John Woo Short biography
John Woo is a Hong Kong film director, producer, and screenwriter. He is best known for his highly stylized action films, which often feature Mexican standoffs, slow motion, and doves. Woo's films have been hugely popular both in Hong Kong and internationally, and he is considered one of the most influential directors of his generation.
Woo was born in Guangzhou, China, in 1946. He began his career in the film industry as a script supervisor in the late 1960s. He made his directorial debut in 1974 with the film The Young Dragons. Woo's early films were mostly low-budget martial arts films, but he began to gain international recognition in the 1980s with films like A Better Tomorrow and The Killer.
In the 1990s, Woo moved to Hollywood and directed a number of big-budget action films, including Hard Target, Broken Arrow, and Face/Off. Woo's Hollywood films were not as critically acclaimed as his Hong Kong films, but they were commercially successful and helped to make him one of the most famous Chinese directors in the world.
In recent years, Woo has returned to directing films in Hong Kong. His most recent film, Manhunt, was released in 2017.
