How iconic director John Woo reinvented action movies in Hong Kong and Hollywood

Director John Woo, who turns 74 on Friday, should be considered the godfather of the modern action movie. Mixing spectacular set pieces with sentiment in films such as A Better Tomorrow (1986), The Killer (1989) and Hard Boiled (1992), he started tropes now synonymous with the genre. These include slow-motion fight scenes, Mexican stand-offs and characters firing multiple guns at the same time. The repeated use of doves, however, is all his own. Born in Guangzhou in 1946, Woo grew up in Hong…

from South China Morning Post https://ift.tt/3aNCVJ9