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There are many kinds of movies in Hong Kong. Some are commercial and others are more artistic.

In Hong Kong, the directors are the idea men.

My films are never about what Hong Kong is like, or anything approaching a realistic portrait, but what I think about Hong Kong and what I want it to be.

For John Woo, it is quite difficult to make a movie in Hollywood in his own style. Because Hollywood is based on a producer system, it is difficult for a director to express himself using his own style of filmmaking.

I was always such an incredible fan of John Woo, I just wanted to do this film with him.

Hong Kong cinema is something you can't duplicate anyway.

John Woo is a very nice and kind person; he gives almost no direction at all, trusting me to come up with the character. But when I think of him, I think of explosions!

We watched a lot of Hong Kong action movies in my house when I was growing up.

English is my second language, but in Hong Kong, they don't know that I'm from China. They think I'm from Hollywood because all the films they see are from here. China and Hong Kong are very different places, but they're starting to merge. Still the culture is very different.

The way I see it, if you're going to make an action movie, you've got to make one with John Woo.