Back in the limelight: Joseph Kuo, director of 1970s martial arts movie gems such as 18 Bronzemen and The 7 Grandmasters
- Kuo made low-budget martial arts films in Taiwan with choreographed fight scenes that reflected the polish of those in Hong Kong cinema, but was not well known
- That’s changed, with the latest edition of New York’s Old School Kung Fu Fest dedicated to his work and Eureka Entertainment releasing a set of his films
Joseph Kuo Nan-hong is a lesser-known director of martial arts films, but that’s changing fast. The latest edition of New York’s Old School Kung Fu Fest is fully dedicated to his work, and last month Eureka Entertainment in the UK released a four-disc Blu-ray set of films he made between 1974 and 1979.
Featuring a roster of stars that included Hong Kong favourite Carter Wong, Kuo’s films benefited from a surfeit of neatly choreographed fight scenes which picked up on the combat trends of Hong Kong cinema.
Although he filmed on the cheap in Taiwan, Kuo made the most of what money he had, and the best of his films look surprisingly slick. Many were successful at the box-office, and The 7 Grandmasters even played on and off for four years at grindhouse theatres in New York’s Times Square.
“Kuo’s low budgets were largely born from his stated goal of delivering maximum entertainment to audiences while also delivering maximum profit to financiers,” says Paul Kazee, a co-founder of the Old School Kung Fu Fest.