The Shogun Auteur

This week marks a historic event: John Woo, arguably the greatest action filmmaker in the history of cinema, makes the leap to video games with John Woo's Stranglehold from Midway Games. Woo has been revered over the years for his highly successful and influential Hong Kong action films, which have influenced scores of Hollywood action movies as well as video games.

The first time I saw a John Woo movie in the early 1990s, I was completely blown away. His action choreography, blending multiple camera angles and speeds seamlessly together, was outstanding (for more on Woo and his Hong Kong films, check out the "The Top 20 Movie Shootouts"). I thought to myself: if this guy ever gets to make an American movie, it would be like "Die Hard" on steroids. Of course, John Woo did get to come to America and make movies. Yet the major studios, like they often do with foreign directors, tried to neuter and "Americanize" Woo's style. Eventually Western audiences caught on to what made Woo's style so cool - breathtaking action, elegant slow-motion shots and incredibly choreographed, acrobatic shootouts. But it was more because Woo's work influenced other filmmakers, who took what was cool about Hong Kong cinema and ran with it. Still, Woo created a number of successful Hollywood action pictures, including "Mission: Impossible II," "Broken Arrow," and most notably, "Face/Off."

Director John Woo with Tom Cruise on the set of "Mission: Impossible II."

Several years ago, I did a story on film editors for a magazine called "ScreenTalk" (now defunct), and I knew it couldn't be complete without talking to someone who worked with John Woo. I got in touch with Stephen Kemper, who edited "Face/Off," "Mission: Impossible 2" and "Windtalkers" for Woo. Kemper also edited other films such as "New Jack City," "Timecop" and "The Punisher" (2004 version). I spoke with Kemper again recently about working with Woo and editing the director's signature direction style. Kemper talked about the nuances of Woo's films, the creative process behind "Face/Off," Woo's difficulties with Hollywood studios and the director's next project, the historical Chinese epic "The Battle of Red Cliff." Here's what Kemper had to say:

David Konow: How did you and John Woo first get together?

Steven Kemper: John's editor at the time was a fellow named Christian Wagner, and they were looking for a second editor. I didn't know Christian, and I don't think he knew me; he just liked my work. So Christian was the reason why we hooked up. "Face /Off" was the first film I did with John.

David Konow: Were you familiar with John Woo's work before?

Steven Kemper: I was not. As a matter of fact my regular assistant editor was a huge fan of his and had all his Hong Kong movies. So in hearing that I was going to be working for him, I sat down with my assistant and I watched all of his Hong Kong movies.

Chow Yun-Fat in John Woo's action masterpiece "Hard Boiled."

David Konow: What was it like seeing his work before you went to work with him?

Steven Kemper: Well, it was a little scary because I hadn't done that kind of work before. And certainly the style was something I hadn't experienced before. I looked at the material and I was really excited because thematically I thought it was tremendous. The one scene that still sticks in my mind after all this is the shoot-out in the hospital in "Hard Boiled." I said, "Boy, this is a guy I want to work with". And it turned out that "Face/Off" still is, by far and away, my favorite movie that I've worked on personally, because I thought it was strong thematically. It had this wonderful story about how this bad guy had to live in a good guy's shoes and vice versa. John really gets story and he really gets these emotional (scenes) because these movies are little morality plays. I think one of the big crimes is that I would have loved to see John Woo do a Western. I think it would be perfect for him because he gets morality and he gets the ins and outs and the little fine point; he understands that people aren't all good and people aren't all bad. That's been a solid theme throughout all of his pictures. He always examines and discusses these fine lines of being good and bad, and how things really work. I think thematically "Face/Off" was one of his strongest movies. I just think he put it all together. For me his movies had so much passion. That's why I loved working on them because I knew, yeah, I'll be able to do the action but I knew I'd also be able to do some nice dramatic scenes where some characters would end up being fleshed out.

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