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John Woo movies


wasted

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Like every HK film director he started out in Kung Fu (at Shaws in fact under the great Cheng Cheh). Check out an interesting film by John Woo for Golden Harvest called Hand of Dead (1976). It co-stars Samo Hung and a, pre eye-op, Jackie Chan (Yuen Biao also makes a brief appearence). Also, the film's main bad guy is James Tien of Bruce Lee fame.

It is interesting because it unites these three who would go on to do much bigger (and better) things; you could infact argue that the three of them would go on to dominate HK cinema of the 1980s. Chan and Hung would dominate Kung Fu, comedy and the modern-day actioner, whereas, Woo pioneered the 'heroic bloodshed' genre. It is curious because the actual star of the piece, Dorian Tan, disappeared into obscurity.

Decent chop sockey also, Hand of Death. Not like a Shaw masterpiece or anything but decent. (Good theme tune which I am surprised Quentin has not ripped-off yet).

My Woo Top Ten list by the way would go something like this,

1/ The Killer

2/ Bullet in the Head

3/ A Better Tommorow

4/ Hard-Boiled

5/ A Better Tommorow II

6/ Once a Thief

7/ Last Hurrah For Chivalry

8/ Hand of Death

9/ Red Cliffs

10/ Face Off (the best of his yank films, certainly).

Edited by DieselDaisy
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O saw Red Cliff 1 there was meant to be a 2 but i never saw it come out.

There is an edited version released in the States which is a bit of a mess so it is probably better to watch them as Part 1, Part 2. Ahh, the Battle of Red Cliffs (AD 209), Romance of the Three Kingdoms and all that.

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O saw Red Cliff 1 there was meant to be a 2 but i never saw it come out.

There is an edited version released in the States which is a bit of a mess so it is probably better to watch them as Part 1, Part 2. Ahh, the Battle of Red Cliffs (AD 209), Romance of the Three Kingdoms and all that.

I may have seen both parts in one in theatre. That's why it was so long.

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