diff --git a/ox/file.py b/ox/file.py
index b99ceef..081cda3 100644
--- a/ox/file.py
+++ b/ox/file.py
@@ -294,7 +294,7 @@ def copy_file(source, target, verbose=False):
 def read_file(file, verbose=False):
     if verbose:
         print('reading', file)
-    f = open(file)
+    f = open(file, 'rb')
     data = f.read()
     f.close()
     return data
@@ -309,8 +309,10 @@ def read_json(file, verbose=False):
 def write_file(file, data, verbose=False):
     if verbose:
         print('writing', file)
+    if not isinstance(data, bytes):
+        data = data.encode('utf-8')
     write_path(file)
-    f = open(file, 'w')
+    f = open(file, 'wb')
     f.write(data)
     f.close()
     return len(data)
diff --git a/ox/js.py b/ox/js.py
index 7a300e7..13ead66 100644
--- a/ox/js.py
+++ b/ox/js.py
@@ -1,6 +1,7 @@
 #!/usr/bin/python
 # -*- coding: utf-8 -*-
 # vi:si:et:sw=4:sts=4:ts=4
+import sys
 
 from ox.utils import json
 
@@ -8,6 +9,12 @@ def minify(source, comment=''):
     # see https://github.com/douglascrockford/JSMin/blob/master/README
     def get_next_non_whitespace_token():
         pass
+    # python2 performance with unicode string is terrible
+    if sys.version[0] == '2':
+        if isinstance(source, unicode):
+            source = source.encode('utf-8')
+        if isinstance(comment, unicode):
+            comment = comment.encode('utf-8')
     tokens = tokenize(source)
     length = len(tokens)
     minified = '/*' + comment + '*/' if comment else ''