I
wanted the mood to resemble a dream, like they have something to hope
for. It’s a dream for the killer. No matter where I am, what I love to
do is watch people’s faces. Even when walking on a street, I also love
to watch different faces. I wonder about the feeling. It’s very
interesting, you’re watching a different face and getting a different
feeling. ~ John Woo
Enthusiasts of Asian Cinema often hail John Woo as the master of action movies packed with guns, explosions, and massive set pieces. The director in question, however, distances himself from this title. It goes without saying that his most popular Hong Kong productions from the 1980s and the 1990s constitute idiosyncratic viewing experiences, but what makes them so unique, especially to Western viewers? Let's explore this issue in the herein editorial.
In order to gain greater understanding of John Woo's movies, we need to take a look at the life of the film auteur himself. Woo was born as Wu Yu-seng on the 1st of May, 1946 in Guangzhou, China. His father was a teacher and a literary scholar, while the mother did manual labour. Because of the ruthless rule of Mao Zedong after the war, the family had to flee to Hong Kong in order to avoid persecution for their Christian background. In a new land, they experienced a great deal of hardships as well: the father suffered from tuberculosis while 3-year-old Woo had to undergo a spine operation. It was not until five years later when he regained the ability to walk properly. It was in the childhood years when he had found consolation in religion and was planning to become a Christian minister.
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| John Woo giving instructions on the set of Hard Boiled. |
Nevertheless, it was not like Woo entered the industry with immediate success. He had a steady work in the 1970s, directing standard kung fu flicks and comedies, but he felt increasingly displeased with these endeavours because of the lack of creative control. It was in the mid-1980s when a colleague and fellow collaborator, Tsui Hark provided Woo with a funding to realise his movie ideas.
Sun Tse-Ho (Ti Lung) is a trusted triad member who deals with distributing counterfeit dollars. His loyal helper and best friend is Mark (Chow Yun-fat) who is a cool-hand shooter. On the other hand, there is Kit (Leslie Cheung), Ho’s younger brother who joined the police academy and intends to become an officer. Ho supports his brother’s career choice, but does not reveal to him his real line of business. Ho decides that he will make one more distributing deal in Taiwan and then leave the triad for good. He travels there with a new guy called Shing (Waise Lee); however, all hell breaks loose and Ho is betrayed. In order to allow Shing to escape he turns himself over to the Taiwanese police. Three years later, Ho gets out of prison and he is determined to start a new life. He comes back to Hong Kong only to find that Kit (now a police inspector) does not want to speak to him and that Mark is a crippled beggar. Shing became the new leader of the triad and he offers Ho reinstatement in the organisation. Ho refuses, yet he quickly realises that his brother is in danger.
John Woo manages to evoke the bromance relationship because he puts emphasis on honour and integrity of his male characters. Just as in Romance of the Three Kingdoms or Arthurian legends, men with a steadfast morality compass do whatever it takes to restore order. This is what matters the most, not even a love for a woman can overshadow this because the female figure always plays a secondary part in the storyline.
Regardless of the sequel’s dubious quality (making things more explosive and coming with an outrageous excuse to bring back Chow Yun-fat), the story-arc of Ho is extremely tragic here. The man paid his dues from the first movie, and does not want to get involved in crime undertakings again, but he has to because his friend, Lung, was betrayed. On top of that, Kit, his dear brother, is brutally killed at the end of the second act. Kit’s wife serves no other purpose but to underline her husband’s chivalry in a scene where the two are talking over the phone.
After a disappointing reception of A Better Tomorrow II, Woo had a falling out with Hark who went to single-handedly make A Better Tomorrow III. Woo, on the other hand, went to shoot his dream project called The Killer, a tribute to the cinematic style of Jean-Pierre Melville and Martin Scorsese.
In The Killer,
Woo depicts three sets of male friendships: 1) between two killers
(Jong and Fung); 2) between two cops (Li and Tsang) 3) between a killer
and a cop (Jong and Li). Although the affair with Jenny is the plot
device which drives the main protagonist in the story, the woman never
takes a center stage. She represents a disruption of the order;
therefore, Jong and Li unite in the film’s finale (almost like Butch
Cassidy and the Sundance Kid) to restore the order. However, sacrifices
have to be made.
That is to say, for bromance to take place, the two
characters have to lose their beloved friends. Sergeant Tsang dies in
the line of duty while investigating Jong, while Fung gives up his life
to get the money for Jong from the triads. The death of the latter
character is especially emotional and it reminded me greatly about the
relationship between knight Roland and his loyal paladin Olivier de
Vienne as described in the 11th-century epic poem The Song of Roland.
