John Woo

John Woo Bio

John Woo is a Chinese-born Hong Kong filmmaker, writer, and actor born in Guangzhou, China on May 1, 1946. Woo is best known for being a major influence on the action genre and is known for his chaotic action scenes. He is considered to be one of the major figures of Hong Kong cinema. He started his career in 1969 as a script supervisor at Cathay Studios. In 1971 he became an assistant director at Shaw Studios. He made his directorial debut in 1968 on the film Dead Knot. He has since been a writer and director for the films Hand of Death Money Crazy, Last Hurrah for Chivalry, To Hell with the Devil, Laughing Times, The Time You Need a Friend, Run, Heroes Shed No Tears, A Better Tomorrow, Bullet in the Head, Once a Their, Hard Boiled, Red Cliff: Part I, and many more. He has been a producer for the films Peace Hotel, The Big Hit, Red Skies, Blood Brothers, The Killer, Second Sight, Somebody Up There Likes Me and others. In 1993 he moved to the United States to work on Hollywood movies and in 2008 returned to Asian cinema. Throughout his career he has been nominated for a number of awards and has won a Saturn Award and two Hong Kong Film Awards.