John Woo Filmography

1949

Crew: Director, Producer

Actors: Chang Chen, Song Hye-kyo

Synopsis: John Woo turns his sights on romantic epic territory with this Lion Rock/Fortissimo Films production starring Chang Chen and Song Hye-kyo. Lust, Caution's Wang Hui-ling provides the screenplay for the picture, set at the tail end of China's Civil War. ~ Jeremy Wheeler, All Movie Guide Read More

Red Cliff

Crew: Director

Actors: Tony Leung Chiu-Wai, Takeshi Kaneshiro, Zhang Fengyi, Chang Chen, Vicky Zhao

Synopsis: John Woo's historical drama The Battle of Red Cliff re-creates the legendary Chinese battle from 208 A.D. that led directly to the end of the Han Dynasty. The film charts how different factions joined forces to create this turning point in history. Chow Yun-Fat stars in the film that is adapted Read More

Appleseed Ex Machina

Crew: Producer

Actors: Ai Kobayashi, Kouichi Yamadera, Yuji Kishi, Miyuki Sawashiro, Naoko Kouda

Synopsis: Veteran action filmmaker John Woo produces this sequel to the 2004 film Appleseed. Partners both at home and on the battlefield, Deunan, a young but skillful warrior, and Briareos, an experienced cyborg soldier, protect the utopian city of Olympus, where the last of humanity dwells in peace Read More

Blood Brothers

Crew: Producer

Actors: Liu Ye, Daniel Wu, Chang Chen, Shu Qi, Tony Yang

Synopsis: Three best friends who are barely getting by as fishermen in the small village of Zhujiajiao depart to seek their fate in Shanghai in director Alexi Tan's reworking of the John Woo action classic Bullet in the Head. Feeling trapped by circumstance in the only place they have ever known, Kang, his Read More

Slow Jam King

Crew: Executive Producer

Actors: Ron Domingo, Whitney Melton, D.K. Bowser, Beresford Bennett, Rona Figueroa

Synopsis: A trio of unlikely travel companions set their sights on Nashville after being brought together by a spontaneous carjacking in director Steven E. Mallorca's quirky road trip comedy. Convinced that in order to earn his street cred, he must first commit a suitable crime, Filipino-American Read More

All the Invisible Children

Crew: Director

Actors: Adam Bila, Elysee Rounamba, Rodrigue Ouattara, Ahmed Ouedraogo, Harouna Ouedraogo

Chop-Socky: Cinema Hong Kong

Synopsis: Explore one of the cinema's most enduring traditions as the Independent Film Channel and filmmaker Ian Taylor team up to take viewers on an unforgettable tour of the stars, fighting styles, and inventive weaponry of the Hong Kong film industry. From the early screen adventures of Chinese folk hero Read More

Paycheck

Crew: Director, Producer

Actors: Ben Affleck, Aaron Eckhart, Uma Thurman, Colm Feore

Synopsis: John Woo directs the sci-fi action thriller Paycheck, based on a story written by Philip K. Dick in 1953. Waking up with his short-term memory erased, engineer Michael Jennings (Ben Affleck) learns that he has been doing highly secretive work for the last three years in exchange for billions of Read More

Bulletproof Monk

Crew: Producer

Actors: Chow Yun-Fat, Seann William Scott, Jaime King, Karel Roden

Synopsis: A monk and a pickpocket become unlikely allies in this action adventure story. Sixty years ago, a nameless monk (Chow Yun-Fat) was appointed the guardian of a mysterious scroll that grants remarkable powers to those who possess it. After six decades of traveling the world to protect the scroll Read More

Windtalkers

Crew: Director, Producer

Actors: Nicolas Cage, Adam Beach, Peter Stormare, Noah Emmerich, Mark Ruffalo, Christian Slater

Synopsis: Loosely based on a real-life operation during World War II, this action-adventure from director John Woo stars Nicolas Cage as Joe Enders, a Marine traumatized by the loss of his entire platoon in the Solomon Islands during an ambush he believes was deadlier than necessary due to his indecision. Read More