Evidently, Woo did not take inspiration from the poem, but he replicated
the archetypes of chivalric heroes in action which are present in
literary traditions of the Orient as well as the Occident.
In the final confrontation, the bro power between Jong and Li is so much over 9000 that they manage to defeat a whole army of triad lowlifes on their own. Nevertheless, Jong loses his life in a stand-off against the villain. Similarly to Ho in A Better Tomorrow, Jong has to atone for his past sins, and he does so by saving Jennie in the church (Christian imagery is extremely prominent in The Killer). The last moment between Jong and Jennie, when the two can’t find each other because of their blindness, eerily references Greek tragedies like Oedipus Rex or Antigone. In the end, it is the cop who shoots the villain.
In the final confrontation, the bro power between Jong and Li is so much over 9000 that they manage to defeat a whole army of triad lowlifes on their own. Nevertheless, Jong loses his life in a stand-off against the villain. Similarly to Ho in A Better Tomorrow, Jong has to atone for his past sins, and he does so by saving Jennie in the church (Christian imagery is extremely prominent in The Killer). The last moment between Jong and Jennie, when the two can’t find each other because of their blindness, eerily references Greek tragedies like Oedipus Rex or Antigone. In the end, it is the cop who shoots the villain.
Bullet in the Head stands out of John Woo’s rich repertoire as not being just a standard bullet-ballet flick. It is neither as fast paced as A Better Tomorrow nor as spectacular as Hard Boiled. Nevertheless, the film’s primary asset is a human drama set against the background of a harrowing military conflict. John Woo reinvents the “bromance formula” known from his other films by turning it into a war epic similar to Francis Ford Coppola’s Apocalypse Now.
As in the previously discussed films, we
have the theme of betrayal. Waise Lee again (as in A Better Tomorrow)
plays a rotten individual who chooses wealth over his friends. What is
more, he cripples Frank in a brutal manner, which pushes Ben to seek
revenge. In addition, there is also a female character in-between the
three men, but her subplot is more of a passing vignette rather than a
proper story arc.
That is not to say that the film is simply a melodrama. Bullet in the Head is filled with magnificent action set pieces (nightclub shootout) and wonderful David Lean-like sequences involving large crowds of people (riots scenes the evoking Tiananmen Square incident or Vietnam exodus scene). However, the real show stealer is the final battle sequence involving the characters played by Tony Leung and Waise Lee.
That is not to say that the film is simply a melodrama. Bullet in the Head is filled with magnificent action set pieces (nightclub shootout) and wonderful David Lean-like sequences involving large crowds of people (riots scenes the evoking Tiananmen Square incident or Vietnam exodus scene). However, the real show stealer is the final battle sequence involving the characters played by Tony Leung and Waise Lee.
Similarly to medieval knights battling on
horses, we see the two characters ramming each other with cars.
Ultimately, Paul transforms into a Shakespearean lunatic (like Macbeth
or Hamlet) as he starts talking to Frank’s skull. It is at this moment
when Ben is able to avenge his friend by putting a bullet in Paul’s
head. The order has been restored once again, and Ben (in contrast to
previous protagonists) did not have to atone for his sins. He already
went to hell and back again. At the very end, we see him screaming in
despair and throwing away his gun…
The year 1991 saw the release of Once a Thief which appears to be a complete contradiction of John Woo’s already established template of storytelling. In this instance, we follow three orphaned siblings (Chow Yun-fat, Leslie Cheung, and Cherie Chung) performing heist jobs for their mentor figure (Kenneth Tsang). The movie feels like a side-project for Woo, something tonally lighter with an amazing ensemble cast. It does not function well as a bromance picture at all.
The year 1991 saw the release of Once a Thief which appears to be a complete contradiction of John Woo’s already established template of storytelling. In this instance, we follow three orphaned siblings (Chow Yun-fat, Leslie Cheung, and Cherie Chung) performing heist jobs for their mentor figure (Kenneth Tsang). The movie feels like a side-project for Woo, something tonally lighter with an amazing ensemble cast. It does not function well as a bromance picture at all.
However, there came Hard Boiled in 1992, the very
last picture Woo made before his departure to Hollywood. Without a
doubt, Hard Boiled is a classic picture and a landmark of action cinema,
praised by the critics and film scholars, which still looks impressive
today. Nevertheless, I disagree with the claims that this film is Woo’s
finest directorial achievement. Naturally, it cemented his reputation as
the master of action genre and it also allowed him to break away from
the label of a guy who can only make gangster epics, as this film
definitely glamorises the police. Still again, apart from mind-blowing
stunts, great performances, and jazz music score, Hard Boiled suffers
greatly in terms of a screenplay.
