John Woo: Evolution Of A Director

I truly believe in friendship. When I was young, I got a lot of help from a friend. I guess I'm pretty traditional. In old Chinese stories, people sacrifice themselves for friends. They have so much honor and sense of morality. These are qualities I've always admired. When I was kid, our family was living in the slums. We lived in a very bad neigh

Hard Boiled was the last film that Woo directed in Hong Kong. Soon after completing this film, he moved to Los Angeles in anticipation of 1997. It was uncertain what would become of Hong Kong after 1997. Scenes like the one of the teahouse become a snapshot of contemporary Hong Kong as seen by Woo. But this opening scene is just a taste of the violence that comes at the climax of the film, a 45 minute ballet of blood at the criminals’ weapons depot; a local hospital. Where at the beginning of the film, there is an explosion of violence amongst people, the film ends with a literal explosion as the arms cache of the criminals blows up. Here, Woo shows his distaste for violence. In one comical moment Tequila covers the eyes of a baby he is rescuing from the maternity ward to shield him from the bloodshed around them, saying “X-rated violence.”

Sometimes I’m shooting an action sequence and I can relate to it. I get very emotional. I relate it to what’s happening in the real world. For example, if I’m shooting a scene where the hero is fighting with some bad guys and I’ve heard on the radio about some little child getting murdered by some maniac or some people getting killed in the streets it makes me very angry. I get pretty upset. And I’d bring that into the scene. I’ll look at the bad guys as the murderer and then I’m thinking, “Let’s beat him harder, let’s hit him with more bullets”.

widely popular both within Hong Kong and internationally. Hard Boiled was not only a critical and financial success, it was in fact created as a portfolio piece by Woo to court Hollywood executives.

In Face/Off (1997) the screenplay and Woo’s style are linked in a way that makes this the ultimate “Woo” movie produced in America. From his early action films in Hong Kong, Woo has always shown us the intertwined history and/or relationship of the antagonist and protagonist. In Face/Off the main characters literally become intertwined, each taking on the other’s characteristics and faces. The sense of honor and duty is so strong in the protagonist FBI agent Sean Archer (John Travolta), he willingly undergoes surgery in which his own face is removed and replaced with that of his worst enemy, Castor Troy (Nicholas Cage) in order to obtain necessary information. So closely married is the screenplay to the Woo style of direction that it is hard to maintain the distinction of the two while watching this movie.

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