IT has been 20 years since John Woo last directed a film in English, and this December, he returns with Silent Night.

The action-thriller will star Joel Kinnaman as a father seeking revenge for the death of his young son during the Christmas season, who was accidentally killed during a shootout between gang members.

Fairly straightforward, but Woo is a legendary action filmmaker and this time around, he will be spicing things up. The entire film will reportedly have no dialogue, as Kinnaman’s character is shot in the throat during the shootout.

“The whole movie is without dialogue. It allowed me to use visuals to tell the story and to show how the character feels. We are using music instead of language. And the movie is all about sight and sound,” Woo told Vulture.

In the Entertainment Weekly (EW) exclusive that premiered the film’s trailer, Woo explained that the biggest challenge with a film like Silent Night is making the audience accept a story without dialogue and getting them moved by the story.

Equally taking the film seriously, Woo told EW that the actor “was very in character. He was always pushing himself so hard to work out.’

The Hong Kong director also pointed out that the actor did 99% of his stunts, training with the fight coordinator daily and rehearsing for all the action sequences.

“He tried to give a real performance, but only with his eyes – his eyes have so many stories and so many emotions. I was so happy to work with him,” Woo said.

“When he came on the set, he said, ‘All I want to do is do John Woo action’. “I said, ‘what is John Woo action?’ ‘It’s firing with two guns.’ So I gave him two guns.”

Silent Night will arrive in cinemas on Dec 1.