John Woo: I have never tried to conquer Hollywood, but I am so grateful to have had the chance to learn from a new environment. It has been great for me. I have a great friend and a great business partner, Terence Chang. He helped me break into the business and supports me through my career. After working in Hollywood for over ten years, we really wanted to go back to China and make a Chinese film. We have been living in America for so many years and I gained such respect for the people here. I had the opportunity to work with so many great people in film.
But I still want to be a bridge between these cultures. I want to bring the great things from the East and the great things from the West together. It is my goal. There are a lot of people in the world who don’t understand the true culture and spirit of the Chinese and I want to bring that to them.
John Woo on the set of Red Cliff
So we have decided to go back to China to do ‘The Battle of Red Cliff’. It is the great Chinese history. Most Asian people know the story of the ‘Romance of the Three Kingdoms.’ In this battle, the two weakest groups join together against the strongest power. It took a lot of wisdom, a lot of courage and very strong will to win this war. All the characters are very popular in Chinese history. The way they fight the war, their methods, are like the Art of War. Through this story I could show the true wisdom and spirit of the Chinese culture.
Zhuge Liang and Zhou Yu
On the other hand I have learned such great technique from American movies and I can take that back to China and share what I have learned with them. There are a lot of great directors there, great actors and great producers and we can share our experiences to create a great movie. I am not trying to conquer Mainland China cinema. I just want to make great movies. I love China and I want to make a beautiful movie about it. At the same time, I have had an amazing journey shooting movies in America, Canada, Australia, Hong Kong, Taiwan, China. It makes me want to make movies in new places, to learn new things and make new friends. Who knows? Maybe the next movie I make will be in Moscow or South Korea or France…
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