John Woo outdid himself in ‘Manhunt’ and we have to talk about one ridiculous scene

Last Friday, Manhunt premiered on Netflix. A remake of the 1976 Japanese movie of the same name, it’s basically the Japanese version of The Fugitive except for that it’s about 82 times more badass because it was directed by John Woo. He of Face/Off and Hard Boiled. It’s amazingly campy and you absolutely need to watch it.

There are as many white doves and choreographed gun fights as you could imagine from a Woo movie. There’s also a jet ski chase, which is as incredible as it sounds. The best way to describe this movie is that Woo absolutely knows he’s Woo and embraced it. Which is great.

But there’s one scene that I haven’t stopped thinking about since I watched it a few days ago, and since I just told you there’s a jet ski chase and that’s not the one I’m talking about you know it must be pretty out there. Spoilers below, so stop here if you like your campy action movies with completely nonsensical plots to remain unspoiled.

If you scroll below this perfect white dove shot, you’ve made your peace with spoilers. (Heh, get it? because it’s a white dove and I said pea — OK, yes, moving on.)

Around the halfway mark of the movie, the action momentarily shifts to the luxurious estate/ranch/temporary safehouse situation of the mysterious Mayumi and we get some additional details about her tragic backstory. Which is indeed tragic, but also hilariously campy.

First off, one shot as soon as the characters enter her home is of a wedding dress on a mannequin in another room, covered in blood. There’s some mysterious allusion to her wedding dress still being there and since we already know by that point that her fiancé had committed suicide, this seems to be going somewhere semi-bonkers. It pays off.

There’s some talking, there’s some emotional looks, and then we get the fully backstory. Which, succinctly, is that Mayumi’s fiancé not only committed suicide but he committed suicide by shooting himself in the head at their outdoor wedding ceremony by ...

... driving up to the wedding ...

... in a car with gull-wing doors ...

... and parking just far enough away from the alter so that his betrothed could see him do it and run dramatically towards him after it was done.

WHICH IS THE MOST JOHN WOO SHIT OF ALL TIME. This entire sequence is like if Woo created a John Woo serum and then injected himself with that serum before filming this portion of the movie. I can’t get over it. It is so, so, so extra.

It’s mostly obvious why Woo did this, as truly unbelievable as it is. He really wanted to have a shot that looked like this:

And to do that, he worked backwards until he figured out a scenario where that shot could happen, if it’s only a 1% plausible scenario.

To his credit, it’s a gorgeous shot. It’s as well-framed and imagined a shot as the scene is ridiculous. The dress, the cherry blossoms, the blood, and the freaking gull-wing doors all add up to something stunning and memorable.

Let’s go back to the gull-wing doors for a second though. There are only three reasons you would ever NEED gull-wing doors. They are:

Of all of those the parents having sex one might actually being the most normal of circumstances.

On top of the doors actually being used in this scene, there’s also the weirdness of what car it actually is that has those doors.

Woo used a 1990 Toyota Sera - EXY10 in a 2018 remake of a movie from the ‘70s. The events of the flashback take place circa 2013 in the movie’s timeline. It’s not remotely necessary timeline-wise to use this specific car.

Which, on top of everything else, means that Woo purposely used a fancy Toyota model from the ‘90s just so he could have a car with a glass canopy and butterfly doors in this one scene.

John Woo is the freaking best.