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Ng Yu-Sum (吴宇森; ''Wu Yu-sen''), better known as John Woo (born 1 May 1946), is a Hong Kong filmmaker known as a highly influential figure in action cinema, and probably ''the'' best-known director from Hong Kong [[ImportFilter to Western audiences]].

Drawing inspiration from movie greats like Creator/SergioLeone, Creator/SamPeckinpah, Creator/AkiraKurosawa, and Creator/ShawBrothers legend Chang Cheh, Woo is most powerfully regarded as a pioneer of the HeroicBloodshed genre and its most visually appealing tropes: GunsAkimbo, the MexicanStandoff, BloodstainedGlassWindows, and DisturbedDoves. Especially those doves. He's also practically the {{Trope Maker|s}} for GunFu.
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!Woo's Hong Kong movies (with focus on HeroicBloodshed) are, in no particular order:

* ''Film/HandOfDeath'' - One of Woo's first forays into filmmaking, and also notable for featuring the three dragons of Hong Kong cinema -- Creator/JackieChan, Creator/SammoHung and Creator/YuenBiao -- in the same movie... before they were even famous.
* ''Film/LastHurrahForChivalry'' - An early directorial effort, this {{Wuxia}} served as a template for Woo's future films about brotherhood and chivalry.
* ''Film/ABetterTomorrow'' (1986) - A classic story of brothers on opposite sides of the law. The younger brother Sung Tse Kit, the cop, was played by Creator/LeslieCheung, and the older brother Sung Tse Ho, the Triad gangster, was played by Ti Lung. This is the movie that kick-started the HeroicBloodshed genre in earnest, and it would also provide Creator/ChowYunFat's first major starring role as Mark Gor, an angry young gunslinger whose bond with Ho borders on brotherhood itself. The movie's most memorable scene is Mark Gor's one-man vengeance spree at the restaurant that features Woo's first use of GunsAkimbo, a trope that would later come to define the genre in general. It also prompted the formation of Hong Kong's [[UsefulNotes/MediaClassifications rating system]] for movies due to its violence, and would later receive the rating of Category [=IIb=] (equivalent to the R rating).
* ''Film/HeroesShedNoTears'' (1986) - John Woo's very first gunplay movie, made before ''Film/ABetterTomorrow'', but released after that movie became a hit in Hong Kong. Starring Eddy Ko Hung, Lam Ching Ying, Lai Chan Shang and Kuo Sheng, this movie is a low budget movie about UsefulNotes/TheVietnamWar, reminiscent of ''Film/ApocalypseNow'' which marks the beginnings of the gunplay styles that would soon become John Woo's trademark. Woo would later improve upon the themes of this movie in his Vietnam epic ''Bullet in the Head''.
* ''A Better Tomorrow II'' (1987) - Chow Yun-fat returns as Ken Gor, the [[BackupTwin twin brother of Mark Gor]], who teams up with the two brothers from the first movie in order to avenge the daughter of a friend played by Dean Shek. Its climax notably contains Chow Yun-fat, Ti Lung and Dean Shek [[StormingTheCastle storming a mansion packed with bad guys]] to [[RoaringRampageOfRevenge avenge Leslie Cheung]]. This movie would also be the first to introduce the John Woo version of the MexicanStandoff, though its true iconic use would come later.
* ''Film/JustHeroes'' (1989) - Directed by John Woo and Wu Ma, this is one of the lesser-known John Woo movies, but is no less action-packed. It revolves around two brothers (played by Creator/DannyLee and Creator/DavidChiang) teaming up against a third who betrayed and killed their well-respected gang boss father.
* ''Film/{{The Killer|1989}}'' (1989) - One of Woo's best-known movies next to ''Hard-Boiled'', and often regarded as his best. Chow Yun-fat plays a HitmanWithAHeart who takes on one final job in order to raise the money to fix a tragic mistake that he made that left a singer (Sally Yeh) blinded, only to be double crossed by his boss (Shing Fui-On) who would rather [[ContractOnTheHitman kill Chow than give him the money]]. Chow's only ally is a CowboyCop played by Danny Lee who comes to form a close bond with the man he had sworn to bring to justice. Contains an iconic MexicanStandoff between Chow and Lee, and a [[BloodstainedGlassWindows furious shootout in a church]] with [[DisturbedDoves doves flying everywhere]].
* ''Film/BulletInTheHead'' (1990) - Woo's grimmest and most emotionally devastating flick yet, this movie combines the trademark John Woo gangland action with the horrors of [[UsefulNotes/TheVietnamWar Vietnam]], and showcases the destructive power of GoldFever on the HeroicBloodshed [[SwornBrothers bond of brotherhood]] between three would-be gangsters who try to strike it rich in the Nam while the war is in full swing.
* ''Film/OnceAThief'' (1991) - This movie focuses on three international art thieves played by Chow Yun-fat, Creator/LeslieCheung and Cheri Chung. Raised by the same father, they go on a last big heist that involves the theft of a mysterious "cursed" painting and the movie focuses on how its obsession affects the family. While the gunplay is as plentiful as in Woo's other movies, the focus here is on romance and fun, not the tragedy and melodrama of Woo's earlier works, which is a welcome change of pace. The film would eventually be remade into a short-lived Canadian/American syndicated series.
* ''Film/HardBoiled'' (1992) - Woo's last big Hong Kong movie, this movie is perhaps ''the'' most action-packed ever. Chow Yun-fat stars as a CowboyCop named Tequila who fights Triad gunrunners in a series of explosive shootouts. He teams up with Alan, another HitmanWithAHeart played by Tony Leung Chiu-Wai who turns out to be an undercover cop who has infiltrated the gang and was forced to betray his last Triad boss. The movie kicks into action overdrive when midway through the film, the BigBad, Johnny Wong, and his crew of bad guys take over a hospital in [[DieHardOnAnX pure Die Hard fashion]], and Tequila and Alan have to save everyone that they've taken hostage and take down the bad guys once and for all in true HeroicBloodshed fashion in one of the most explosive running shootouts that John Woo has ever filmed.
* ''Film/BloodBrothers2007'' -- Woo serves as the producer of this throwback to old-school Hong Kong Blood Opera. Despite being directed by Alexis Tan, due to Woo's involvement and DirectorDisplacement, the film is widely promoted as "John Woo's Blood Brothers".

