\n<\/p>\n
\n\tWe take it for granted today, but John Woo has one of the most recognizable visual signatures of any living filmmaker. Back in the mid-1980s, what started in Hong Kong reverberated around the world, as Woo \u2014 who was then stuck at the lowest point of his career \u2014 elevated action to art, finding poetry in the medium\u2019s most destructive genre.<\/p>\n
\n\tFor many years, and for no good reason, it was all but impossible for international audiences to see the three John Woo movies that saved his career, launched Chow Yun-fat to stardom and revolutionized action cinema forever. They are, in chronological order, \u201cA Better Tomorrow\u201d (1986), \u201cThe Killer\u201d (1989) and \u201cHard Boiled\u201d (1992), and all three are playing in stunning 4K restorations this week at the Lumi\u00e8re Festival in Lyon, France, where Woo will be on hand to introduce his first three masterpieces.<\/p>\n
\n\tBefore flying overseas, the 79-year-old legend was gracious enough to welcome me into his headquarters in West Los Angeles, which overlooks the Getty Museum. The suite offers a panoramic view of the city Woo now calls home, and yet I found myself staring at the walls, on which hang giant posters for his most influential movies.<\/p>\n
\n\tIn the corner, separated by a tall glass wall \u2014 the kind it\u2019s easy to imagine Chow crashing through in slow motion, with guns blazing in both hands \u2014 Woo\u2019s office is decorated with enormous posters for two classics by French director Jean-Pierre Melville: \u201cLe Cercle Rouge,\u201d with Alain Delon, and \u201cL\u2019A\u00een\u00e9 des Ferchaux,\u201d starring Jean-Pierre Belmondo. I can tell this is going to be a good conversation, since Melville is my favorite director, too.<\/p>\n
\n\t\u201cWhen I was young, I wrote quite a lot of poems,\u201d Woo tells me. \u201cI have always imagined that no matter what happens in this world, there is always some kind of beauty existing. And I also like romanticism. My style was greatly influenced by European movies, and especially Jacques Demy\u2019s movie, \u2018The Umbrellas of Cherbourg.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
\n\tThis isn\u2019t what I expected to hear. With Woo, the connection to French crime films is clear: Melville was obsessive about American genre cinema. He studied, absorbed and ultimately improved upon the codes in such film noir classics as \u201cThis Gun for Hire\u201d and \u201cOdds Against Tomorrow.\u201d Decades later, Woo did the same with Melville\u2019s movies (\u201cLe Samoura\u00ef\u201d and \u201cLe Cercle Rouge\u201d in particular).<\/p>\n
\n\tBut a musical like \u201cThe Umbrellas of Cherbourg,\u201d which explodes with color and ends in tears? It\u2019s not the first reference that comes to mind.<\/p>\n
\n\t\u201cWhen I\u2019m making an action movie, I don\u2019t see it is an action movie,\u201d Woo explains. \u201cIt\u2019s like a painting or a poem, sometimes even like a musical. I\u2019m aiming for that kind of feel, because I\u2019m a dreamer. I think that\u2019s my style because I always have some kind of beautiful dream in my mind.\u201d<\/p>\n
\n\tWoo\u2019s first filmmaking job was working as assistant director for Shaw Brothers veteran Chang Cheh. At a time when the Hong Kong industry was dominated by sex comedies and kung fu movies, Chang taught him the principles of dynamic action. And though he never studied any of the martial arts, Woo has always loved dance, which made all the difference in how he stages gun battles.<\/p>\n
\n\t\u201cI was a pretty good dancer when I was young,\u201d says Woo, who choreographs the balletic action scenes in his films himself. \u201cWhen it comes to the action in a movie, it\u2019s all about the beauty of the body movement and the fighting skill.\u201d<\/p>\n
\n\tIn the 1970s, Woo had a successful run directing comedies and other projects that might now seem off-brand to his fans, like the 1976 Cantonese opera \u201cPrincess Chang Ping\u201d and low-budget action comedy \u201cMoney Crazy.\u201d That changed in the early \u201980s, when Woo hit a rough patch. \u201cMy movies didn\u2019t work at all, and then I became a box office poison,\u201d he says with a chuckle. \u201cI was looked down on by so many people, and some of my friends even said I should retire.\u201d<\/p>\n
