2. • 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".

3. • 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."

4. 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!!

5. • 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!!

6. • 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)

7. • 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.

8. • 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.

11. 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.

12. 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.

13. • 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.

14. 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.