[2010.09.05] BRIEF JOHN WOO BIOGRAPHY

Famous Hong Kong director John Woo (Ng Yu Sum) was born in Guangzhou in 1946. Growing up in Hong Kong, he graduated from Kowloon Heep Woh Primary School and Concordia Lutheran School. In 1969 Cathay film company hired him to be a production assistant. In 1971 he followed director Chang Cheh as an assistant director. In 1973 he directed his first film for Golden Harvest, THE YOUNG DRAGONS (GOR HAT, also titled TEET HONG YAU CHING). Then he found box office success with the comedy FROM RICHES TO RAGS (FAT CHIN HONG) and proceeded to make many comedy films, including the George Lam Chi Cheung starred TO HELL WITH THE DEVIL (MOR DUN TIN SI) and the Josephine Siao Fong Fong starred PLAIN JANE TO THE RESCUE (BAK CHOI LUM AH JUN). Later, he joined Cinema City but ran into a creative depression and went to work in Taiwan without any breakthrough until 1986 when the release of A BETTER TOMORROW (YING HUNG BOON SIK) finally revived Ng Yu Sum to glory.

A BETTER TOMORROW back then was a box office and critical hit, began the "hero film" fever and made the Hong Kong film golden age. Since then, Ng Yu Sum made a series of action films. Among them THE KILLER (DIP HUET SEUNG HUNG) was the most recommended. At the same time his films also caught attention overseas. With his unique style of action scene handling, he received recognized and recommended for European and American filmmakers alike. Among then Hollywood director Quentin Tarantino's early films were deeply under the influence of John Woo films. Ng Yu Sum after completing HARD BOILED (LAT SAU SUN TAM) in 1993 with the assistance of partner Terence Chang Ka Chun went to work in Hollywood, where he made HARD TARGET, BROKEN ARROW and FACE/OFF which made him an overnight success in the U.S. Then he caught Tom Cruise's admiration and directed MISSION IMPOSSIBLE 2. In 2003 after completing PAYCHECK he planned to return to the Chinese film industry, finally returning to Hong Kong after over a decade. He went to the Mainland and made two RED CLIFF (CHET BIK) films. His latest production is this year's REIGN OF ASSASSINS (GIM YU). Ng Yu Sum and wife Niu Chun Long were married in 1976 and had three children.