LOS ANGELES, July 31 (UPI) -- Editor's note: This article contains spoilers his article contains spoilers for "A Better Tomorrow," "The Killer," "A Bullet in the Head" and "Hard Boiled."
Hong Kong filmmaker John Woo came to Los Angeles in 1993 following the success of his gangster films like A Better Tomorrow, The Killer and A Bullet in the Head, which captured a unique style of action.
He brought heroes spinning and jumping in slow motion while they shot guns, sometimes two at a time, to Hollywood films like Hard Target, Face/Off and the recent Silent Night.
His Hong Kong films, along with A Better Tomorrow's sequels and the cop drama Hard Boiled, have now been restored in 4K. The Better Tomorrow movies and The Killer are already available, while A Bullet in the Head releases Aug. 22 and Hard Boiled's restoration begins a theatrical retrospective Saturday, which Woo will attend in Los Angeles.
In a recent interview with UPI, Woo, 78, said these earlier films signalled his auteur phase. Woo had been directing features since 1974, but it was 1986's A Better Tomorrow that allowed him to explore the aesthetics that would become his trademarks.
