wayback Machine
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  25. ^ a b c d e Shackleton, Liz (20 June 2016). "John Woo's 'Manhunt' starts shooting in Osaka". Screen Daily. Screen International. Archived from the original on 9 July 2016. Retrieved 14 December 2016.
  26. ^ Shackleton, Liz (5 November 2016). "AFM: Media Asia launches 'Love Off The Cuff' sales". Screen Daily. Screen International. Archived from the original on 22 January 2017. Retrieved 14 December 2016.
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  30. ^ D'Alessandro, Anthony (22 September 2023). "John Woo's First American Pic In 20 Years, 'Silent Night', Sets December Release". Deadline. Archived from the original on 3 October 2023. Retrieved 16 October 2023.
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  32. ^ "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 7 June 2023. Retrieved 16 October 2023.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  33. ^ "'Lupin's Omar Sy to Lead John Woo's Reimagining of 'The Killer' for Peacock". 4 August 2022. Archived from the original on 4 December 2023. Retrieved 16 October 2023.
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