John Woo: Interviews (Conversations With Filmmakers Series) (Paperback)

~ Robert K. Elder (Author) "I AM NG YU - SUM..." (more)
Key Phrases: stunt coordinator, Hong Kong, Chow Yun-Fat, Better Tomorrow (more...)

Editorial Reviews

From Booklist

Internationally acclaimed in the late 1980s for his impossibly violent, rabidly romantic gangster films, Hong Kong action director Woo was lured to Hollywood by the tantalizing prospect of reaching larger audiences. He achieved some U.S. commercial success by working with such stars as Nicholas Cage and John Travolta and helming the blockbuster sequel, Mission Impossible II; yet Woo, prolific in Hong Kong, has released only six features in a dozen years in Hollywood. The fans who discovered him through such early Chow Yun-Fat vehicles as A Better Tomorrow and The Killer remain enthusiastically loyal, though, and they'll devour these 17 interviews from sources ranging from daily newspapers to movie trade journals. The pieces on his earlier career, including an oral history for the Hong Kong Film Archive and a movie-by-movie discussion of his 1968-90 work, most of which remains unseen in America, are particularly informative; and the later interviews promoting his Hollywood efforts reveal ironic gentleness and thoughtfulness in this man best known for on-screen bloodletting. Gordon Flagg
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Product Description

Director John Woo (b. 1946) reinvented the modern action movie and helped open the door for Asian filmmakers to the Western world. His hyper-violent, highly choreographed style made him a box office powerhouse, a respected auteur, and a revered figure among fellow directors.

First discovered by Western audiences through his Hong Kong films The Killer and Hard Boiled, Woo introduced the world to a new brand of psychologically frenzied action film. After coming to the United States in the early 1990s, Woo produced a trilogy of hard-charging action films--Broken Arrow, Face/Off, and Mission: Impossible II--that were both popular and critically acclaimed. But Woo's signature bullet ballets, his kinetic, blood-spattered action sequences, represent a dichotomy in the director's philosophy. John Woo: Interviews reveals a peace-loving, devoutly religious man at odds with his reputation as the master of cinematic violence.

Unprecedented access to the director helped editor Robert K. Elder create in John Woo: Interviews the first authoritative English-language chronicle of Woo's career.

Robert K. Elder writes about film, the arts, travel, and music for the Chicago Tribune. His work has appeared in the New York Times, Premiere, the Los Angeles Times, the Boston Globe, Gear, the Oregonian, and many other publications. A member of the Chicago Film Critics Association, Elder teaches film at the Facets Film School in Chicago.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 208 pages
• Publisher: University Press of Mississippi (September 15, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1578067766
• ISBN-13: 978-1578067763
• Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 5.9 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #783,154 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Illuminating, in-depth, and best of all, engaging., December 4, 2005

By	D. Mok (Los Angeles, CA) - See all my reviews (TOP 500 REVIEWER)

Forget Christopher Heard's pathetic, hackneyed, dull mockery of a biography, Ten Thousand Bullets. John Woo: Interviews is the best book on John Woo currently on the market. Michael Bliss' Between the Bullets has some interesting insights, but it was a collection of film essays, which focus more on academic, sociological and ideological interpretations of Woo's films rather than an aim at biographical detailing.

John Woo: Interviews succeeds very well at portraying the shy, serious director by meticulous editing, mostly letting Woo's own syntax and verbal mannerisms come through with minimal tampering, and the interviews themselves delve into Woo's troubled relationship with Tsui Hark, his work with both Hong Kong and American film crews, his childhood in Hong Kong, and of course his quartet of Hong Kong classics: A Better Tomorrow, The Killer, Bullet in the Head, and Hard-Boiled. My
favourite interviews are the ones with Hard Target director of photography Russell Carpenter, who goes into the nitty-gritties of working with such a visually meticulous director, and an extremely illuminating portion where Woo dissects the unique qualities of his various leading men -- Chow Yun-fat, John Travolta, Jean-Claude Van Damme, Nicolas Cage, and Tom Cruise.

The editing is smartly done, making the interviews flow into an easy read, and each interview is documented so that we have some context for interpretation. I've been reading up on Woo for quite awhile, but I'd say this is the single most comprehensive, multi-angled and absorbing source of John Woo material yet. A great read for fans of Asian cinema, and filmmakers will especially find this book an invaluable source of information for Woo's unique cinematic magic.