The shootouts in “Face Off” are very fast paced, and often show the characters avoiding bullets by performing dives and rolls. This is very similar to the shootouts in “Hard Boiled”.
Woo’s fight scenes are very aggressive and angry. According to item 8 of the catalogue this is because Woo often incorporates his feelings of what is going on the outside world into his films. If while he is shooting a scene he hears about people needlessly getting murdered, he will feel very angry about it and bring that anger to the scene:
“I'll look at the bad guy as the murderer and then I'm thinking, Let's beat
him harder, let's hit him with more bullets."
(From issue 102 of Empire Magazine)
Honour is very important in Woo’s films as this extract from Empire Magazine reveals:
"My films are always concerned with family,
friendship, honour and patriotism. I think this kind of morality might be a
bit old-fashioned but I think it's worth trying for because there is a lot
good things in the past. People were a lot more caring about each other,
they knew how to respect each other and they use to love their family and
their country and somehow that changed. I like to bring back all those good
old things in the films."
(Catalogue item 8)
This would probably explain why the character Jeffrey in “The Killer”, feels that he has to help Jenny so often even at the risk of his own life because he was responsible for her going blind.
(Show the scene where Jeffrey says that he will do one more hit just so he can pay for Jenny to have corrective surgery.)
The theme of friendship is very strong in “The Killer” as multiple characters risk their lives for there friends. Jeffrey’s best friend even lowers himself by begging for his boss to pay Jeffrey because his friendship is that strong. Jeffrey’s best friend also takes a strong beating when he goes to take the money by force. He soon dies from the injuries he sustained.
(Show the clip where Jeffrey takes the money and has to shoot his way out)
There is also a strong presence of honour in “Hard Boiled”. There is a scene when the co-star and one of the bad guys are having a shoot out. The fight is so hectic that it takes them into a room full of innocent civilians, which they do not want to harm. To solve this they both drop their guns and ask the civilians to move (which is the honourable thing to do).
(Show that clip)
John Woo’s Hong Kong films are very bloody, very often the characters clothes will be stained with their own blood and with the blood of their enemies. Woo’s American films do not have this trait, possibly because of Woo having to stay within American censorship regulations.
(Show final Fight scene of “The Killer”).
In Woo’s Hong Kong films, the characters are very smooth and are portrayed in a cool likeable fashion. But (If Mi2 is anything to go by) unlike his Hollywood films, the good guys get hit quite badly by their enemies. In Woo’s Hollywood films, the good guys hardly ever get hit. Once again this could be due Woo having to stay within American censorship regulations.
Woo seems to repeat music in certain places in his films to remind the audience of the way that they understood the character’s emotions during the scene when they first heard that music For example in Mi2 we hear diegetic flamenco dancing music when Ethan Hunt and Nyah first meet. We hear the very similar non-diegetic music when he saves her from falling off the cliff. The music tells the audience that they are attracted to each other.
(Show the scenes)
This use of music occurs with a harmonica in “The Killer”
Upon watching “The Killer” again, the opening scene seems to give a hint to what will happen at the end of the film. The lyrics of the song at the beginning say:
“Don’t make promises that you can’t keep”
This hints that Jeffrey will not be able to get the money to correct Jenny’s eyes and also that he will die.
John Woo does use a car chases in his films, which would explain the car chase in Mi2. At first I could not watch Mi2 because I was repelled by the over the top action scenes. “The Killer’s” violence and smoothness lulled me in from the start. Mi2 has a sort of manufactured feel to it in comparison to” The Killer” or “Hard Boiled”.
Yes John Woo’s Style did change when he left Hong Kong for Hollywood. Mainly in the way that his films have become less violent and less blood drenched, due to heavy Hollywood censorship. Even though censorship regulations have restricted John Woo’s violent mise en scene his signatures are still clearly visible in his films. He continually uses slow motion and characters that fashion two handguns. His influence spans many Hollywood movies and even video games. I discovered a playstation 2 game called “Devil May Cry” in which the main character sports two handguns, which shows how influential John Woo’s films are. Woo now makes the camera move a lot more. John Woo does use a car chases in his films, which would explain the car chase in Mi2. At first I could not watch Mi2 because I was repelled by the over the top action scenes. “The killer’s” violence and smoothness lulled me in from the start. Mi2 has a sort of manufactured feel to it in comparison to the killer.
