Between Personal Signature and Industrial Standards: John Woo as a Hong Kong Auteur in Hollywood

As a celebrated Hong Kong auteur, John Woo's distinctive cinematic style has undergone certain transformation after migrating to Hollywood. Such change is well-illustrated in his Hollywood films namely Hard Target, Broken Arrow and Mission Impossible 2. This phenomenon reiterates the long-standing tension between individual filmmakers and the studio system. Moreover, in order to deal with the cultural and institutional discrepancies that an emigre filmmaker encounters, negotiation and compromise in auteurism become the criteria for Woo to survive in Hollywood mainstream cinema.