The Pre-Hollywood John Woo Appreciation Thread

[Cmill216]

After having watched Hard Boiled for the first time this week, I have now fallen in love with the awesomeness that is John Woo. No real film lover can deny this man's way with action. From the mid-80s through the early 90s, Woo created some of the most indelible action films of all-time, reinventing the shootout and giving way to scores of American pretenders.

Woo's action sequences are as poetic as they are unabashedly violent. The man turned the gun into a paintbrush and hordes of nondescript thugs into canvases. And with the help of one Chow Yun-Fat, Woo transformed a film culture dominated by martial arts to one consumed by the ways of the gun.

Woo made the leap to Hollywood in the early 90s, and while he scored with the 1997 film Face/Off, it's hard not to see that he's yet to recapture the magic that made him such a revered visionary filmmaker.

But, forget all that. We're here to discuss his best. Works such as The Killer and A Better Tomorrow. So let's celebrate the Woo!