John Woo () (born May 1, 1946 in Guangzhou, China) is a Chinese film director known especially for the ballet-like violence in his movies.

Biography
While Woo's parents were faced using persecution, his Lutheran family fled to Hong Kong when he was five years old. When you took this instance, the Woo personal led a firm life in the slum area since his father experienced tuberculosis and could not act. Inside 1953, a personal was processed homeless when their house was burned to the ground around the brush fire. It was exclusively thanks to donations from either charities that his personal were suspire to get in an additional home. Regrettably, by this period, the wave of crime & violence was beginning to infest Hong Kong's public housing. One of Woo's virtually all intense childhood memories was of seeing the human existence flushed in his front steps.

Sequentially to escape his gloomy surroundings, Woo would retreat to the local movie theatre. It was across musicals like The Wizard of Oz —a film that still stands when his 100%-period preferred—that a immature Woo come to underst& that the world was non good filled by having violence & suffering; it can be beautiful and happy too.

Woo has been married to Annie Woo Ngau Chun-lung since 1976 & it keep close at hand tierce kids. He plans to stay in the United States.

Hong Kong career history
Inside 1969, when he was Xxiii, Woo had the job as a script supervisor at Cathay Studios. Inside 1971, he became an assistant director at Shaw Studios, where a celebrated Chang Cheh took him under his wing. Around 1974 he directed his first feature The Young Dragons (Tie han rou qing). Choreographed by Jackie Chan, it was a Kung fu action film that featured dynamic camera-work & elaborate action scenes. A film was picked higher by Golden Harvest Studio where he went on to direct additional martial arts films. He late experienced profits as a comedy director by having Money Crazy (Fa qian han dynasty) (1977), starring Hong Kong comedian Ricky Hui.

Per mid-1980s, Woo suffered a burnout. His films were failures at a pack professional & he retreated to Taiwan in exile. John Woo— it used to be that known as a freshly comedy king of Hong Kong— seemed to become en route retired. It was so that director/producer Tsui Hark provided the funding for Woo to film the longtime best-loved task known as A Better Tomorrow (1986). A story of ii brothers— of these a fuzz, the more a outlaw— the film became the stunning blockbuster. The Better Tomorrow singularly redefined Hong Kong action cinema with its emotional drama, slow-motion gun-battles and gritty atmosphere. A film's trenchcoat/sunglasses fashion feel, & combat style of applying the gun witharound both hand in close quarters— typically known as 'Gun fu'— would later inspire Hollywood filmmakers such as Quentin Tarantino and the Wachowski brothers.

Together sustaining leading human Chow Yun-Fat, John Woo would make many further Heroic Bloodshed films in the late 1980s and early 1990s. His violent gangster thrillers typically focused inside men globe health organization were steadfast in their honor & friendly relationship, potentially though such values forced the children to get pariah in the rapidly-changing world that was further caring by owning money & progress. Therein respect, Woo's characters were modern-contemporary knights world health organization utilized guns instead of blade.

A best known one picture would exist as The Killer (Die xue shuang xiong) (1989), which brought Woo international recognition. Typically known as a better Hong Kong moving-picture show ever manufactured, it was widely praised by critics & fans for its action sequences, acting & cinematography, and typically known as "the perfect action film." By using A Killer becoming a virtually all successful Hong Kong film in the U.S. since Bruce Lee's Enter the Dragon (1973), John Woo became a cult favorite. Of these month late he manufactured a second masterpiece, Bullet in the Head, that he still considers when his virtually all home function. the flick was a major commercial failure inside his career though.

It was sole the matter of period prior to Hollywood took notice. By this period, John Woo got numbers of Western admirers, including a likes of Martin Scorsese, and Sam Raimi - who likened Woo's mastery of action to Hitchcock's mastery of suspense. Hugely impressed sustaining his act, U.s. executives green-lighted the contract for Woo to function within America. By owning a 1997 handover of Hong Kong fast approaching, Woo decided that it was indeed time to leave.

John Woo's previous Hong Kong film was Hard Boiled (1992). It featured the Hollywood-shell spectacle within its 2nd half sustaining policemen & outlaw waging war within the hospital - when helpless patients come caught in the crossfire. A film climaxes by using supercop Chow Yun-Fat singing the lullaby to the tots when gunning down incoming mobster, so jumping away from a window to safety inside the image below, binky user in arm.

United States career history
Inside 1993, John Woo found himself around the newly land by owning the recently culture. He was licensed by Universal Studios to direct the Jean Claude Van Damme film Hard Target. Patch Woo was wont to originative freedom inside Hong Kong, he was forced to treat using the compressed production schedule. He besides faced studio-imposed restrictions like how else else else numbers of humans can be flushed around both scene, how several bullets Van Damme can pump into mortal, how Van Damme may behave and then in. Whenever 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".