\n\tMeanwhile, Woo\u2019s friend and fellow director Tsui Hark was on a hot streak, which put him in the ideal position with Golden Princess, a new production company with money to spend and limited experience in cinema. Unhappy to see talented peers unable to find work, Tsui used the opportunity to produce projects for Woo and others.<\/p>\n
\n\t\u201cHe\u2019s a good man,\u201d Woo says. \u201cHe liked helping the others, so if he saw anyone out of a job who couldn\u2019t get a movie, he supported them.\u201d It was Tsui\u2019s idea to make a gangster movie that a family audience could watch \u2014 what became \u201cA Better Tomorrow\u201d \u2014 which Tsui would produce and Woo could direct.<\/p>\n
\n\t\u201cThat was my first auteur film,\u201d Woo recalls. \u201cHe encouraged me to put myself into the movie, to make the movie my own. And he let me change all the dialogue, to say what I really wanted to say from my heart.\u201d<\/p>\n
\n\tFor years, Woo had been wanting to make a film like \u201cLe Samoura\u00ef,\u201d but no one would give him the opportunity. At last, he was being given the green light to incorporate his personal style into a project, dressing Chow in a stiff trench coat \u2014 a nod to both Alain Delon and his favorite Japanese star, Ken Takakura \u2014 and giving the character a strict code of honor that would become a Woo signature. (At the time, the director felt the younger generation had lost appreciation for traditional morals, so he designed the dynamic between Chow and Ti Lung\u2019s characters \u2014 which reminded Chinese audiences of the bond they felt toward old schoolmates \u2014 to reinforce the values of brotherhood, friendship and sacrifice.)<\/p>\n
\n\t\u201cBefore \u2018A Better Tomorrow,\u2019 I didn\u2019t have much chance to try this kind of a style. Because I never got any support from the studio or anyone, I wasn\u2019t able to experiment,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n
\n\tWorking with Tsui for Golden Princess was different. So long as the films were profitable, the financiers left them alone.<\/p>\n
\n\t\u201cWe had a lot of creative freedom,\u201d Woo remembers. \u201cThere was a trust between us, so we could do whatever we wanted, so every director, they had a great opportunity to try something new, something they had never done before.\u201d<\/p>\n
\n\tAs far as the investors were concerned, Tsui and Woo knew the market. By keeping the budgets tight, they could be reasonably sure the films would break even \u2014 and many were wildly successful (\u201cA Better Tomorrow\u201d broke all box office records in Hong Kong, prompting a sequel, even though Chow\u2019s character had been killed in the original).<\/p>\n
\n\t\u201cSince we were trusting each other, there was no need to give them a completed script. We just let them know the idea, the rough budget and the shooting schedule,\u201d Woo says. \u201cTheir main concern was about the casting, if you can find somebody who could guarantee you make money.\u201d<\/p>\n
\n\tWorking for Chang back in the day, Woo had watched his mentor turn unknown actors into stars. And of course, he had developed his own strategies over the years. \u201cI know how to use all kind of tools to help the actors,\u201d he says. \u201cI know what kind of lens will make him look good and what kind of angle. And the size will bring out his very special quality.\u201d<\/p>\n
\n\tWith Chow, Woo saw something in the actor (who was a popular TV star, but nothing on the level of what followed) no one else had. Watching a show called \u201cThe Bund,\u201d Woo noticed how the actor\u2019s eyes helped tell the story and cast him against type as a triad gangster given a chance to redeem himself.<\/p>\n
\n\t\u201cHe had never punched a guy in his whole life,\u201d says Woo, who tailors the action to each actor he works with. He might try to find out what sports a given performer prefers \u2014 like running or swimming \u2014 and then model his movement accordingly, incorporating that into his choreography. Woo even considers the size of his actors\u2019 trigger finger when selecting the right guns for them to use in a shootout. \u201cIf he\u2019s got a long finger, then he could be holding a little bit bigger guns. If he has a short finger like me, then he\u2019ll hold a pistol, not too long.\u201d<\/p>\n
