John Woo - The GR interview previewed

There's a ton of great articles in Giant Robot 63, which is on the verge of dropping, but one I want to point out now is an interview with legendary Hong Kong filmmaker John Woo. His latest movie, Red Cliff, is an award-winning, star-studded, nearly five-hour long, epic period piece that was released in two parts in Asia, where it was received enthusiastically by fans and critics. An edited version is now rolling out across the U.S. When I met the director at his Los Angeles office, we talked about both versions of the historic saga, as well as his canon of classic Hong Kong gangster movies. An excerpt is below.

GR: You’ve done period pieces before, haven’t you?
JW: One or two, but not like Red Cliff, which is a real one. And those weren’t the movies I really wanted to make. I always wanted to make the gangster films like the French. In the meantime, I always wanted to make a great, epic movie like Lawrence of Arabia, Seven Samurai, or Spartacus. But I was young and that was just a dream to me. I didn’t know or expect that it could happen. Because I felt I was just a director. I could never make a movie like Lawrence of Arabia because I didn’t think I had a gift. I was thinking, “Just make a film like Le samouraï (the Jean-Pierre Melville film), and that will be good enough.” But only later, after I had made a few films and gotten a lot of experience, did I think I could make one.

GR: You mean after doing A Better Tomorrow and The Killer?
JW: After doing A Better Tomorrow and The Killer and Face/Off.

GR: In those movies, you can really see a progression in your style.
JW: Yes, I was always trying to develop personally, and always trying to do something different–always trying to do something that I really admire.

GR: Was it hard to say something like, “You know, I really like making gangster films, but it’s time to do a Western.”
JW: I’ve been wanting to make a Western for a long time since Sam Peckinpah and Sergio Leone are such great influences on me, but it’s hard to find a studio. It’s also hard to find a good script.

GR: I was actually thinking of Peace Hotel, but I guess you only produced that.
JW: Yes, I produced that.

GR: Was that your last movie before going to Hollywood?
JW: No, no, no. It was second to last. The last was Hard Boiled.



GR: When was the last time you watched those particular movies?
JW: I only watched them once. I never watch my own movies twice because I never feel satisfied with any one of them.

GR: Really? I’ve seen those movies dozens of times and remember every single line!
JW: Whenever I watch any of my movies I always think, “Oh, I could make it better.” There’s always something wrong. Here and there, I think, “Why is it cut so fast in that scene? That shot should have been longer” or “Oh, I don’t like the music. This sounds like a TV movie!” I always find something wrong because I always want to make a perfect movie.

GR: Actually, I thought you were quite good at acting as a bartender in Hard Boiled.
JW: That was Chow Yun-Fat’s idea. And, actually, that part wasn’t in the script. After we finished the movie, Chow Yun-Fat said, “John, why don’t we do a scene together?” He wanted to show our real friendship onscreen. On one of the last days of shooting, we’d been working 24 hours and were tired, but made up two scenes on the set. He said, “How about you being my teacher? You tell me to do something and give me some good advice?” I’m not a good actor.

GR: Sounds like you’re your own harshest critic. To provide not one but two cuts of Red Cliff must have been painful.
JW: It was pretty painful at the beginning. But the editor did such a good job I was okay with it. The biggest reasons for making the two versions was that the Asian audience knows the history and all the characters, but the American audience is not as familiar with them. So we have to lose some of the scenes, put more focus on the main storyline, and lose some of the characters. I actually like both versions.


Look for the very lengthy interview in GR63 on stands and an interview upload online soon.