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Hong Kong auteur strikes back with a stylish WWII epic about Navajo Marines
Action helmer driven by love for movies
HOLLYWOOD He's the man, he's the Woo," Tom Cruise says affectionately of his "Mission: Impossible 2" director, unwittingly adding a new word to the English language.
But what is this Woo phenomenon that has led to spectacular box office ("M:I-2" was 2000's No.1 pic worldwide) and critical respect? If the popular image of the big action film director is of some swaggering, macho screamer, then John Woo is a surprise. He's modest, soft-spoken and totally devoted to cinema. "I just love movies," he says, "I'm just a simple filmmaker."
It's a single-mindedness that goes back to his beginnings. Born in Guangzhou, China, his family fled to Hong Kong after the communist revolution took center stage in the mid-'60s. Living in a shantytown, young Woo struggled past gangsters and drug dealers daily on his way to school. Life on the streets was hell but he says he found his heaven in church and the movies. An American-funded church helped Woo attend school. He discovered a talent for art and took acting to overcome his shyness and halting speech.
His mother took him to the movies - "The Wizard of Oz" was one of the first films he saw, and he remains a fan of musicals. "They showed a beautiful world, a fantasy," Woo says.
Woo started in movies as an extra in King Hu's war pic "Sons of the Good Earth," but he learned about movies from the seminal Chinese Students' Weekly magazine and made student films with his friend Sek Kei, now Hong Kong's most important film critic.
Woo also discovered French director Jean-Pierre Melville and says he identified with his romantic loner heroes such as Alain Delon in "Le Samourai." "He's pretty much like me ... a Lone Ranger."
Studio start
Woo found work at Shaw Brothers, the largest studio in Hong Kong and modeled on the old Hollywood system. He worked for the widely admired Chang Cheh, who helped create a new style of swordsman and kung fu film in 1960s Hong Kong. With their themes of brotherhood and loyalty, and balletlike action, Chang's films left an indelible mark on the...