\n\tOne of Woo\u2019s signatures \u2014 actors holding two handguns, firing with both barrels at the same time \u2014 has an unexpected origin. \u201cI\u2019d seen a lot of Westerns,\u201d Woo says, but he wasn\u2019t thinking of cowboys with holsters on each hip. On \u201cA Better Tomorrow,\u201d he wanted to shoot the definitive gun battle in Hong Kong movie history, but Woo figured, \u201cif he\u2019s a professional killer and he\u2019s a true hero, he would never use a machine gun. It\u2019s too easy and not elegant.\u201d<\/p>\n
\n\tWoo had a clear idea of the sound he wanted \u2014 he could hear the drumbeat in his head \u2014 but had never owned a gun in his life, so he asked the props team for help. The weapons experts suggested a semiautomatic Beretta 92F handgun that could fire up to 15 rounds nonstop, though the tempo wasn\u2019t fast enough. Then Woo had an idea: \u201cHow about using two guns?\u201d By staggering the rhythm, where Chow alternated pulling the trigger with each hand, Woo got the \u201cmusic\u201d he wanted.<\/p>\n
\n\t\u201cA Better Tomorrow\u201d was a huge hit in Hong Kong, which gave Woo a chance to make several more movies for Golden Princess. He had even more creative control on \u201cThe Killer.\u201d Tsui was busy producing other films at the time, leaving Woo to do what he wanted \u2014 which, in this case, was a poetic hitman movie, \u00e0 la Melville\u2019s \u201cLe Samoura\u00ef,\u201d where an assassin sacrifices himself for the lounge singer who witnesses his crime.<\/p>\n
\n\t\u201cI had the whole movie in my mind,\u201d says Woo, who shot without a script, instructing the actors and crew what he wanted with each scene on set. According to the director, they thought he was making another \u201cBetter Tomorrow\u201d and weren\u2019t expecting something so romantic.<\/p>\n
\n\tWhen \u201cThe Killer\u201d was invited to screen at the Toronto Film Festival, Woo was instantly recognized as a visionary talent by international critics. The director\u2019s most bombastic movie by far, \u201cHard Boiled\u201d made him an even hotter commodity abroad. The plot was inspired by a Japanese news report that had deeply disturbed Woo, about a lunatic guilty of poisoning baby formula. Ever the moralist (despite the level of violence in his films), Woo flipped the idea to focus on two cops who wind up protecting innocent hospital patients \u2014 including a ward full of newborn babies \u2014 from a ruthless triad boss.<\/p>\n
\n\t\u201cWhat surprised me was how it got such a warm welcome from the Western world,\u201d says Woo, who started to get offers to work in Hollywood.<\/p>\n
\n\t\u201cThe biggest reason I came to Hollywood was because I wanted to learn something new. At the same time, I tried to prove my style could also work in a Hollywood movie,\u201d says Woo, whose signature techniques \u2014 slow-motion cinematography, gravity-defying choreography, over-the-top pyrotechnics \u2014 were already influencing Western directors like Robert Rodriguez and Luc Besson.<\/p>\n
\n\tWoo wasn\u2019t quite prepared for how much stricter the American industry was about everything, from second-guessing the director to how violence is depicted. (His first Hollywood feature, \u201cHard Target,\u201d earned an NC-17 rating on that front.)<\/p>\n
\n\tIn America, Woo observes, \u201cThe studio and the big star had so much control. They have final approval of the script and the supporting roles. But in Hong Kong, the director is everything.\u201d<\/p>\n
\n\tOn \u201cHard Target,\u201d Belgian bodybuilder-cum-action hero Jean-Claude Van Damme wanted a say in how Woo cut the footage. The Hong Kong helmer was lucky to have producers Sam Raimi, Jim Jacks and Rob Tapert in his corner. \u201cWhen the star tried to control the editing, they threw him out,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n
