John Woo: Difference between revisions

{{tropecreator}}

* ''[[A Better Tomorrow (Film)|A Better Tomorrow]]'' - A classic story of brothers on opposite sides of the law. The younger brother Sung Tse Kit, the cop, was played by [[Leslie Cheung]], and the older brother Sung Tse Ho, the Triad gangster, was played by Ti Lung. This is the movie that kick-started the [[Heroic Bloodshed]] genre in earnest, and it would also provide [[Chow Yun Fat-fat]]'s first major starring role as Mark Gor, an angry young gunslinger whose bond with Ho [[Blood Brothers|borders on brotherhood itself]]. The movie's most memorable scene is Mark Gor's one-man vengeance spree at the restaurant that features John Woo's first use of [[Guns Akimbo]], a trope that would later come to define the genre in general. It was also the movie that prompted the formation of Hong Kong's [[Media Classifications|rating system]] for movies due to its violence, and would later receive the rating of Category IIb (equivalent to the R rating).

* ''Heroes Shed No Tears'' - John Woo's very first gunplay movie, made before ''[[A Better Tomorrow (Film)|A Better Tomorrow]]'', but released after that movie became a hit in Hong Kong. Starring Eddy Ko Hung, Lam Ching Ying, Lai Chan Shang and Kuo Sheng, this movie is a low budget [[Vietnam War]] movie reminiscent of ''[[Apocalypse Now]]'' which marks the beginnings of the gunplay styles that would soon become John Woo's trademark. Woo would later improve upon the themes of this movie in his Vietnam epic ''Bullet in the Head''.

* ''[[The Killer]]'' - One of John Woo's best-known movies next to ''Hard-Boiled'', Chow Yun-Fat plays a [[Hitman Withwith a Heart]] who takes on one final job in order to raise the money to fix a tragic mistake that he made that left a singer (Sally Yeh) blinded, only to be double crossed by his boss (Shing Fui-On) who would rather [[Contract Onon the Hitman|kill Chow than give him the money]]. Chow's only ally is a [[Cowboy Cop]] played by Danny Lee who comes to form a close bond with the man he had sworn to bring to justice. This movie qualifies as one of John Woo's best, and includes not only ''the'' iconic use of the [[Mexican Standoff]] between Chow and Lee, but also ends with a [[Bloodstained-Glass Windows|furious shootout in a church]] with [[Disturbed Doves|doves flying everywhere]] as Chow and Lee blow away [[The Siege|an army of bad guys]] to defend themselves and Sally from the boss and his men.

* ''[[Hard Boiled (Filmfilm)|Hard Boiled]]'' - John Woo's last big Hong Kong movie, this movie is perhaps ''the'' most action-packed ever. Chow Yun-Fat stars as a [[Cowboy Cop]] named Tequila who fights Triad gunrunners in a series of explosive shootouts. He teams up with Alan, another [[Hitman Withwith a Heart]] played by Tony Leung Chiu-Wai who turns out to be an undercover cop who has infiltrated the gang and was forced to betray his last Triad boss. The movie kicks into action overdrive when midway through the film, the [[Big Bad]], Johnny Wong, and his crew of bad guys take over a hospital in [[Die Hard Onon an X|pure Die Hard fashion]], and Tequila and Alan have to save everyone that they've taken hostage and take down the bad guys once and for all in true [[Heroic Bloodshed]] fashion in one of the most explosive running shootouts that John Woo has ever filmed.

Woo eventually ended up in Hollywood, where he directed ''[[Hard Target]]'', ''[[Broken Arrow (1996 (Filmfilm)|Broken Arrow]]'', ''[[Face Off|Face/Off]]'', ''Blackjack'', ''[[Mission: Impossible|Mission: Impossible II]]'', and other movies, though only ''Face/Off'' has approached the quality of his earlier works in the eyes of many fans. He also recently helped produce a game called ''[[Stranglehold]]'' which is a sequel of sorts to ''Hard-Boiled'' and which pits Inspector Tequila against the father of the [[Big Bad]] from ''Hard Boiled''. Woo additionally became known on the [[Anime]] scene as the producer of ''[[Appleseed Ex Machina]]''.

Woo recently returned to Chinese cinema, directingdirected a big budget two-part Chinese film covering the Battle of [[Red Cliff]].

[[Category:John Woo{{PAGENAME}}]]