The Art of Action: Martial Arts in the Movies

Actors: Bruce Lee, Jet Li, David Carradine, Jackie Chan, Sammo Hung, John Woo, Ang Lee

Synopsis: The Art of Action is a compilation film, hosted by Samuel L. Jackson, that offers clips from various action films that featured martial arts action sequences. Among the films excepted for this collection are Rush Hour 2 with Jackie Chan, Charlie's Angels, and the multiple-Oscar-winning Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon Read More

Mission: Impossible II

Crew: Director

Actors: Tom Cruise, Dougray Scott, Thandie Newton, Ving Rhames, Richard Roxburgh, John Polson, Anthony Hopkins

Synopsis: Director John Woo brings Hong Kong-style martial arts action to this comic book-flavored sequel that eschews the complicated plot and political maneuverings of its predecessor in favor of pure, adrenaline-charged thrills. Tom Cruise returns as Ethan Hunt, an operative for the top-secret government Read More

Twin Dragons

Actors: Teddy Robin, Jackie Chan, Maggie Cheung, Nina Li Chi, Anthony Chan, Philip Chan

Synopsis: International action star Jackie Chan stars opposite knockabout comedy sensation Jackie Chan in this story about identical twins separated in childhood who are unexpectedly reunited years later. While on the run from a Hong Kong hospital, an escaped convict takes an infant hostage, leaving the Read More

Blackjack

Crew: Director

Actors: Dolph Lundgren, Kate Vernon, Phillip MacKenzie, Kam Heskin, Fred Williamson

Synopsis: Made especially for the USA Network, this action adventure centers on freelance bodyguard and former U.S. Marshal Jack Devlin (Dolph Lundgren and his attempts to protect a young woman from vicious gangsters. Unfortunately, Devlin's ability to do his job is severely restricted after an explosion Read More

The Big Hit

Crew: Executive Producer

Actors: Mark Wahlberg, Lou Diamond Phillips, Christina Applegate, Avery Brooks, Bokeem Woodbine, Antonio Sabato, Jr., Lela Rochon

Synopsis: Kirk Wong directed this comedy actioner about mild-mannered, beleaguered hitman Melvin Smiley (Mark Wahlberg), who very much wants to be liked. However, the naive Mel is being taken advantage of by both his girlfriends and associates (who cheat him out of his bonuses). Mel and his "Odd Squad" Read More

The Replacement Killers

Crew: Executive Producer

Actors: Carlos Gomez, Chow Yun-Fat, Mira Sorvino, Michael Rooker, Jürgen Prochnow, Kenneth Tsang, Danny Trejo

Synopsis: Music video and TV commercials director Antoine Fuqua made his feature directorial debut with this action thriller starring Hong Kong superstar Chow Yun-Fat. Chinese immigrant John Lee (Yun-Fat) has a violent past as a professional killer. It brings him only remorse, but it makes him the ideal Read More

Once a Thief [TV Series]

Crew: Executive Producer

Actors: Sandrine Holt, Ivan Sergei, Nicholas Lea, Jennifer Dale, Howard G. H. Dell

Synopsis: This Canadian action-adventure series debuted in its home country as a two-hour pilot on September 29, 1996, before settling into its weekly, 60-minute time slot on September 15, 1997. The action fluctuated between Vancouver and Hong Kong, focusing on a pair of daring and sexy professional Read More

Face/Off

Crew: Director

Actors: John Travolta, Nicolas Cage, Joan Allen, Alessandro Nivola, Gina Gershon, Dominique Swain

Synopsis: The third of John Woo's American-made feature films, Face/Off stars John Travolta as Sean Archer, an FBI agent obsessed with capturing Castor Troy (Nicolas Cage), a criminal genius who years before killed Archer's son while trying to assassinate the agent. Archer's single-minded pursuit of Troy Read More

Broken Arrow

Crew: Director

Actors: John Travolta, Christian Slater, Samantha Mathis, Delroy Lindo, Bob Gunton

