Martin Scorsese, Quentin Tarantino, and Zack Snyder are considered the godfathers of pulpy action in the West, but each owes something to John Woo. The Hong Kong filmmaker was a legend in the ‘80s and ‘90s, with films like The Killer, Hard-Boiled, and Better Tomorrow establishing a newfound cinematic language. Long before delivering baffling pics like Face/Off and Mission: Impossible II, Woo was known for balletic slow-motion shots, gratuitous gunplay, and heart-tugging themes of brotherhood. His films also turned actors like Chow Yun-fat and Tony Leung into big screen icons, paving the way for global stardom. But for decades, the films that served as Woo’s claim to fame have become lost media elsewhere.
It’s virtually impossible to secure physical copies of Woo’s most popular pre-Millennium work, much less find any of them on streaming platforms. That’s largely because Woo’s films were produced by Golden Princess Film Production, a Hong Kong distribution company that left the film business in the mid-’90s. His oeuvre formed just a small piece of Golden Princess’ 156-film catalog, and each have been inaccessible (at least, by legal channels) for the past 30 years. Fortunately, indie distributor Shout! Studios is stepping in to save the library from fading into total obscurity.
