Lastly, Woo has returned to the States with the high-concept vacation massacre “Silent Evening.” After his younger son is caught within the crossfire between two opposing gangs and shot lifeless on Christmas Eve, a grieving father (Joel Kinnaman) tracks down these accountable. The twist right here is that the complete movie is conveyed with no single line of typical dialogue being uttered all through the movie (throughout that very same fateful Christmas Eve, the Kinnaman character is shot within the throat, rendering himself unable to talk), though the movie itself is something however a silent film. Woo nonetheless is aware of the way to put an motion scene collectively, and one sequence specifically, a one-shot prolonged bit wherein our hero weapons his approach up a stairwell to confront the massive dangerous man, is a real thrill to observe.
Woo sat all the way down to RogerEbert.com about “Silent Evening,” his return to Hollywood in any case these years, his ideas on present motion cinema and his subsequent mission, his long-planned remake of his personal traditional “The Killer,” which is at the moment in manufacturing for Peacock.
What was it concerning the screenplay for “Silent Evening” that bought you excited to do it? Was it primarily the thought of doing a movie that instructed its story with none dialogue?
I’m at all times searching for one thing completely different. All I used to be getting supplied was motion, motion, motion, and I used to be getting drained. I needed to make a change and so after I got here again 4 years in the past and bought the screenplay for “Silent Evening,” I used to be so enthusiastic about it. Regardless that it was an unbiased movie, I actually cherished the script, and I believed the thought of doing one thing with no dialogue can be an important problem for myself. It additionally gave me an opportunity to alter my very own type. My form of film would at all times have quite a lot of motion and romance and fantasy however for this one, I needed it to be extra sensible in order that the character can be extra plausible. By not having dialogue, it allowed me to make use of my reward for utilizing visuals and sound to inform a narrative. I believe it was an excellent experiment for myself.
In various your movies, you could have included prolonged dialogue-free sequences of so-called “pure cinema,” however “Silent Evening” extends that notion for the complete operating time. Did the no-dialogue idea require you to method the mission in a unique method than you might need if it had been performed in a extra typical method?
The entire story was a human drama, so it led me to attempt to make the film in a extra dramatic method than most motion films. This meant that I needed to change my type as a result of the story was a couple of younger child being murdered, which is the form of factor that might occur to any household. I couldn’t make enjoyable of that, so it made me change my common type and attempt to make a film that was extra sensible. Even within the battle scenes, I wasn’t utilizing any quick cuts in order that the motion would look extra like actual fights—I used to be utilizing lengthy takes to seize the motion and make it look extra highly effective and provides it extra of an affect. I just like the old school methods over the brand new strategies. Quite a lot of the Hollywood films depend on CGI and AI, however I like the actual factor. Even the drama has actual feeling in it. I like an excellent motion movie however an motion movie with an actual human story.