18 BRONZEMEN DIRECTOR JOSEPH KUO IS IN PARIS !

I've always wanted to meet the Taiwanese director, writer and producer Joseph Kuo 郭南宏, but never had the chance to. Yesterday, my dream became reality, cos' there's a tribute to him right now in Paris during the Paris Cinema Film Festival.

Mr Kuo did yesterday afternoon, a 2-hour masterclass seminar about his experience of the last 50 years in the Taiwan and Hong Kong film industry. He could have talked for hours, but had to go to the cocktail organized by the festival and The Goverment Information Office of Tapei. That's where I grabbed him like a real geek and made him signed a lot stuffs like DVD covers and lobbycards.

I'll write more about him another time cos' I have to go to the screening of two of his movies in a couple of hours :  the very rare The Swordsman of All Swordsmen 一代劍王(1968), his first martial arts movie (a Taiwanese wu xia pian starring Polly Shan Kuan 上官靈鳳, procuded by the same company of Dragon Gate Inn 龍門客棧), and Born Invincible 太極氣功  (1978) , a kung-fu flick with Carter Wong 黃家達 and Lo Lieh 羅烈 . Tomorrow, I'll interview Mr Kuo during 45 minutes (to talk about 50 years in the film industry, it's way too short !) and will watch too other movies of him on big screen, Sorrowful to a Ghost 鬼見愁(1970) and the mega-cult Shaolin kung-fu movie, 18 Bronzemen 少林寺十八銅人(1976).

Frédéric Ambroisine (July 8th, 2008)