FILE - In this Feb. 5, 2009 file photo, Chinese film director John Woo speaks during the Japan premiere of 'Red Cliff Part II' in Tokyo, Japan. Organizers for the Venice Film Festival have honored Woo with its lifetime achievement award, saying the veteran director transformed action movies both in his native Hong Kong and his current professional home of Hollywood. Calling the 61-year-old filmmaker 'an innovator of the contemporary language of cinema,' festival organizers said in a statement posted on their official Web site Monday, Dec. 21, 2009, that they decided to award Woo the Golden Lion for lifetime achievement.
(AP Photo/Shizuo Kambayashi, File)