\n\tWoo\u2019s best American studio experience was making \u201cFace\/Off,\u201d which had been conceived as a more overtly sci-fi scenario set 200 years in the future. Woo wasn\u2019t comfortable with that genre or the visual effects it would have required, so it was rewritten as a more contemporary \u201chuman drama\u201d (in Woo\u2019s words).<\/p>\n
\n\tWhat made it so satisfying, apart from all that stars John Travolta and Nicolas Cage brought to their characters, was having the full support of Paramount chairman Sherry Lansing. The way Woo tells it, Lansing gathered the entire crew at the outset and told the room, \u201cAll I want is a John Woo movie. So no one should give him any notes.\u201d<\/p>\n
\n\tBut there was a harsh trade-off for all the creative freedom Woo had enjoyed in Hong Kong: Golden Princess owned the rights to all the films he and Tsui had made, which they parceled up and sold to different territories. Then the company went under, and the films fell out of circulation in most parts of the world. \u201cSo the Hong Kong movies we had made became just like a memory,\u201d says Woo, who\u2019s delighted to see them finally restored and back in circulation, since Shout! Studios acquired the Golden Princess library earlier this year.<\/p>\n
\n\tThe reason Woo was able to remake \u201cThe Killer\u201d last year can be explained by a fluke over film rights: Nearly three decades ago, Columbia had wanted to do an American \u201ccover\u201d version, but couldn\u2019t get it off the ground. Many screenwriters and directors had come and gone from the project, without success.<\/p>\n
\n\t\u201cIt never came together. And then after 20 years, they gave the rights back to us,\u201d Woo says. He was working in China, shooting \u201cRed Cliff\u201d at the time, but he was intrigued by Brian Helgeland\u2019s idea of gender-flipping the killer, so Chow Yun-fat\u2019s character would be a woman.<\/p>\n
\n\t\u201cWhen I came back, I really got excited, because I had never considered a female killer before,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n
\n\tAccording to Woo, his biggest regret about the Golden Princess period \u2014 and the film he\u2019ll never be able to fully recover \u2014 is 1990\u2019s \u201cBullet in the Head\u201d (the film he made between \u201cThe Killer\u201d and \u201cHard Boiled\u201d).<\/p>\n
\n\t\u201cThe original cut was three hours, but for the Hong Kong release, I was forced to cut it down to two hours,\u201d he explains. Woo had to slash several scenes he was proud of to appease the producers. Once Woo came to Hollywood and had earned enough money, he tried to buy the rights to the movie, but it was too late: The Hong Kong lab that held onto the deleted footage had thrown it out after a year. \u201cThey only get saved for one year, and then they are thrown away like garbage,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n
\n\tThe good news is that Woo\u2019s other Golden Princess projects have survived and can now be rediscovered by audiences who grew up on \u201cThe Matrix\u201d and the John Wick movies.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
We take it for granted today, but John Woo has one of the most recognizable visual signatures of any living filmmaker. Back in the mid-1980s, what started in Hong Kong reverberated around the world, as Woo \u2014 who was then stuck at the lowest point of his career \u2014 elevated action to art, finding poetry<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":29071,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[54],"tags":[8924,1930,7784,262,976,7785,8041,17209],"class_list":{"0":"post-29070","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-entertainment","8":"tag-audiences","9":"tag-films","10":"tag-hong","11":"tag-john","12":"tag-killer","13":"tag-kong","14":"tag-shot","15":"tag-woos"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29070","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=29070"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29070\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/29071"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=29070"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=29070"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=29070"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}