繁體中文
吳宇森（John Woo）1946年9月22日生於廣州，四歲隨家人移居香港，在九龍深水埗石硤尾一帶的徙置區長大，家境清貧，父親長年患病，母親靠做幫工幫補家計，看戲成為他童年最大的娛樂；他畢業於利瑪竇書院，自小深受歌舞片與西部片薰陶，亦迷戀法國導演梅爾維爾筆下的孤獨殺手以及日本武士片，日後作品中的道義掙扎與宿命感皆源於此。少年時他自製八米厘實驗短片並獲獎，嶄露電影才華。1968年他進入國泰電影公司任場記，其後轉投邵氏，追隨名導張徹任副導演，參與《死角》等多部武俠片的製作，從中學習場面調度與動作設計，深受其陽剛風格影響。1971年他加入嘉禾，1973年首次獨立執導《鐵漢柔情》。1970年代末至八十年代初，他先後拍出《發錢寒》（1977）、《大煞星與小妹頭》（1978）及《錢作怪》（1980）等喜劇，一度以搞笑片為主流。1983年完成《英雄無淚》後，他離開嘉禾轉投新藝城，事業隨之迎來轉機。1986年，他自編自導由徐克監製的《英雄本色》，由狄龍、周潤發與張國榮主演，影片以三千四百多萬港元打破香港票房紀錄，成為該年度票房冠軍，並奪得第六屆香港電影金像獎最佳影片，他本人則獲第23屆金馬獎最佳導演；此片亦令周潤發與狄龍的事業再攀高峰，成為香港黑幫片的里程碑。此後他確立以慢鏡、雙槍、白鴿與兄弟情義為標誌的「暴力美學」風格，陸續執導《英雄本色II》（1987）、《喋血雙雄》（1989）、《喋血街頭》（1990）、《縱橫四海》（1991）及《辣手神探》（1992），其中探討殺手與警察惺惺相惜的《喋血雙雄》為他贏得第九屆香港電影金像獎最佳導演。1990年他自組吳宇森製作公司。1993年他轉赴荷里活發展，首作為《終極標靶》（1993），其後執導《斷箭》（1996）、《變臉》（1997）及《職業特工隊2》（2000），成為少數能在美國主流片廠掌舵的華人導演，其中由尊·特拉華達與尼古拉斯·基治主演的《變臉》全球票房逾二億美元，更奠定了他在國際影壇的地位。2000年代後他回歸華語影壇，拍出兩集《赤壁》（2008至09）、《太平輪》（2014至15）及重拍高倉健經典的《追捕》（2017）等大型製作，並監製《劍雨》（2010）等片。2010年，他獲第67屆威尼斯影展頒發終身成就金獅獎，是首位獲此殊榮的華人導演；同年他獲香港特區政府頒授銀紫荊星章。他曾任香港電影導演會會長，其作品啟發了昆汀·塔倫天奴等外國導演。他與妻子牛春龍育有子女，一家人長居美國。2010年後他減產，2023年執導對白極少的動作片《沉默的夜晚》。
English
John Woo Yu-sum was born in Guangzhou on 22 September 1946 and moved to Hong Kong with his family at the age of four, growing up in the resettlement estates of Shek Kip Mei and Sham Shui Po. His father was long ill and the family was poor, and going to the cinema became his greatest childhood pleasure; he graduated from St. Louis School and was steeped in musicals and Westerns, and was drawn to the lonely hitmen of Jean-Pierre Melville and to Japanese samurai films. As a teenager he made prize-winning experimental 8mm short films. In 1968 he joined Cathay's studio as a production assistant, then moved to Shaw Brothers to serve as an assistant to the veteran director Chang Cheh, taking part in films such as Dead End and learning staging and action design from Chang's masculine style. He joined Golden Harvest in 1971 and made his directorial debut with The Young Dragons in 1973. Through the late 1970s and early 1980s he directed comedies such as Money Crazy (1977), Follow the Star (1978) and From Riches to Rags (1980). After completing Heroes Shed No Tears in 1983 he left Golden Harvest for Cinema City, and his career turned around. In 1986 he wrote and directed, with Tsui Hark producing, A Better Tomorrow, starring Ti Lung, Chow Yun-fat and Leslie Cheung; the film took over HK$34 million, breaking the Hong Kong box-office record as the year's top earner, won Best Picture at the 6th Hong Kong Film Awards, and earned him Best Director at the 23rd Golden Horse Awards, and it revived the careers of Chow and Ti Lung. He then developed a signature heroic-bloodshed style of slow motion, twin handguns, doves and brotherhood in A Better Tomorrow II (1987), The Killer (1989), Bullet in the Head (1990), Once a Thief (1991) and Hard Boiled (1992); The Killer, a meditation on the mutual respect between a hitman and a policeman, brought him Best Director at the 9th Hong Kong Film Awards. He founded his own Woo Film company in 1990. In 1993 he moved to Hollywood, beginning with Hard Target, and went on to direct Broken Arrow, Face/Off (1997) and Mission: Impossible 2 (2000), becoming one of the few Chinese directors to command major American studios; Face/Off, starring John Travolta and Nicolas Cage, grossed over US$200 million worldwide and sealed his international standing. Returning to Chinese-language cinema in the 2000s, he made the two-part Red Cliff (2008–09), The Crossing (2014–15) and Manhunt (2017), a remake of a Takakura Ken classic, and produced Reign of Assassins (2010). In 2010 he received a Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement at the 67th Venice Film Festival, the first Chinese director so honoured, and the Hong Kong SAR government gave him the Silver Bauhinia Star the same year. He has served as president of the Hong Kong Film Directors' Guild, and his work inspired foreign directors including Quentin Tarantino. He and his wife, Annie Woo, raised a family and have long lived in the United States. He slowed his output after 2010 and in 2023 directed the near-wordless action film Silent Night.
