Austin Film Society Spotlights the “Heroic Bloodshed” of John Woo’s Hong Kong Films

Known for his gripping & guns-blazing sequences, John Woo set the tone for what an action film should look like. But before Woo broke through in Hollywood in 1993 with Hard Target, he was kicking cinematic butt in Hong Kong.

The Austin Film Society screens five of Woo’s pivotal HK films as part of a new Essential Cinema series called John Woo: Heroic Bloodshed. The screenings include:

• A Better Tomorrow: Tue., Sept. 30 & Sat., Oct. 4
• A Better Tomorrow 2: Tue., Oct. 7 & Sat., Oct. 11
• The Killer: Tue., Oct. 14 & Sat., Oct. 18 – Sun., Oct. 19
• Bullet in the Head: Tue., Oct. 21 & Sat., Oct. 25
• Hard Boiled: Tue., Oct. 28 & Thu., Oct. 30

AFS is also currently screening the work of Tsui Hark, a UT film school graduate and Woo’s producer for the first installment of A Better Tomorrow. After Woo’s feature debut The Young Dragons struggled to break through into the commercial market and was originally shelved by government censors for being too violent, Woo set his sights on creating a Hong Kong version of a Jean-Pierre Melville picture. Despite the studio wanting to follow market trends of kung fu and martial arts, Hark agreed to produce Woo’s breakthrough action film.

“What’s interesting with John Woo’s movies is he was truly box office poison in Hong Kong,” said AFS lead programmer Lars Nilsen. “He had made a number of movies very confidently where he was really trying to follow the market and those just didn’t quite work,” However, with the help of Hark, Woo was able to redefine his craft and make a film that truly represented his technical skills and his understanding of character development. Ultimately, this film put Woo on the radar despite his unconventional approach to gaining traction at the box office.

“John Woo was like, ‘Nobody wants to make John Woo movies because nobody wants to have bombs at the box office.’ But what Tsui Hark and John Woo sort of recognized is that you could push the audience, [rather] than try to pull the audience,” Nilsen said. “So I think that that’s really what they’re trying to do is not just slavishly follow what the market wants, but to actually say like, ‘Hey, if you like that and that and that, you’re going to love this.’”

“He did the damn thing,” Nilsen said. “He really made these movies and used the time that he had on set, used the resources that he had – which were not considerable by any means, especially for the early films – to create so many action sequences in these films.” And that’s the crown jewel of these films: the exciting 10-12 action sequences and the way Woo builds up his characters to be loved by the audience. Woo’s slow-motion action style, double-wielding guns, and frequent starring of Hong Kong heartthrob Chow Yun-fat gave many Western directors inspiration – including Quentin Tarantino, who gave much credit to Woo for the inspiration of Reservoir Dogs.

“That’s a big thing that John Woo does in his films,” explained Nilsen. “He’s figured out how to use the coolness of this character to put you on his side. So, you’re on this guy’s side because he’s so cool, you want to be like that guy. And then on the other hand, he’s also delivering the stunt sequences, the action sequences, again and again … in a way that most movies just can’t deliver.”

Essential Cinema: John Woo: Heroic Bloodshed
September 30 – October 30, AFS Cinema

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