Over the years, John Woo has redefined the way the world sees action movies and his style has been copied by everyone from Quentin Tarantino (Reservoir Dogs) to Ridley Scott (Gladiator). But it so easily could never have been.
Woo says Chang Cheh (right), the Hong Kong film industry legend who died on Friday, was the man who steered him in the right direction. 'When I was about 20 ... 21 years old and I was working for him, I was a hippie,' Woo explains. 'I had long hair and I loved the whole kind of art scene, I was really artistic. Like a lot of young people I had no real future, I didn't know what I wanted to do, which way I should go. I was worried and a bit lost. But I had never dreamed of being a film director; I thought I would be an actor.
'Chang was working on a new project and he needed a third lead behind David Chiang and Ti Lung.
'But just before we started shooting, Chang cancelled the whole project. Then he said: 'John, I think you will be better off behind the camera.' I couldn't see myself as a director at the time. But from talking to me, and from seeing some of the experimental films I had made, he knew this is the way my career should go.
'What I learned from him was about the Chinese spirit; his movies were all about honour, friendship, loyalty, pride and chivalry. So in my movies, I have the same kind of values.'
Celestial Pictures is releasing Chang Cheh's work on VCD in October, along with the entire Shaw Brothers film library.