Brief Overview:

John Woo, born in Guangzhou in 1946. Woo migrated to Hong Kong with his family at the age of four. As a kid, he was fascinated by movies. In 1967, he formed a student film society and discussed ideas for experimental films with early film producers. From the years 1971 to 1972, John Woo became an assistant film director with the Shaw Brothers Film Company. In 1973, he became a full-fledged movie director and made his first full-length movie, "The Young Dragons" (Tit Hon Yau Ching). Following that, John Woo made a variety of comedies and swordsfighting flicks.

In 1986, John Woo teamed up with Tsui Hark to produce "A Better Tomorrow" (Ying Hung Boon Sik). This movie not only brought fame to John Woo, it also revived the career of former Shaw Brother actor Ti Lung and made Chow Yun Fat a movie star. Woo/Hark's 'Mark Gor' (brother mark in Cantonese) portrayed brilliantly by Chow Yun Fat from "A Better Tomorrow" has become one of the most memorable movie characters today. The success of "A Better Tomorrow" after it's success, spawned dozens of imitations in the gangster movie genre.

In following years, John Woo made "The Killer" and "Hard Boiled" (2 of my all time favorites of Woo's!) which caught Hollywood's attention and achieving a cult-director status dubbing Woo as the master of ballistic ballet of bullets. In 1993, John Woo made his first directorial debut in Hollywood with Hard Target (starring Jean-Claude Van Damme and Lance Henriksen). In 1995, directed "Broken Arrow" (starring John Travolta and Christian Slater) and "Face/Off" (starring John Travolta and Nicholas Cage) which in my opinion made his work much explosive and recognizable to what he had did in Hong Kong. Woo has also executive produced other action movies such as "The Big Hit" and "The Replacement Killers".

To really experience a true John Woo movie, one must watch his earlier films that he has directed/written ("The Killer" and "Hard Boiled"). Woo's latest installments ("Hard Target" and "Broken Arrow") in the U.S. have been pretty good, but is softcore action in my opinion compared to his Hong Kong films. None the less, it is still better then nothing.

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