Synopsis: Hong Kong director John Woo's second U.S. film (his first was Hard Target) delivers a number of exciting action sequences but is let down by a credibility-straining plot. John Travolta plays Vic Deakins, an Air Force pilot on what is supposed to be a routine night flight mission with his co-pilot Read More

Once a Thief

Crew: Director

Actors: Sandrine Holt, Ivan Sergei, Nicholas Lea, Michael Wong, Jennifer Dale

Synopsis: This two-hour pilot for the Canadian TV series is inspired by John Woo's 1991 Hong Kong film of the same title, but the story has been altered extensively. Mac (Ivan Sergei) and Li Ann (Sandrine Holt) are the foster children of a powerful crime boss. With their foster father's biological son Read More

Somebody Up There Likes Me

Crew: Executive Producer

Synopsis: This Hong Kong melodrama shares only the title Robert Wise's 1956 film biography of American middleweight champion Rocky Graziano. The story begins as a luminescent beauty watches two men fighting in the ring. Suddenly the story jumps back 10 months when Gloria, the girl first fell in love with Read More

Hard Target

Crew: Director

Actors: Jean-Claude Van Damme, Lance Henriksen, Arnold Vosloo, Yancy Butler, Kasi Lemmons

Synopsis: John Woo's first Hollywood feature stars Jean-Claude Van Damme as Chance Boudreaux, a down-and-out Cajun merchant seaman, who, after saving a young woman, Natasha Binder (Yancy Butler), from a gang of thugs on the streets of New Orleans, agrees to help her search for her father (Chuck Pfarrer), a Read More

Hard-Boiled

Crew: Director, Editor, Screen Story

Actors: Chow Yun-Fat, Bowie Lam, Philip Chan, Tony Leung Chiu-Wai, Kwan Hoi-Shan

Synopsis: Hard-Boiled is the last film directed by Hong Kong action auteur John Woo before his arrival in the U.S. This 1992 thriller, along with The Killer, is widely seen as one of his best from his Hong Kong days. Every ingredient of the quintessential Woo thriller is present, including his ever-present Read More

Once a Thief

Crew: Director, Screenwriter

Actors: Kenneth Tsang, Chow Yun-Fat, Leslie Cheung, Cherie Chung

Synopsis: For this 1991 action comedy from Hong Kong, director John Woo took a break from his ultraviolent thrillers; it was made a year after Bullet in the Head, and a year before Hard-Boiled. Chow Yun-Fat, Leslie Cheung, and Cherie Chung portray a trio of orphans who have grown to become art thieves. When Read More

Bullet in the Head

Crew: Director, Editor

Actors: Jacky Cheung, Waise Lee, Simon Yam, Fennie Yuen

Synopsis: Following up on his 1989 masterpiece The Killer, superstar action director John Woo directs this emotionally wrenching look at three friends waylaid in war-torn Vietnam. Set in 1967, when clashes between leftists protesting British rule and the police were tearing the colony apart, the film opens Read More

The Killer

Crew: Director, Screenwriter

Actors: Chow Yun-Fat, Danny Lee, Sally Yeh, Kenneth Tsang, Chu Kong

Synopsis: Though John Woo's lifelong admiration of Sam Peckinpah, Sergio Leone, Martin Scorsese, and Stanley Kubrick are also evident in this stylish actioner, the film is essentially a tribute to Jean-Pierre Melville and his cult thriller Le Samouraï. During a restaurant shoot-out, hitman Jeff (Chow Read More

Jinye Xingguang Canlan

Actors: George Lam, David Wu

Synopsis: Twenty years ago, when she was a university student, To Choi Mei (Lin Ching Hsia) had an affair with one of her professors. The professor's pregnant wife convinced them to break the relationship off. Now she is a social worker, and while her old classmates flee the impending reunification with Read More

A Better Tomorrow II

Crew: Director, Screenwriter

Actors: Chow Yun-Fat, Emily Chu, Waise Lee

Synopsis: Following the bloody climax of the previous film, A Better Tomorrow -- again directed by John Woo -- opens with Sung Chi-hi (spelled Tse-ho in the first film though still played by Ti Lung) getting released from jail on the condition that he rat out his gangland associate and a shipyard owner Read More

