John Woo
(Ng Yu-Sheng)
- Paycheck
- The 4 Riders
- Dragon Tamers
- Follow The Star
- Young Dragons
- Hand of Death
- Private Eyes - p/m
- Fist to Fist
- Laughing Times
- A Better Tomorrow
- A Better Tomorrow 2
- Pilferer's Progress
- Hard-Boiled
- Games Gamblers Play - p/m
- Heroes Shed No Tears
- Once A Thief
- Marco Polo
- Blood Brothers
- The Water Margin
- Boxer From Shantung
- Princess Chang Ping
- The Killer
- Just Heroes
- From Riches To Rags
- Hello, Late Homecomers
- Bullet in the Head
- Last Hurrah for Chivalry
- To Hell With The Devil
- Plain Jane To The Rescue
- Godfathers From Hong Kong
 |
|
 |
|
 |
|
Having worked with director Chang Cheh had an obvious impact on him as Chang's stories on Chivalry and Brotherhood would become frequent elements in Woo's films. His early association with Chang began in films like The Water Magin, All Men Are Brothers, Boxer from Shantung, and Blood Brothers. Later, he would work for Golden Harvest directing such films as The Young Dragons (commercially, his worst film), Hands of Death, Priness Ching Ping, and a number of films including Comedies.
Being a fan of Woo's, I've come to know his films just by the various "Trademarks" used in his films, for example:
- Guns - his choice is always the .45 calibre and Shotguns
- 2 Guns Blasting - Chow Yun-Fat made this popular in The Killer and it's been used in everything from "The Last Boy Scout" until present.
- The "Face Off" (aka Mexican Standoff) - where the hero and the villain both pull their guns (usually pointed in each other's face at close range) and they basically talk about what they "could" do. This has been seen in such films as Hard-Boiled, The Killer, Bullet in the Head, Face Off, Mission Impossible 2, and his latest film Paycheck.
- The theme song "Somewhere Over the Rainbow" his favorite
- Doves - White doves that seem to come from nowhere, fly across the screen right before an action scene takes place.
- The "Slam-Dance" - Where the two adversaries slam into each other before starting a fight (MI-2 - off of motorcycles, Face Off - off speeding boats)
- The use of Fog/Smoke/Steam where the hero gets to walk through while making his entrance
- The "Kill Blow" - Where we follow the path of the "killing blow" (shot), be it arrow (Hard Target) or bullet (Hard-Boiled) into the target
- Targets - Likes to use the Eyes as a target focus. In "Hard-Boiled" (2) people had gotten their eyes shot, in "The Killer" Sally Yeh is accidentally blinded, in "Paycheck" Ben Affleck uses Special shades to see through a smoke-filled room where other's sight is hampered.
- Martial-arts - regardless of the films he makes, they always have some sort of martial-arts in them, usually used in conjuction with the gunplay in the film.
- Motorcycles - He seems to like the use of them in a number of his films
He has made some of the best action films around and I, personally, would love to see Chow Yun-Fat play the villain in "Mission Impossibe-3", this way we'll finally get to see him back with Woo and Tom Cruise would have a "worthy" opponent. Better yet, maybe
Jackie Chan, as it would surely be an excellent career move, considering he has an arsenal of moves and he can use anything for a weapon. Look at what a villainous role did for Denzel Washington (Training Day).
|
|
 |
|
 |
|
My Favorite Films:
- Hard-Boiled
- Fist to Fist
- Young Dragons
- Hands of Death
- Dragon Tamers
- Last Hurrah for Chivalry