Director Chad Stahelski mapped Sergio Leone's The Good, the Bad and the Ugly directly onto the climax—three combatants approaching each other in a graveyard-like space (here, Sacré-Cœur in Paris), music swelling, time dilating. Stahelski also cited the Japanese Zatoichi blind swordsman films as the blueprint for Donnie Yen's character, the sense of a master assassin navigating the world through pure technique and memory.
We've gone on record many times, that we love Hong Kong action, the early John Woo stuff, Yuen Woo-ping stuff. We are students of the game.
— Yuen Woo-ping · SlashFilm interview with Chad Stahelski
We've gone on record many times, that we love Hong Kong action, the early John Woo stuff, Yuen Woo-ping stuff, we watch all that stuff over and over, we show our stunt guys and our action designers all the time.
— Unknown (Wachowskis or similar action filmmakers) · SlashFilm interview with Chad Stahelski
Films That Influenced John Wick: Chapter 4
