John Woo - The Chinese Cinema

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John Woo

A collection of 10 posts

The King of Wuxia (Lin Jing-jie, 2022)

The King of Wuxia (Lin Jing-jie, 2022)

Joining the ever-expanding pantheon of great Chinese filmmakers given the full-length documentary treatment is King Hu, the man behind many of the most accomplished and influential action films of all-time. But while Johnnie To, Ann Hui, Hou Hsiao-hsien, and Jia Zhangke are still very much alive and working, and thus

John Woo Capsule Reviews

John Woo Capsule Reviews

The Young Dragons (1973) — August 14, 2015 Kind of exactly what you’d expect from John Woo’s first film. A low-budget picture (Golden Harvest) with lofty aspirations, the influences are obvious: Peckinpah’s slo-motion, Chang Cheh’s doomed antiheroes, an unusually heightened (for a cheap genre film of the

The Crossing (John Woo, 2015)

The Crossing (John Woo, 2015)

Here are reviews of the two separately released parts of The Crossing. The Crossing — August 13, 2015 The first part of John Woo’s latest epic (the second part was recently released in China to little fanfare, but isn’t available here yet) is a romantic war movie in the

Princess Chang Ping (John Woo, 1976)

Princess Chang Ping (John Woo, 1976)

Before he hit it big with 1986’s A Better Tomorrow, John Woo was a journeyman director for hire on the margins of the Hong Kong film industry. He worked mostly in slapstick comedies such as the Chaplin homage Laughing Times with Dean Shek, or the hit Ricky Hui film

A Better Tomorrow (John Woo, 1986)

A Better Tomorrow (John Woo, 1986)

After an up and down decade as a director for hire, working alternately in the wuxia and wacky comedy genres, John Woo finally hit it big in 1986 when he teamed up with Tsui Hark and the Cinema City studio to remake Patrick Lung Kong’s 1967 drama The Story

A Better Tomorrow III: Love and Death in Saigon (Tsui Hark, 1989)

A Better Tomorrow III: Love and Death in Saigon (Tsui Hark, 1989)

I don’t know all the behind-the-scenes details about this, I’m not sure that anyone aside from Tsui Hark and John Woo really knows for sure, but as I understand it the story is this: following the breakout success of the Woo-directed and Tsui-produced 1986 film A Better Tomorrow,

Red Cliff (John Woo, 2009)

Red Cliff (John Woo, 2009)

Five years after his last American film, 2003’s Philip K. Dick adaptation Paycheck, and a long, troubled and expensive shoot plagued by last minute casting changes, John Woo finally released the first half of his epic two-part film Red Cliff. It proved to be a critical and commercial success

Once a Thief (John Woo, 1991)

Once a Thief (John Woo, 1991)

If Cherie Chung hadn’t retired after making this movie, and maybe had gone on to star in some Wong Kar-wai movies, would she be better known today? She was one of the key Hong Kong actresses of the 1980s, beginning with her debut in Johnnie To’s first film,

Heroes Shed No Tears (John Woo, 1986)

Heroes Shed No Tears (John Woo, 1986)

Sharing a title and nothing else with Chor Yuen’s 1980 wuxia epic, this was John Woo’s project immediately preceding his breakthrough A Better Tomorrow and only released after that film’s success. It’s easy to see why Woo had initially decided to leave this shelved. It’s

A Better Tomorrow II (John Woo, 1987)

A Better Tomorrow II (John Woo, 1987)

After its formation in 1980 by actors Dean Shek, Karl Maka, and Raymond Wong, the first film released by Hong Kong studio Cinema City & Films Co. was 1981’s Laughing Times, a comedy starring Shek as “the Chinese Charlie Chaplin” that is a kind of mashup of The Kid and