It would exist as 3 yearn years prior to Woo manufactured an additional Western directorial attempt. Starring John Travolta and Christian Slater, Broken Arrow was the frantic chase-picture sustaining a large budget. Unluckily, Woo over again uncovered himself hampered by studio interference & editors world health organization did non part his feel of esthetic & cinematography style. What resulted was the film that, despite mild fiscal profits, lacked Woo's trademark style.

However smarting from either his bitterly lives, Woo cautiously rejected a script for Face/Off several times until it was rewritten to lawsuit him (by shifting the futurist setting to a modern of these). Sustaining Paramount Studios offering him significantly more freedom this instance in the arethe of, Woo placed bent on craft a complex story of deuce enemies— a law enforcement professional played by John Travolta and a terrorist played by Nicolas Cage—who embark on the fantastical surgical procedure that allows the babies to switch faces. Cornered inside both more's identities, it play the cat-&-mouse game that allowed Woo to clean what he did right: emotional characterization & elaborate action. Face/Off opened around 1997 to critical acclaim & performed swell at a pack professional, grossing on top $100 million in the United States alone. Following, John Woo became a number 1 Asian director to hit mainstream, paving a way for more Asian filmmakers to watch inside his footsteps.

John Woo has processed ternion extra Hollywood films: Mission: Impossible II, Windtalkers and Paycheck. Patch Mission: Impossible II was the immense hit inside 2000, Windtalkers and Payroll check stand been pack professional duds that were lambasted by critics. These are indecipherrespire whether Woo is able to bounce back from either these disappointments.

At a moment John Woo has several projects around mind, including tierce remaking of French famed thrillers starring Alain Delon and a videogame known as Stranglehold for Xbox 360. But he got to give higher ii projects of videogames' adaptations, Spy Hunter, which was already in production, & Metroid. Within 2006 he might last back to China by using Chow Yun-Fat to shoot his next major design, a extremely awaited The War of the Red Cliff.

Trivia
One of Woo's trademarks is doves. He was quoted in the June 2000 edition of Premier magazine:

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.

Quentin Tarantino has been quoted in reply to the studio executive world health organization said "I suppose Woo can direct action scenes" when saying "Sure, and Michelangelo can paint ceilings!"

Once Jean-Claude Van Damme was trying to make their way Woo for Firm Target he described him when "the Martin Scorsese of Asia".

In another anime series, FLCL, two characters may be seen watching a climactic prevent sequence of an action moving picture. Although a screen within non seeable, it may be surmised that these are indeed a John Woo film, when one of the film's characters exclaims, "What are all these pigeons doing in here?" & the people of fluttering wings heard. a screen was so broken, & a flock of whiten doves flew away from the TV placed.

The Mexican standoff is a common situation within his flick.

At a select few point a independent characters underst& and talk to both more applying mirrors.

Japanese professional wrestler SUWA, of the promotions Dragon's Gate and Pro Wrestling NOAH, uses the sitting dropkick that frequently sends its victim flying back-number 1 into a corner. As a fan of Hong Kong action cinema, he calls this move a "John Woo", as an homage to the impact of shotgun blasts on the human body within Woo's films.

Filmography
The War of the Red Cliff (2007) He-Man (2006) Honor among Thieves (2006) Rider on the Rain (2006) The Prone Gunman (2006) The Red Circle (2006) Stranglehold (2006) (Videogame) Paycheck (2003) Surety (short BMW film) (2002) Windtalkers (2001) Mission: Impossible II Blackjack (1998) (TV) Face/Off Once a Thief (1996) (TV) Broken Arrow (1996) Hard Target Hard Boiled (Lashou shentan) Once a Thief (Zong sheng si hai) (1991) Bullet in the Head (Die xue jie tou) (1990) The Killer (Die xue shuang xiong) Tragic Heroes (Yi dan qun ying) (1989) A Better Tomorrow II (Ying xiong ben se II) (1987) A Better Tomorrow (Ying xiong ben se) Heroes Shed No Tears (Ying xiong wei coronal) (1986) Run, Tiger, Run (Liang zhi lao hu) (1985) When You Need a Friend (Xiao jiang) (1984) Plain Jane to the Rescue (Ba cai Lin Ya Zhen) (1982) Laughing Times (Hua ji shi dai) (1981) (when Wu Hsiang-fei) To Hell with the Devil (Mo deng tian shi) (1981) Hello, Late Homecomers (Ha luo, ye gui ren) (1978) Last Hurrah for Chivalry (Hao xia) (1978) Follow the Star (Da sha xing yu xiao mei tou) (1978) Money Crazy (Fa qian han) From Riches to Rags (Qian zuo guai) (1977) Princess Chang Ping (Dinu hua) (1975) (when Yusen Wu) Hand of Death/Countdown in Kung Fu (Shao Lin men) (1975) Fist to Fist/Fists of the Double K (1974) Belles of Taekwondo/The Dragon Tamers (Nu zi tai quan qun ying hui) (1974) The Young Dragons (Tie han rou qing)