Just Heroes

Crew: Director

Synopsis: In this gangster epic in the tradition of The Godfather, the murder of a crime boss leads to a tense power struggle between his three adopted sons. As it is slowly revealed which brother is the traitor, the three-way standoff turns into a bloody final shootout. The signature style of Hong Kong Read More

A Better Tomorrow

Crew: Director, Producer, Screenwriter

Actors: Chow Yun-Fat, Leslie Cheung, Ti Lung, Young Pao I

Synopsis: John Woo established himself as one of Hong Kong's premiere action directors with this ultra-hip, ultra-violent action classic. The film centers around the complex relationship between two brothers: Sung Tse-kit (Leslie Cheung) is a recent graduate of the police academy while Tse-ho (Ti Lung) runs Read More

Heroes Shed No Tears

Crew: Director, Screenwriter

Actors: Eddy Ko

Synopsis: A group of Chinese soldiers take on a vicious drug lord in Heroes Shed No Tears, an early film from famed director John Woo. The action takes place in Southeast Asia's Golden Triangle, notorious as one of the largest international centers of drug trafficking. As the film begins, an elite commando Read More

Run Tiger Run

Crew: Director

To Hell With the Devil

Crew: Director, Screenwriter

Actors: Ricky Hui, Chung Fat

Synopsis: Bedazzled meets the Warner Bros. cartoons with this supernatural comedy directed by future action film auteur John Woo. The film centers around Bruce Lee (Ricky Hui Koon-ying), a failed composer and general loser who has hit rock bottom. One day, the devil (Chung Fat) appears before Lee, promising Read More

Plain Jane to the Rescue

Crew: Director

Actors: Josephine Siao Fong-fong, Ricky Hui

Synopsis: John Woo directed this third film in a series about the bumbling, working-class, tomboy heroine Lam Ah-chun, or in this instance, Plain Jane (Josephine Siao, aka Siao Fong Fong), a role Siao first played in a television series. Lam is hired as an assistant to the aging owner of the Zanda Read More

Laughing Times

Crew: Director, Screenwriter

Synopsis: A Chinese version of Charlie Chaplin (Dean Saki) lights up this "action comedy" from director and screenwriter John Woo. The story, set in the early 20th century, begins with a lowly orphan who finds himself the target of local criminals. The orphan is saved by the Charlie Chaplin character, who Read More

Follow the Star

Crew: Director, Screenwriter

Actors: Rowena Cortes, Roy Chiao, Wong Ching

Synopsis: Pop singer Rowena Cortes stars in this Hong Kong thriller. In the story, Cortes and her auto mechanic sidekick, played by Roy Chiao, stumble across the location of an amazing amount of stolen money and are chased all over the Crown Colony by the thieves and others. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Read More

Last Hurrah for Chivalry

Crew: Director, Screenwriter

Actors: Damian Lau

Synopsis: This 1978 martial arts film by director John Woo was wrapped nearly 20 years before 1997's Face/Off would bring him mainstream acceptance in Hollywood. His star was rising already in this routine story enhanced by his characteristic signature: dazzling fight sequences, flawed heroes, and Read More

Princess Chang Ping

Crew: Director

Synopsis: After her family's dynasty is overthrown, Princess Chang Ping's engagement to a young prince is cancelled. As a result, she has an obligation, along with the rest of the court, to commit suicide. Happily for the prince, she does not succeed, and becomes a nun. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide Read More

Hand of Death

Crew: Director, Screenwriter

Actors: Tan Tao Liang, James Tien

Synopsis: The Chinese Manchus were a northern tribal people who conquered the country and formed the last Imperial dynasty. Most Chinese considered the Manchus to be foreigners. Many patriotic Chinese formed themselves into secret groups and sought martial-arts training at the anti-Imperial Shaolin temple. Read More

The Young Dragons

Crew: Director