John Woo

"I've always wanted to be a global filmmaker," John Woo said in an interview at his Manhattan hotel last month. This cosmopolitan outlook was evident in the late '80s, when Woo galvanized Hong Kong cinema -- and action filmmaking the world over -- with such films as "A Better Tomorrow" and "The Killer." Feverish gangster movies unencumbered by restraint or irony, they were also cross-cultural genre hybrids, combining the slow-motion violence of Sam Peckinpah, the trench-coat cool of Jean-Pierre Melville and the chivalric codes of martial-arts film and literature, even though Woo's characters brandished guns and not swords.

John Woo has set himself a new challenge in "Red Cliff," and that's to be as old-fashioned as possible. Returning to his roots after a stint in Hollywood, Woo has made the most expensive film in mainland Chinese history, a pleasantly traditional picture that marks a new direction for one of the world's premier action maestros. Woo's classic Hong Kong films with tough-guy titles like "Bullet in the Head" and "Hard-Boiled" featured intense, focused, almost balletic contemporary gangster shootouts that seemed to redefine what these kinds of movies could do. Though it stars Woo regular Tony Leung, "Red Cliff," by contrast, is a both throwback and change of pace, a massive historical epic that used four writers, three editors, two directors of photography, 300 horses and a cast and crew that came close to 2,000.

Paramount Pictures' latest release, "Face/Off," captured the top spot at the weekend box office. The John Woo action film, starring John Travolta and Nicolas Cage, pulled in $23.4 million, edging out Disney's animated feature "Hercules," which grossed $21.4 million as it moved into wider release. "Hercules" should top $100 million in North America, according to John Krier, who heads Exhibitor Relations, a company that tracks box office.

Capsule reviews are by Kenneth Turan (K.Tu.), Betsy Sharkey (B.S.) and other reviewers. Compiled by Anthony Miller. Openings WEDNESDAY The End of Poverty Economists, politicians, activists engaged in anti-poverty campaigns and impoverished citizens discuss whether the true nature of contemporary poverty is rooted in colonialism and its consequences. With Amartya Sen, Joseph Stiglitz, Susan George, Eric Toussaint and John Perkins. Narrated by Martin Sheen.

John Woo made his mark as an action director with films that play strong sentiments of loyalty and self-sacrifice against violence. Not since Sam Peckinpah has anyone choreographed carnage to such stunning effect. Woo has won international acclaim not only for himself, but also for his frequent charismatic star, Chow Yun-Fat. In "Hard-Boiled: A Tribute to John Woo," American Cinematheque presents a selection of films that put the Hong Kong director on the map and established him in Hollywood.

Finally, inevitably, John Woo has gone to war. Starting with Hong Kong classics like "A Better Tomorrow" and "Hard-Boiled," and continuing into Hollywood extravaganzas "Face/Off" and "Mission: Impossible 2," Woo is his generation's preeminent orchestrator of violence, someone who truly loves the smell of napalm in the morning. So his attraction to the astronomical bullet and body count of World War II was only a matter of time.

John Woo is known for a cinema of violent delirium so breathtaking it plays like visual poetry, and "Face/Off," though his third film in Hollywood, is the first to expose mainstream audiences to the master at his most anarchically persuasive. But, as those who've seen the director's cult favorite Hong Kong movies like "A Better Tomorrow," "The Killer" and "Hard Boiled" can testify, Woo is also known for the sincerely sentimental underpinnings of his work.

Except for irredeemably artistic types like Taiwan's Hou Hsaio Hsien or Iran's Abbas Kiarostami (though even they might have been tempted), star-producer Tom Cruise could have gotten any director in the world to do the sequel to his very successful "Mission: Impossible." The man asked was John Woo, and the result, now cryptically titled "M:I-2," lavishly displays the reasons for that choice all over the wide screen.

Though it stars John Travolta and Christian Slater, "Broken Arrow" is a John Woo movie from start to finish, which means there are lots of things no one should waste time expecting. Woo is one of the world's preeminent action directors, celebrated among those who care for singular work like "The Killer," "Bullet in the Head" and "Hard Boiled," none of which will ever be found on a repertory double bill with "Sense and Sensibility." With dialogue of the "Why the hell are they shooting at us?"

