Ranking 10 Most Prolific Actor-Director Duos Of All Time

Collaborations: A Better Tomorrow, A Better Tomorrow II, The Killer, Once A Thief, Hard Boiled

John Woo has been (rightfully) credited with reinventing action cinema in the 90s. After a decade full of lumbering, musclebound heroes, western moviegoers were ready for something a little sleeker. And a whole lot faster.

Their next team of heroes would come from Hong Kong. Woo and Chow first worked together on the still-beloved crime drama A Better Tomorrow, a movie so wonderfully unique that it single-handedly kicked off a new style of action films that would be carefully mimicked 10 and even 15 years on. Released in 1986, it looked nothing like the somewhat goofy, swordplay adventures being shown in Hong Kong theaters at the time, nor did it resemble anything close to the explosion-fests in America. It had a distinct 90s feel before the decade even began.

That style -- delightfully bloody, rapidly-paced, intricately-staged, and often downright demented -- would carry over into everything the two worked on. Admittedly, this was mostly Woo's doing. But Chow was a magnificent action figure for the director to operate. He brought an earnest, easy sense of cool and an unmatched set of instincts for camera combat, a combination Woo's late-period stars simply couldn't muster.

The pair parted ways once they'd both broken into the American market, but they haven't been as good without one another.