BY John

BY JOHN (Woo, John) (p. 1946), film director (Hong Kong - United States). Deduced action movie genre (action) on the level of copyright movies, present, high art.

John Woo was born May 1, 1946 in Southern China. In the early 1950's with his parents moved to Hong Kong, where he grew up in a poor quarter. The scenes of street violence, which has repeatedly seen young Wu, left a serious imprint on his work. In 1969, John settled on the position of assistant director at the studio 'Shaw Brothers Pikchers'. Cinema of Hong Kong had just come out to the world level, in the first (and perhaps only) place in films with the legends of martial arts, a cult figure of 20 per., Bruce Lee. Theme oriental martial arts and was given by Bruce Lee as a priority for the Hong Kong cinema.

The first work of John Woo as a director - rather strongly made, but the primitive bands in the genre of 'Kung Fu' (ie the oriental martial arts), which had not yet seen any presence of the author's style. Nevertheless, increasing the professionalism of the director of the film to the film, . what to mid-1980 he had recruited more than a dozen (curiously, . that one of his first films, . "Hand of Death, . 1975, . unknown then Wu has worked with an unknown then Jackie Chan, . subsequently became one of the leading figures in world cinema),
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1986 - landmark year for the career of John Woo. Producer produces the screens in Hong Kong film "Right to Life" (1987). Sincere, naive sentimentality in the spirit of Frank Capra movies, romantic vision of the world combined in this painting with the bloody, unique set shooting scenes. The film "The right to life", which started long-term cooperation Woo and actor Chow Yun-Fatah, became the leader of film distribution in Hong Kong in 1986 and won the Hong Kong Academy Awards for best film 1986.

At the insistence of producers in 1987, Wu removes the second part of the "right to life", which, however, difficult to compare with the original. Director takes into account the errors and in 1989 published motion picture "Killer" (in the main role - Chow Yun-Fat), rightly considered to be the top creative John Woo. A story about a hired killer fall in love in a blind woman and trying to 'engage', was told with energy, passion and ownership of the means amazing film, which would be the envy of almost any director of the world. Wu used here (as in "right to life") finds and techniques of their favorite directors Sam Peckinpah and Sergio Leone, but couched them in a romantic form. The killer was awarded the Hong Kong Film Academy Award for Best Director.

"Killer" became a 'ticket' talented director in Hollywood. "Killer" was shown at several festivals and attracted the attention of Martin Scorsese's film masters and Oliver Stone's highly appreciate the advantages of the film, as well as producers of Universal Studios, offering to contract Wu. But the director moved to Hollywood in 1992 alone, having put on home two more milestone to his creative film. First, it is "Bullet in the Head" (1990), a story of friendship, love and hatred, taken under the strong influence of the paintings "Once in America" by Sergio Leone (1984) and "The Deer Hunter" (1978) Michael Cimino. And secondly, it's "Hard Boiled" (1990, starring - Chow Yun-Fat) - a powerful and perfectly done action movie, action scenes in which the scale and the kinetic energy overshadows almost all these pictures, shot in Hollywood.

It is no wonder that Hollywood looked forward to John Woo, and being in a flood of new blood into the genre of 'militants'. However, . working on his first picture in the U.S., . film "Hard Target", . Wu faced with the pressure of censorship as, . which forced him to cut a number of particularly violent scenes (the poetic brutality is an integral part of the author's style of Wu), . and with the pressure producers, . strict control over any form of copyright free-for filming,
. As a result, coming on the screens in August 1993, "Hard Target" was quite decent, militant, and better role in the film by Jean-Claude Van Damme. But up to HK Woo her work was far

. Next Woo in Hollywood, . "Broken Arrow" (1996), . against a brave fighter pilot with the terrorists, . stole a nuclear warhead, . the first real success in the U.S. producer, . received critical acclaim and gathered in the global film distribution of about 150 million,
. U.S.. Paramount Studio offers Woo staging big budget project "Faceless", the deadly fight FBI agent and the villain who killed his son. Due to the budget director was able to realize any of the visual ideas through the involvement in the project stars John Travolta (he played in "Broken Arrow") and Nicolas Cage - to create compelling on-screen human conflict. And Wu showed all that was capable. Coming on the screens in June 1997, "Faceless" was nominated for the award Oscar in the category 'installation of sound effects' and became one of the best fighters ever shot in Hollywood.

After the "Face" for the Wu finally consolidate the status of cult classic movies. Its proprietary techniques: slow-motion pictures, resistance heroes with guns aimed at each other, the white doves that appear in the frame in each of his film cites many of Hollywood and the world kinopostanovschikov. A number of Hong Kong directors (mostly copied to the country style of Wu) are invited to work in Hollywood. But, contrary to expectations, the director is taken for openly commercial project, the continuation superhits with Tom Cruise in the lead role, "Mission: Impossible 2" (2000). Despite the fact that the film takes first place in the world kinoprokata 2000, in artistic terms - it is simply an exercise in style, perfectly executed a professional high-class work in order. Reel of film disappoints many fans of Wu.

Immediately after the premiere of "Mission", in the summer of 2000, Wu began in Hawaii shooting war drama "Windtalkers" (starring - Nicolas Cage). Expected date of the premiere - June 2001. However, work on the film goes out of graphics, the studio 'MGM' requires the director peresemok some scenes. When the film yet completed, a new date for the premiere, November 2001, again postponed, this time from the events of September 11 (American soldiers in the film does not always shown its best side). As a result, "Windtalkers" came on the screens in June 2002 (one year after the original date of the premiere) and failed at the box office, despite the obvious artistic merit. Despite the failure of "Windtalkers", the status of John Woo as a director in Hollywood remains very high. Since 2002, the director is working on a big-budget project of man suffering amnesia. Topics creativity Wu: lonely man in a cruel world, noble heroes and the eternal struggle between good and evil are usually appreciated by the audience.