John Woo’s Iconic Action Films Will Finally Be Available To Watch — Legally
A better tomorrow.
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.
John Woo’s early films once defined action cinema — and they’re long overdue for reappraisal.
Per Variety, Shout! has acquired worldwide rights to Golden Princess’ film library, which means that the catalog will soon be available to stream and purchase. The deal includes Woo’s Killer, Hard-Boiled, and the Better Tomorrow trilogy, along with deeper cuts like Bullet in the Head and Once a Thief. Shout has also procured films like City on Fire and Prison on Fire, both directed by Ringo Lam, Tsui Hark’s Peking Opera Blues, and Andrew Kam and Johnnie To’s The Big Heat. It’s a major win for the small studio, and for fans of this era in Hong Kong filmmaking.
“This is a big one,” said Jordan Fields, Shout’s senior VP of acquisitions and originals. “Golden Princess sits alongside Shaw Brothers and Golden Harvest in the pantheon of Hong Kong cinema, but unlike the other two, the Golden Princess library has been dormant for decades outside of Asia. Its fingerprints are all over modern action and crime genres, though, so we have big plans to reintroduce these fabled titles to the rest of the world, complementing Shout!’s growing catalog of revered Asian films.”
Fields isn’t wrong about Golden Princess’ impact. Woo and his contemporaries inspired countless American filmmakers, paving the way for The Matrix trilogy, Tarantino’s Reservoir Dogs, and the John Wick franchise. Shout seems to understand the importance of platforming these films anew; it already has “big plans” for the Golden Princess catalog. Some films will be remastered, redistributed for home video, and even rereleased in theaters. Most will find a home on Shout! TV, the company’s digital platform. Either way, this is likely a huge treat for film fans, and Fields plans to “super-serve” that audience in as many ways as possible.