Woo eventually ended up in Hollywood, where he directed the following films:

* ''Film/HardTarget'' (1993)
* ''[[Film/BrokenArrow1996 Broken Arrow]]'' (1996)
* ''Film/FaceOff'' (1997)
* ''Film/Blackjack1998''
* ''Film/MissionImpossibleII'' (2000)
* ''Film/{{Windtalkers}}'' (2002)
* ''Film/{{Paycheck}}'' (2003)

Woo left Hollywood and returned to Chinese cinema in 2008:
* ''Film/RedCliff'' (2008-2009)
* ''Reign of Assassins'' (2010)
* ''The Crossing'' (2014-2015)
* ''Manhunt'' (2017)

Woo also has a number of production credits to his name, having co-produced ''Film/TheReplacementKillers'', Chow Yun-fat's first major Hollywood movie, which features many of the thematic elements of his other films. In addition, Woo helped produce the video game ''VideoGame/{{Stranglehold}}'', a sequel to ''Hard-Boiled'' which pits Inspector Tequila against the father of the BigBad from the film. He additionally became known on the {{anime}} scene as the producer of ''Anime/AppleseedExMachina''.

Woo returned to Hollywood in 2023 with the [[SilenceIsGolden no dialogue]] action-thriller ''Film/SilentNight2023''.

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!!Common tropes appearing in works by John Woo:
* BottomlessMagazines: Characters reload guns when it is convenient for the film's pacing, and not a second before.
* CreatorBacklash: He disowned ''A Better Tomorrow II'' due to the ExecutiveMeddling denying him final cut. With the exception of the climactic gun battle.
* CreatorThumbprint: Expect his characters to wield a Beretta 92FS or [[GunsAkimbo even two]]. He has said it's the only gun he likes, finding all others ugly.
* DarkerAndEdgier: ''Film/{{The Killer|1989}}'' and ''Film/BulletInTheHead'' are quite possibly his darkest and most somber films.
* DisturbedDoves: A signature trope of his, mainly because he [[AuthorAppeal likes the]] [[RuleOfSymbolism symbolism]].
* GunsAkimbo: The TropeCodifier for its usage in modern action and crime films. Just about all his films has at least one character doing this.
* GunFu: The TropeMaker. The word is that Hong Kong audiences saw gunfights as boring compared to the Wuxia films that were popular at the time. His response was to stylize the gunfights to show individual skill and flair.
* LeapAndFire: One of the many stylized elements of Woo's gunplay. Interestingly, his early Hong Kong works had very little of this.
* MexicanStandoff: His films frequently have the two-person point-blank variant, to the point where it is sometimes referred to as the "John Woo Standoff". In fact, this trope was deeply associated with him before it became associated with Creator/QuentinTarantino, who's usage of them was largely in reference to Woo.
* NobleDemon: A recurring theme in his works is honor among criminals and trying to maintain a moral code even when engaging in evil behavior.
* NoHoldsBarredBeatdown: For all the stylized gun violence in his films, fistfights in Woo's movies tend to be no-frills, brutal, exhausting affairs with the notable exceptions of ''Film/HardTarget'' which uses Jean-Claude Van Damme's famous Taekwondo kicks to spectacular effect and later ''Film/MissionImpossibleII'' with the final showdown making extensive use of slow motion and Ethan's Capoeira skills.
* ProductionPosse: Often casts Creator/TonyLeungChiuWai, Creator/ChowYunFat, Creator/LeslieCheung, [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kenneth_Tsang Kenneth Tsang]], Shing Fui-On, and Creator/WaiseLee.
* RealMenLoveJesus: Woo is a devout Christian and this reflects heavily in his filmography, which prominently features religious imagery and iconography, including the famous [[DisturbedDoves doves]], which he sees as symbols of peace and purity that reflect the characters' spirit.
* RuleOfCool: Much of his filmography is defined by this trope. Given how spectacular the end results usually are, no one is complaining.
* SignatureStyle: Definitely. If it doesn't have lots of slow motion and slow, lingering camera movements, epic music, characters wielding [[GunsAkimbo two guns]] at once and likely two Beretta's and explosions to emphasize the drama, it just isn't a John Woo film.
* TheTriadsAndTheTongs: Featured a lot in his HeroicBloodshed films in Hong Kong.
* WeaponBasedCharacterization: If a character in his films is using a handgun, it will almost invariably be a Beretta 92FS and likely [[GunsAkimbo not just one.]] The pistol's use and presence in pop culture is now inherently linked to Woo's films and he's said it's his favorite gun to use in films, describing all others as ugly.

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