John Woo is back. He went back to Asia to make an epic Chinese action movie, but it’s not his usual gunplay fare. Red Cliff is a historical battle story but you’ll still notice the John Woo flair in spears, swords and naval battles. The always gracious Woo returned to Hollywood for a roundtable interview for the film’s American release, and shook hands with every journalist around the table.

Q: This is not only your return to Hong Kong cinema, it’s also your first movie without guns in a very long time. How did it feel to do action with old weapons?

John Woo: Even though I shot the film without guns, I still used two swords. If I used a lot of weapons, it all came from history. We’ve done a lot of research, studying the history, and then we designed all the weapons. This is a movie I’ve always wanted to make. I’ve wanted to make this movie for over 20 years. It has a very special meaning to me. I grew up with the story, and there are so many heroes that I admire, and all those heroes have given me a lot of inference. In the film, there was a young general, Zhao Yun, who had a very famous scene, where he’s saving a little baby in the middle of battle. It was from history; he had become an icon, and I used it for Chow Yun-Fat in Hard Boiled, where he was saving a little baby in the middle of gunfire. Actually, it came from his idea.

Q: At what age were you exposed to the Three Kingdoms story? What influence did you receive from this story, and what character did you admire?

John Woo: I grew up with this story. I started to learn about this part of history by reading comic books, when I was about 11 or 12 years old, and I’ve also seen quite a few movies about the story. I particularly like The Battle on Red Cliff. The Battle of Red Cliff is a very famous battle in Chinese history, I think most Asian people know about it. It’s about how a much smaller army can defeat a more powerful enemy through a combination of teamwork and friendship, innovation, intelligence, and courage. That really attracts me. I also greatly admire Zhuge Liang, who is one of the major characters in the film. He is the smartest guy in history. He had great strategies and war tactics, and people have learned so much from him. Even nowadays, some businessmen in Japan and Korea and China use his tactics for doing business, and they’re always successful. And then there’s the famous battle sequence, the burning ship. It’s really famous in Chinese history, most Chinese people know about it. The idea was that the hero sets ten little boats on fire and rams them into the enemy’s navy of two-thousand battleships, because the direction of the wind will set the entire enemy’s navy on fire. It was a brilliant strategy, which relied on understanding nature. It became a very challenging project because it had never been done before in Chinese movie history.

Q: Is there endless creative ground for showing war in battle?

John Woo: Yeah, I think so. I think the audience is interested in about strategy and formation and tactics.

Q: How important was it to go back to your roots and go to Beijing and shoot it there, as opposed to doing it here?

John Woo: I think it’s hard to make this kind of movie in Hollywood, especially it being a Chinese historical film. The only way to do it was to go to China. In China, everything’s so simple and easy. They love movies, and they want to do good business. So I just walk into an office and let them know I want to make a movie about Red Cliff. And then they said, okay, let’s do it. It’s that simple. I didn’t even need a complete script. I don’t take advice from anyone, I don’t take notes from anyone, I don’t need to take any meetings. I just close my door and do my own work. On the other hand, they also give us great support. They provided the army, so we could have 700 to 1500 soldiers work on the set almost every day, so they’d bring the warriors, and sometimes even helped with location. All kinds of foreign productions work in China now, because they’re more open. The Western audience is familiar with kung-fu films, but kung-fu is just one part of our culture. I always felt we have a lot more things that we need to tell, there are a lot more interesting things from our culture besides kung-fu. So in Red Cliff, you can see it also have different kinds of elements, like music, I’m sure you’re impressed by the scene in which Tony [Leung Chiu-Wai] and Takeshi [Kaneshiro] are playing the old instruments together, just like jazz. A lot of people love that scene. Another one is the art of tea, and the football game. I just wanted to let people know that football started in China, and was invented 3000 years ago, and it was real. They used the game to train soldiers, just like the prime minister did. In history, they did use the game to train soldiers in teamwork, and their body, speed, and courage. And the game went from the Arabs to Europe, and had been approved by the soccer game world association. That started in China. It’s very interesting, and something I’ve always wanted to do in a movie, and it makes the people in China feel excited, not only about history, but something else.

Q: What really struck me was the characters’ nobility, humility, and forgiveness and heart of the characters. Can you tell how you brought that into the movie?

John Woo: In most action films, what’s emphasized is how to fight. I tried to make all the characters more human. That was my intention. In the original story, all the characters became legends, like superheroes, very serious. Nobody would make jokes with them. In the film, I made some changes.  I’d rather see these people as more human, instead of as superheroes. I thought it would appeal better internationally, and modern audiences would relate to them, whenever they see Zhou Yu, or Zhuge Liang, or even the ladies, like Xiao Qiao. And also, they have noble qualities, like generosity, love, and romanticism, just like people nowadays.

Q: Why was Chow Yun-Fat replaced by Tony Leung Chiu-Wai at the last minute?

John Woo: It didn’t work out because of contracts. I was quite depressed about that, because I had been looking forward to working with Chow Yun-Fat again after 15 years. But it didn’t affect our friendship. I still see him as my good friend, and still greatly admire him as one of the great actors in the world, and still look forward to working with him again. I was really frustrated, then all of a sudden I got a call from Tony, he was worried about me, and he wanted to help, so I conceded to have him do the role. He did it for a friend. That’s what’s great about Tony, he always cares about his friends, just like Zhou Yu, his character in the movie.