Woo, of course, has been the king of Hong Kong cinema for decades (“The Killer,” “Hard-Boiled”). It’s only more recently, with the success of “Face/Off” and the $90 million “Mission: Impossible” sequel, “M: I-2,” kicking off Memorial Day weekend on May 24, that Woo is making a real bid to rule the American box office as well. Hollywood has shamelessly cribbed from the 54-year-old director, from the “Mexican standoff” at the end of “Reservoir Dogs” (with the gangsters all pointing guns at one another’s head) to much of what seemed original in “The Matrix”–the torrential cascades of bullets, the slow-motion airborne acrobatics, the balletically choreographed violence. With his character-driven, art-action sensibility and his deep understanding of the strengths, failures and contradictions of contemporary masculinity, Woo is rejuvenating Hollywood’s fusty and formulaic action genre. And Woo’s signature–the sensitive but testosterone-drenched action hero–has breathed new life into the “Mission: Impossible” franchise.

Two years ago “M:I” star and producer Tom Cruise–who has to save Australia from a deadly virus in the sequel–set out on his first mission: to get Woo to take the job. Like most people, Woo found the plot of the first “M:I,” directed by Brian De Palma, too confusing, the characters too cold. “I didn’t feel anything,” Woo says. “And I never wanted to make a sequel, and didn’t care about making a spy movie. I wanted to work with Tom, but not on this.” But Cruise gave him the hard sell: “M: I-2” would be a John Woo movie from start to finish, he said, and he wanted to try the martial arts, the gunfighting and all the stunts himself. “When I talked to him, I found that Tom is actually a very charming guy,” Woo says. “He always smiles, he’s very optimistic and he looks very innocent to me. So I said, ‘Why don’t you put some of your own character into the film? Make [Ethan Hunt] more passionate, more charming, more like a real person!’ "

The director dismisses Internet scuttlebutt about clashes between him and the famously controlling actor-producer. “Tom gave me a lot of respect,” says Woo. “We worked together as friends.” And contrary to rumors that he fought to include R-rated scenes, Woo says he agreed from the beginning to make the movie PG-13. After making 20 intensely violent action movies, Woo says he’s ready to dial down the carnage anyway. His next movie, “Windtalkers,” focuses on the relationship between a Marine (Nicolas Cage) and a Navajo (Carl Yahzee) during World War II. After that, Woo plans to work on a comedy, and will then fulfill a lifelong dream by filming a musical.

American journalists often describe Woo as “humble” and “soft-spoken,” Asian stereotypes, certainly, but ones that miss the sense you get from Woo of such deep and unpretentious conviction that he doesn’t have to raise his voice to be heard. It may also be a function of his simple English that Woo can talk about grand issues like honor and justice with utter sincerity. Woo’s idealism is unexpectedly born of the hardships of his childhood. When he was 5, his family fled the communists in China for Hong Kong, at that time a poverty-stricken outpost awash in refugees. The family, penniless, lived on the street for a year. His father wrestled with tuberculosis for 10 years; Woo himself contracted life-threatening diseases three more times, and his mother had to become a manual laborer to feed the family. “I saw so many tragedies, so much violence, people dying in mudslides, corpses being dragged around,” Woo recounts. He was regularly beaten up by gangs because he refused to join them. But he was saved by his parents’ steadfastness and by the American family that supported and educated him through the Lutheran Church.

“I was so lucky to survive,” Woo says. “I am so grateful to my father and to that young doctor who saved my life. The reason I like to make movies is that everyone can be a hero. For the Chinese, there is so much concern for family, honor and loyalty, and that’s what I put into my films.” With the interview over, Woo says goodbye to a reporter with a typically Chinese farewell. “Send my regards,” he says, “to your parents.”