Peter WOO Kwong-ching JP (Chinese:吳光正) (born 1946) is a Hong Kong businessman. He is the Chairman of Wheelock and Company Limited and The Wharf Holdings Limited.
Full Name
Peter Woo
Net Worth
$7.2 Billion
Date Of Birth
1946
Place Of Birth
Shanghai, China
Height
1.64 m
Profession
Politician
Education
St Stephen's College, University of Cincinnati, Columbia Business School
Nationality
Chinese
Spouse
Bessie Pao-Woo (m. 1973)
Children
Douglas Woo, Jennifer Woo, Jacqueline Woo
Parents
Wu Zhuoyun
LinkedIn
IMDB
Awards
Hong Kong Film Award for Best Director, Hong Kong Film Award for Best Film, Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement, Hong Kong Film Award for Best Film Editing, Saturn Award for Best Director, Asian Film Award for Top-Grossing Film Director
Nominations
Hong Kong Film Award for Best Screenplay, Asian Film Award for Best Director, Critics' Choice Movie Award for Best Foreign Language Film, Gemini Award for Best Direction in a Dramatic Program or Mini-Series, Academy of Canadian Cinema and Television Award for Best Dramatic Series
Movies
The Killer, Hard Boiled, A Better Tomorrow, Face/Off, Red Cliff, The Crossing, Hard Target, Mission: Impossible II, Bullet in the Head, A Better Tomorrow II, Once a Thief, Broken Arrow, Paycheck, Reign of Assassins, Heroes Shed No Tears, Windtalkers, Just Heroes, Last Hurrah for Chivalry, Hand of De...
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Trademark
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Frequent use of slow motion
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Final confrontations often take place near the ocean
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Birthmark on the dorsum of his nose
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His lead characters, whether good or bad, always have a code of conduct which includes a strict vow never to harm or kill innocent people. In many of his films, these lead characters often fight against villains with no such code who freely kill innocent people without remorse.
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Often puts the opponents in his movies in verbal confrontation in different parts of a room, usually seperated by a wall or other object.
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Berettas are mainly used as the main character's gun in his movies
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Frequently uses unusual weapons to change the course of hand-to-hand combat scenes.
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His characters often mimic the actions of other their counterparts, typically accompanied by flashbacks of those scenes.
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[thrown gun]: One character throws a gun to another character
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[guns]: "Mexican Standoff", involving two characters pointing guns at each others heads. Also mimicked by Quentin Tarantino
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[reflection]: characters are often alerted to danger by seeing a reflection
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[guns]: characters often use a gun in each hand
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Slow motion or freeze-frame sequences
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Since making films in the U.S., Woo has started to use doves as a symbol for peace in his films. They are often pictured flying away as the shooting begins.
Uses pleasant music that heavily contrasts with some of the more violent action on screen.
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Quote
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[on working with Jean-Claude Van Damme] That's a long story. About five or six years ago, I got many offers from Hollywood studios. The producer and script writers [for Hard Target (1993)] flew to Hong Kong to see me and they asked me to do the picture. [Van Damme was being considered to star.] Van Damme wanted a change, he wanted to prove himself as an actor. And he asked me to do the film. I thought I could do some magic. I know myself; I'm pretty sure of my abilities of how to make an actor look great on the screen, make him look like a hero. I thought I could do the same thing with Van Damme, like how I used to do with Yun-Fat Chow. So I wanted to help him. At the same time, I wanted a new experience, of working in Hollywood, so I took the chance and chose to do Hard Target (1993). The original script was pretty good. And I did try to do the things that I did with Yun-Fat Chow and tried to make Van Damme look different.
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[on Dolph Lundgren] Directors have generally overlooked Dolph's great sense of humor. He's very funny.
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[on Mean Streets (1973)] I saw this film before I directed my first movie. Even after I directed my first movie, I didn't have much confidence. I must confess, I think I started a little too young. I should have learned more. I started with some kung-fu movies and comedies. After I watched "Mean Streets", it made me feel ashamed--"Why don't I make a movie like that? Tell a true story?"
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[on Akira Kurosawa] I love Kurosawa's movies, and I got so much inspiration from him. He is one of my idols and one of the great masters.
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[on his childhood living in a Hong Kong slum] I had to fight to survive. Whenever I got beat up, I got upset, I also ran into the theater to watch a movie. But I have a very strong character, I never surrender, I [am] never afraid, no matter how big they are, how cruel they are, they never beat me down. I didn't have money. I just sneaked in or watched the movie from the peephole. I have found my heaven in musicals. When I watch a musical, it makes me believe life is still beautiful. There are still a lot of beautiful people in the world. So I like the costumes, I love the song, I love all those smiles, I love those dance. In theater I found my heaven.
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[on working in Hollywood] Even though I enjoyed the opportunity to work in Hollywood, I never got used to their system. I didn't like much of the studio people. Well, there are too much politics and so much going on, and a lot of them have nothing to do with the movie. It's all about power, it's all about egos.
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[on Tom Cruise] When he talks, he has so much energy it's almost like he's dancing. So I used that to choreograph his action scenes.
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I like doves. They look so beautiful, like a woman. For me they represent peace and love and purity. And sometimes they're seen as the messengers of God, so they're important to me because I'm a Christian.
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I'm not a master; I'm just a hard-working filmmaker. I would like everyone to see me as a friend rather than a master.
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Fact
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He was asked to direct GoldenEye (1995). He turned it down, but was honored to be asked.
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Despite the intense gunfighting in his films, he claims that in real-life he has a pacifist temperament and does not even own a gun.
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Brandon Lee wanted him to direct Rapid Fire (1992) but the producers were strongly against it, as they wanted a martial arts film and not the stylized films that Woo made.
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He has never owned a car.
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His family's roots are in Guangxi in southern China.
He uses doves as a symbolic device. They represent the character's soul as being saved.
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He is the fifth Chinese director after Hark Tsui to join the board of judges for Cannes Film Festival (the 58th, in 2005).
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Two of his films are listed in the Hong Kong Film Awards' List of The Best 100 Chinese Motion Pictures on March 2005. They are The Killer (1989) and A Better Tomorrow (1986) (ranking 42 and 2, respectively).
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His film The Killer (1989) ("The Killer") (alongside City on Fire (1987) (City on Fire) by Ringo Lam) was one of the inspirations for Quentin Tarantino's Reservoir Dogs (1992). Although the plot came from "City on Fire", a lot of the style of "Reservoir Dogs" (e.g., the suits, the Mexican standoffs, the double guns) came from "The Killer" as well as Woo's work in general.
He is the first Asian director ever to make a mainstream Hollywood film (Hard Target (1993)).
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Woo's many American admirers include the likes of Martin Scorsese, Sam Raimi (who compared his mastery of action to Alfred Hitchcock's mastery of suspense) and Quentin Tarantino (who, replying to a studio executive saying "I suppose Woo can direct action scenes" said "Sure, and Michelangelo can paint ceilings!").
