How John Woo turned “box office poison” into gold
Hollywood loves to mythologise itself, but there is no ignoring the fact that most of its greatest movements have been catalysed by innovations from outside the United States. Whether it’s German Expressionism or the French New Wave, global influences have shaped popular cinema since its inception, and few movements have had such a profound impact as Hong Kong’s action renaissance of the 1980s that gave rise to the ‘Heroic Bloodshed’ genre. Rather than depicting gritty, chaotic action sequences and two-dimensional protagonists, they feature flawlessly choreographed fight scenes that give Gene Kelly musicals a run for their money and protagonists who are driven by honour and bound, inexorably, for tragedy.
Of all the filmmakers who pioneered Hong Kong action movies in the 1980s, John Woo stands head and shoulders above the rest, thanks in large part to his 1986 film A Better Tomorrow. The story follows a gangster trying to leave his life of crime behind him and reunite with his younger brother, who has become a policeman. Its most memorable character, however, is not one of the brothers but an enforcer in the crime syndicate played by an uber-cool Chow Yun-Fat. Smooth, unflappable, and immovably loyal to his compatriots, Mark Gor defines the film and makes its over-the-top action sequences look easy breezy.
A Better Tomorrow became a breakout hit, setting Woo and Yun-Fat on course for stardom. However, despite their seemingly perfect pairing, the collaboration was hardly a foregone conclusion. Woo even admitted that Yun-Fat had already been dismissed by the Hong Kong film industry when he cast him in the role.
“At that time, Chow was already a huge TV star in Hong Kong,” the director said in 1997. “But he’d never made a successful film. Some people even called him ‘box office poison,’ even though people recognised him as a great actor. I had never met him before casting A Better Tomorrow. It was at that moment that I said to myself I wanted a person who looked like a modern knight. This person had to have a great heart. I wanted to create a new kind of hero, a hero who can stand for me, can speak for me, and also can speak for the audience, someone close to the audience, not like a superhero.”
Woo ultimately chose Yun-Fat because he had heard that the actor had a reputation for being kind and gentlemanly off the set and that when the two met in person, they just clicked. “I found that we were both old-fashioned,” the director said. “We both believe that in the old times, people were nicer. They cared more about people, more about family and more about each other. But then the world changed and the people are getting more selfish. So I think we both feel that we want to bring those values to our films and remind people about them, so maybe we can get some of them back.”
For him, Yun-Fat represented a kind of old-school hero in the mould of Clint Eastwood, Gary Cooper, and Paul Newman. Rather than leaning into the cynicism of the 1970s and ‘80s action heroes, he wanted a character who would remind audiences of the classic protagonists who sacrificed themselves for honour.
For Yun-Fat, A Better Tomorrow was the career transformation that he desperately needed. With the success of the film, he became a bonafide movie star and the face of the Heroic Bloodshed genre. Although his acting talents were arguably squandered in Hollywood movies like Anna and the King and Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End, his influence on action cinema can still be felt in Hollywood and beyond.