Police officer “Tequila” Yuen (Chow Yun-fat) tries to eradicate the gun smuggling business which is being controlled by rival triad syndicates. However, this results in a brutal war between the police and the triads. In the meantime, Superintendent Pang (Philip Chan) has placed his own trusted man, Tony (Tony Leung Chiu-Wai), as an undercover cop in one of the syndicates. Tequila is not aware of this and he quickly escalates the situation with one of the triad bosses, Wong (Anthony Wong Chau-sang), while relying on info from his own informant in the syndicate. Soon after, Tequila crosses paths with Tony and learns about his true identity. The two cops discover that Wong has a huge weapons warehouse beneath Maple Group Hospital. They step into action, but the psychotic gangster does not let himself get busted that easily as he takes all patients hostage at the hospital.
Police officer “Tequila” Yuen (Chow Yun-fat) tries to eradicate the gun smuggling business which is being controlled by rival triad syndicates. However, this results in a brutal war between the police and the triads. In the meantime, Superintendent Pang (Philip Chan) has placed his own trusted man, Tony (Tony Leung Chiu-Wai), as an undercover cop in one of the syndicates. Tequila is not aware of this and he quickly escalates the situation with one of the triad bosses, Wong (Anthony Wong Chau-sang), while relying on info from his own informant in the syndicate. Soon after, Tequila crosses paths with Tony and learns about his true identity. The two cops discover that Wong has a huge weapons warehouse beneath Maple Group Hospital. They step into action, but the psychotic gangster does not let himself get busted that easily as he takes all patients hostage at the hospital.
Believe
me, there are lots of plot holes and downright illogical behaviour of
the characters in this movie, but the general bromance premise is still
preserved. Tequila and Tony join forces in order to take down a (yet
another) archetypal villain. The female figure played by Teresa Mo is
unimportant in the face of spectacular shootouts performed by Tequila
and Tony. These protagonists receive perhaps the best ending out of all
the heroes of Woo’s movies: After defeating the villain, Tequila remains
a police officer and Tony stops being a mole in the triads.
Allegedly, John Woo and his team had many difficulties with developing the film (for example, the original plot about Tony Leung poisoning children was dropped). Then, the screenwriter Barry Wong passed away halfway through the rewrites and the teahouse raid was filmed without any script whatsoever.
Consequently, I do not regard Hard Boiled as John Woo’s “all time best of the best”. This status rightfully belongs to Bullet in the Head. However, Hard Boiled is still a wonderful fun as well as a great lesson in filmmaking. In a way, this film is Woo’s love letter to chivalric/bromance cinema. In a commentary for The Killer, the director stated that the righteous characters played by Chow Yun-fat are an expression of his own personality. Whenever we see Chow on the screen, Woo is there too. In Hard Boiled, we get the culmination of this concept as Chow Yun-fat and John Woo share the screen together for the first and only time (Woo’s plays a cameo role of Tequila’s friend in a bar).
Allegedly, John Woo and his team had many difficulties with developing the film (for example, the original plot about Tony Leung poisoning children was dropped). Then, the screenwriter Barry Wong passed away halfway through the rewrites and the teahouse raid was filmed without any script whatsoever.
Consequently, I do not regard Hard Boiled as John Woo’s “all time best of the best”. This status rightfully belongs to Bullet in the Head. However, Hard Boiled is still a wonderful fun as well as a great lesson in filmmaking. In a way, this film is Woo’s love letter to chivalric/bromance cinema. In a commentary for The Killer, the director stated that the righteous characters played by Chow Yun-fat are an expression of his own personality. Whenever we see Chow on the screen, Woo is there too. In Hard Boiled, we get the culmination of this concept as Chow Yun-fat and John Woo share the screen together for the first and only time (Woo’s plays a cameo role of Tequila’s friend in a bar).
All
things considered, John Woo’s movies should not be categorised
exclusively as loud and flashy flicks made only for people suffering
from empathy deficiency. On the contrary, these are modern morality
tales, tragic visual poems which reinvent and reiterate universal values
about men of justice putting things right. This is a true bromance at
its finest.
This was my brief trip across John Woo’s movies. Do you have your own favourite bromance flick? Please let me know your thoughts in the comments and thank you for reading.
This was my brief trip across John Woo’s movies. Do you have your own favourite bromance flick? Please let me know your thoughts in the comments and thank you for reading.
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