Explore popular quotes and sayings by a Chinese director John Woo.
Last updated on December 3, 2024.
John Woo Yu-Sen SBS is a Hong Kong film director, producer and screenwriter. Woo is known for his highly chaotic action sequences, stylized imagery, Mexican standoffs, frequent use of slow motion and allusions to wuxia and Western cinema. He was also a pioneer of heroic bloodshed films and the gun fu genre in Hong Kong action cinema, before working in Hollywood films.
There is absolutely no Wuxia or martial arts in 'Red Cliff.' I want all the action to look realistic.
To be honest, I don't have much time to watch any movies.
When I made 'Hard Boiled,' I had no idea that it would be released to an international audience. I just wanted to make a film to team up my two favorite actors, Tony Leung and Chow Yun-Fat.
The movies I like to make are very rich and full of passion. Some people see me as an action director, but action is not the only thing in my movies. I always like to show human nature - something deep inside the heart.
It's pretty easy to make a film in China. A few years ago I just walked into the office and let them know I wanted to make a movie called 'Red Cliff' and they were so excited. They said, 'Let's do it!' It's that simple.
'Hard Boiled' is my last film in Hong Kong, before I moved to the U.S. It is the one film which is most accepted by the audience in the West.
I like doves. They look so beautiful, like a woman. For me they represent peace and love and purity. And sometimes they're seen as the messengers of God, so they're important to me because I'm a Christian.
I can use movie as a language. Not only could it send a good message, I could let people know about my thinking and how I see the world, how I see the colour, how I see the music, how I see everything.
When I was a kid I got so much help from the Church. When I was a kid, our family was so poor they couldn't afford me to go to school, so there was an American family that send the money to the church to support my school fees.
I'm not a master; I'm just a hard-working filmmaker. I would like everyone to see me as a friend rather than a master.
When I was a kid I feel lonely, I have not many friends. If you make a movie, then you can work with different kinds of people and make different kinds of friend. That's very important to me.
When I was young, I loved movies so much I wanted to make one.
My films are always concerned with family, friendship, honor, and patriotism.
I also wanted people to know that football actually started in China almost 3000 years ago.
I have found my heaven in musicals. When I watch a musical, it makes me believe life is still beautiful.
I think I have been stereotyped as an action director in Hollywood, so all I got were the action scripts.
For my own films, I would like to see 'Bullet in the Head' remastered. The original cut was actually almost three hours.
I have never intended in any of my films to sell violence or to glorify it. Even in the most intense action sequences in my films, there is a message about how evil violence is.