Sunday / "Once a Thief" 8 p.m. Fox John Woo ("Broken Arrow") directs this misfired TV movie, an unsold pilot for a series. Initially set in Hong Kong, the story centers on two lovers (Ivan Sergei and Sandrine Holt) separated while fleeing the crime lord (Robert Ito) who trained them as thieves. Reunited in Vancouver, Sergei and Holt are teamed with a former cop (Nicholas Lea, the treacherous Krycek of "The X-Files") by the head (Jennifer Dale) of an international crime-fighting unit.

"I've always wanted to be a global filmmaker," John Woo said in an interview at his Manhattan hotel last month. This cosmopolitan outlook was evident in the late '80s, when Woo galvanized Hong Kong cinema -- and action filmmaking the world over -- with such films as "A Better Tomorrow" and "The Killer." Feverish gangster movies unencumbered by restraint or irony, they were also cross-cultural genre hybrids, combining the slow-motion violence of Sam Peckinpah, the trench-coat cool of Jean-Pierre Melville and the chivalric codes of martial-arts film and literature, even though Woo's characters brandished guns and not swords.

Maybe IT goes without saying, but it's hard to get taken seriously if your name is Ludacris. That's why the rap star, following the path of the Rock, Andre 3000 and 50 Cent, is checking his stage name at the door as he pursues a second career as a Hollywood actor. "This is a different business and I do want to be taken seriously, so it's back to being Chris Bridges," said the 30-year-old whose name appears in the credits of two films in October, the video-game adaptation “Max Payne” and Guy Ritchie's latest London crime spree, “RocknRolla.

HONG KONG -- After 16 years directing Hollywood movies, John Woo is returning to Chinese film with an ambitious two-part historical epic that he hopes will also appeal to Western audiences. "Red Cliff," whose first installment is due out in Asia this month, is based on a famous battle in divided 3rd century China that saw 2,000 ships burned. It draws from a storied period in Chinese history that has spawned comic books and video games. Expectations are high for the movie.

Chow Yun-fat's last-minute pullout from John Woo's new Chinese historical epic, "Red Cliff," threatened to split up one of Hong Kong cinema's most famous partnerships. Woo made Chow an icon after casting him as a trench coat-wearing, gun-toting gangster in the 1986 Hong Kong classic "A Better Tomorrow." But Woo told reporters Thursday that although Chow's withdrawal from "Red Cliff" was a heavy blow, he still considers him a "good friend."

The movie is Chinese but the dispute seems very American -- with differing accounts of why Chow Yun-Fat withdrew from a major historical epic directed by John Woo, the man who made him an icon. Chow, who starred in Woo's classic 1986 film, "A Better Tomorrow," dropped out of the director's $80-million "Red Cliff" just as shooting got under way. He was the film's biggest star.

Ben Affleck has had such a rough year (or so I've read) that it almost seems unfair to pick on either his newest film or latest nontabloid performance. Still, in the interest of stargazing and semiotics, it does seem worth mentioning that Affleck, a movie actor of some callow charm, has recently taken to dividing his performances between lowered-chin sensitivity for his smaller, more complex roles and big-chin brashness for his more costly studio gigs. "Paycheck" is big chin all the way.

John Woo's time is now. Known as the director who never leaves you begging for more, Woo is a veteran of the rowdy, populist Hong Kong cinema who's been embraced both by fickle critics and the financiers of Hollywood. "Hard-Boiled" (at the Monica 4-Plex) not only demonstrates why, it doesn't keep you waiting to find out.

The first thing you notice is that it's quiet, uncommonly quiet for a movie set. It's so quiet you can hear the rustle of the bit players as they strap on the fake-blood squibs for their death scenes. Then, as you walk farther into the chilly, cavernous warehouse, you enter the brightly lighted areas where the cameras have been set up for "Hard Target," the $19.5-million Alphaville Productions project set for release this summer by Universal Pictures.

John Woo almost single-handedly reinvented the modern-day action movie with his bravura 1980s Hong Kong movies, but his introduction to Hollywood filmmaking was a near fiasco. "In Hong Kong, everything was very simple," the soft-spoken director recalled the other day, sitting in his Santa Monica offices. "The filmmakers had full control. We'd have one meeting with the studio, just to let them know the idea for the movie, and then we'd be on our own." Woo's eyes twinkled.

Finally, inevitably, John Woo has gone to war. Starting with Hong Kong classics like "A Better Tomorrow" and "Hard-Boiled," and continuing into Hollywood extravaganzas "Face/Off" and "Mission: Impossible 2," Woo is his generation's preeminent orchestrator of violence, someone who truly loves the smell of napalm in the morning. So his attraction to the astronomical bullet and body count of World War II was only a matter of time.