I learned of Jean-Pierre Melville's super-cool, ultra-controlled gangster movie Le Samouraï from John Woo. In my defense, it was the '90s, I was young, and Woo's highly stylized films A Better Tomorrow, The Killer and Hard Boiled had me reading every possible interview with the director. It was probably in the pages of Asian Trash Cinema where…
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John Woo is in the middle of what might be a renaissance. It's too early to really make that call, but he's more active now in the wake of Red Cliff than he's been in the past few years. And more active with interesting projects -- if you haven't seen Red Cliff it is definitely…
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John Woo hasn't made an English-language film since 2003's Paycheck. Arguably he's made only one good (or only one truly entertaining) film in America, Face/Off, though the Nic Cage war film Windtalkers does have defenders. Leaving the studio system seems like it was the best option for Woo, and in addition to his completed film…
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