• John Woo was born May 1st 1946 (age 68) in Guangzhou, China.

• Because of school age restrictions, his mother changed his birth date to September 22nd 1948, which is what remains on his passport. 

• His family moved to Hong Kong when he was 5, due to the Communist Revolution in China.

• His father was a teacher , and his mother was a laborer on construction sites in the slums of Shek Kip Mei.

• As a young boy, Woo had wanted to be a Christian minister. He later found a passion for movies. Woo has said he was shy and had difficulty speaking, but found making movies a way to explore his feelings and thinking and would "use movies as a language".

• He is a Hong Kong film director, writer, and producer. He is considered a major influence on the action genre, known for his highly chaotic action sequences, Mexican standoffs, Doves flying away from action as a symbol for peace, and frequent use of slow-motion. Woo has directed several notable Hong Kong action films. For instance, A Better Tomorrow, The Killer, Hard Boiled, and Red Cliff.

• The first Asian filmmaker to helm a major Hollywood feature. His Hollywood films include the action films Hard Target and Broken Arrow, the sci-fi action thriller Face/Off and the action spy film Mission: Impossible II. He also created the comic series Seven Brothers, published by Virgin Comics. Woo was described by Dave Kehr in The Observer in 2002 as “ the most influential director making movies today."

g• Released - 1989 (1990 in U.S.A.)• Plot - During a restaurant shoot-

out, hitman Jeff (Chow Yun-Fat) accidentally hurts the eyes of a singer (Sally Yeh). Later, he meets the girl and discovers that if she does not have a very expensive operation very soon, she will go blind. To get the money for the surgery, Jeff decides to perform one last hit.

• Rotten Tomatoes Rating – 100%• IMDB Rating – 7.9/10 4/5 Stars!!

• Released – June 27th 1997 (U.S.A.)• Plot - Obsessed with bringing terrorist

Castor Troy (Nicolas Cage) to justice, FBI agent Sean Archer (John Travolta) tracks down Troy, who has boarded a plane in Los Angeles. After the plane crashes and Troy is severely injured, possibly dead, Archer undergoes surgery to remove his face and replace it with Troy's. As Archer tries to use his disguise to elicit information about a bomb from Troy's brother, Troy awakes from a coma and forces the doctor who performed the surgery to give him Archer's face.

• Rotten Tomatoes Rating – 91%

• IMDB Rating – 7.3/10 3.5/5 Stars!!

• Roger Ebert Rating – 4/5 Stars!!

• Released – April 16th,1992 • Plot - A cop who loses his partner in a

shoot-out with gun smugglers goes on a mission to catch them. In order to get closer to the leaders of the ring he joins forces with an undercover cop who's working as a gangster hitman. They use all means of excessive force to find them.

• Rotten Tomatoes Rating – 94%• IMDB Rating – 7.9/10 4/5 Stars!!“The action sequences are among the greatest ever filmed.” – Andy Klein (Critic for Dragon Dynasty Release Films)

• Released – 1986 (1993 in U.S.A.) • Plot - A Hong Kong policeman

(Leslie Cheung) blames his reformed-gangster brother (Ti Lung) for the death of their father. Which brother will be the first to spill blood?

• Rotten Tomatoes Rating – 93%• Interesting Fact – The Hip – Hop

group the Wu – Tang Clan’s 6th album & song “A Better Tomorrow” was influenced by John Woo’s film of the same name.

• Chow Yun-fat, is a Hong Kong actor. He is best known in Asia for his collaborations with filmmaker John Woo as the heroic protagonist in films such as, A Better Tomorrow, The Killer and Hard Boiled;and in the West for his roles as Li Mu-bai in Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon and Sao Feng in Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End. He has won three Hong Kong Film Awards for Best Actor and two Golden Horse Awards for Best Actor in Taiwan.

• Lin Chi-ling, is a Taiwanese actress. She made her acting debut in John Woo’s 2008 film Red Cliff, as a warrior. John Woo has mentioned he will be working with her again very soon.

Quentin Tarantino• Quentin Tarantino’s 1992 film

“Reservoir Dogs”, is believed to be influenced and share similarities to John Woo’s 1986 film “A Better Tomorrow”, and the 1987 film “City on Fire”.

Matthew Vaughn• In a issue of Total Film

Magazine, during an interview director Matthew Vaughn (Kick – Ass, X-Men First Class, Kingsman: The Secret Service) gave credit to John Woo’s well directed action sequences.

The Mo Brothers• The Mo Brothers 2014

Indonesian film “Killers” has many similarities to John Woo films. Such as, gruesome scenes to advance the story, and over the top action sequences.

• Without a doubt, writer and director Gareth Evans has been heavily influenced by John Woo’s work. He is one of my favorite directors today, and has directed two exceptional films (The Raid: Redemption and The Raid 2: Berandal) with similarities to John Woo. These are must see films for anyone who is an action film fan or foreign film fan especially.

As a result, I believe John Woo is one of the best action directors the genre has to offer. He has returned to Hong Kong for his future film project The Divide, and I can’t wait to see what he has to offer next.

“The movies I like to make are very rich and full of passion. Some people see me as an action director, but action is not the only thing in my movies. I always like to show human nature - something deep inside the heart.” – John Woo quote

I hope most of you enjoyed this, and thank you for your time.