John Woo SBS (Ng Yu-Sum; born 1 May 1946) is a Hong Kong film director, writer, and producer. He is considered a major influence on the action genre, known for his highly chaotic action sequences, Mexican standoffs, and frequent use of slow motion. Woo has directed several notable Hong Kong action films, among them, A Better Tomorrow (1986), The Killer (1989), Hard Boiled (1992), and Red Cliff (2008/2009). His Hollywood films include the action films Hard Target (1993) and Broken Arrow (1996), the sci-fi action thriller Face/Off (1997) and the action spy film Mission: Impossible II (2000). He also created the comic series Seven Brothers, published by Virgin Comics. Woo cites his three favorite films as David Lean's Lawrence of Arabia, Akira Kurosawa's Seven Samurai and Jean-Pierre Melville's Le Samouraï.
Woo was born Wu Yu-Seng (Ng Yu-Sum in Cantonese) in Guangzhou, China, amidst the chaos of the Chinese Civil War at the end of October, 1946. Because of school age restrictions, his mother changed his birth date to 22 September 1948, which is what remains on his passport. The Christian Woo family, faced with persecution during Mao Zedong's early anti-bourgeois purges after the communist revolution in China, fled to Hong Kong when he was five.
John Woo (born 1946) is a Chinese film director and producer.
John Woo is also the name of:
John Woo is a homophone for John Wu, which may refer to:
The Magnetic Fields (named after the André Breton/Philippe Soupault novel Les Champs Magnétiques) is an American indie pop group founded and led by Stephin Merritt. He is the group's primary songwriter, producer and vocalist, as well as frequent multi-instrumentalist. The Magnetic Fields is essentially a vehicle for Merritt's songwriting, as are various side-projects, such as The 6ths, Future Bible Heroes and The Gothic Archies. While the musical style of the band is as malleable as Merritt's songwriting, its songs are commonly attributed to pop genres such as synthpop, indie pop, and noise pop. The band is often cited as being recognizable by Merritt's lyrics, often about love and often with irregular or neutral gender roles, that are by turns ironic, tongue-in-cheek, bitter, and humorous.
The band released their debut single "100,000 Fireflies" in 1991, which was typical of the band's earlier career characterized by synthesized instrumentation by Merritt with lead vocals provided by Susan Anway (and then by Stephin Merritt himself from The House of Tomorrow EP onwards). A more traditional band later materialized, currently composed of Merritt, Claudia Gonson, Sam Davol, and John Woo, with occasional guest vocals by Shirley Simms. Their best-known work is the 1999 three-volume concept album 69 Love Songs. It was followed in the succeeding years by a "no-synth" trilogy: i (2004), Distortion (2008), and Realism (2010). The band's most recent album, Love at the Bottom of the Sea, was released in 2012.
Roll down the windows
Don't shift in your seat
I don't care if the wind blows
I don't care about the heat
All those John Woo showdowns
Don't prepare you for this
A little bit Face-Off
A little Killer's Kiss
Stop, look, listen hard
This is why a band hires a bodyguard
Fear draws 'em, don't let it show
Driver, there's a bee trapped in the limo
When a bug plays chicken
Feathers fly
If the driver's allergic
One sting, we die
A real buzz-killer
Wouldn't have missed
I'm just making him meaner
With every flick of my Gucci-wielding wrist
Stop, look, listen hard
This is why a band hires a bodyguard
Fear draws 'em, don't let it show
Driver, there's a mad bee in the limo
John Woo, John Woo
John Woo, John Woo
John Woo, John Woo
John Woo, John Woo
Stop, look, listen hard
This is why I needed a library card
Fear finds 'em knocking about
Driver, there's a metaphor trying to get out
John Woo
John Woo, John Woo
John Woo