John Woo on “Red Cliff” and the rise of Chinawood

Thu, 19 Nov 2009 04:19:00 +0000

When John Woo left Hong Kong in the early 1990s, a few years before the then-British territory was to be handed over to the People's Republic of China, it clearly marked the end of an era. Although he was hardly the only important Hong Kong filmmaker, Woo symbolized the sudden global emergence of the territory's highly choreographed action cinema. With pictures like "Bullet in the Head," "The Killer," and the "Better Tomorrow" series, he had personally elevated the violent police thriller to implausible levels of symbolism and visual poetry.

Woo's move to Hollywood suggested that Chinese authorities might have trouble convincing the best talents in Hong Kong's film industry to stay home, under what was presumably going to be a censorious and intrusive regime. It also suggested that however corporatized mainstream American film had become, it could still attract exciting directors from overseas. Indeed, while Hong Kong studios struggled with budgets and distribution problems over the next few years, Woo became a certified Hollywood hitmaker, directing the cult faves "Broken Arrow" and "Face/Off," along with the Tom Cruise vehicle "Mission: Impossible II," which grossed $565 million worldwide.

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John Woo on “Red Cliff” and the rise of Chinawood