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John Woo

John Woo Yu-Sen (born 1 May 1946) is a Chinese film director and producer. Recognized for his stylized films of highly choreographed action sequences, Mexican standoffs, and use of slow-motion,[2] Mr. Woo has directed several notable Hong Kong action films, among them, A Better Tomorrow, Hard Boiled, and The Killer.[2] His Hollywood films include Hard Target, Broken Arrow, Face/Off, and Mission: Impossible 2.[2] As a young boy, Woo had wanted to be a Christian minister. He later found a passion for movies influenced by the French New Wave especially Jean-Pierre Melville.[2] Woo has said he was shy and had difficulty speaking, but found making movies a way to explore his feelings and thinking and would "use movie as a language".[2] Woo cites his three favorite films as David Lean's Lawrence of Arabia, Akira Kurosawa's Seven Samurai and Melville's Le Samouraï.[2] He also created the comic series Seven Brothers, published by Virgin Comics. Woo was described by Dave Kehr in The Observer in 2002 as "arguably the most influential director making movies today".[3]