Heroic Bloodshed: The Films of John Woo

With their intricately choreographed bullet play, supercharged emotion, and hard-hitting themes of loyalty and honour in the criminal underworld, the films of John Woo jolted Hong Kong action cinema to new life. 

With his breakthrough, 1986's A Better Tomorrow, Woo set the standard for what would become known as the heroic bloodshed genre, a mix of kinetic violence and operatic macho angst that he would continue to refine in hugely influential thrillers like The Killer and Hard Boiled, cementing his status as a legend among action aficionados the world over. - Criterion