COLETTE KOO IS GONE…

Just learned with great pain that my friendColette Koo顧美玲passed

away. She was only 50…

She started in the film business in the mid-80’s in Hong

Kong at Shaw Brothers as an art director (“The Siamese Twins”) and as an actress as well in “My Name Ain’t Suzie” directed by Angela Chan and starring Pat Ha & Anthony Wong; a movie where she was also costume designer.    Colette Koo & Anthony Wong in "My Name Ain't Suzie" (1985) Colette Koo & Pat Ha in "My Name Ain't Suzie" (1985)###She worked in the 80’s and the 90’s both inHong Kong(Phillip Chan’s “Night Caller”, Yau-Tai On-Ping’s “Tong Chee Yi Li Nan”, David Lam’s “Woman Prison”) andHollywood(Bernardo Bertolucci ‘s “The Last Emperor”, Steven Spielberg’s “Empire of The Sun” etc.). Colette Koo in "Women Prison" (1988)

Colette Koo & Pat Ha in "Women Prison" (1988)### Colette Koo & Liu Fan in "Women Prison" (1988)###In the 2000’s she mostly played in indie orHong Kongarthouse movies like Carol Lai’s “Glass Tears” (2001), Yau Ching’s “Let’s Love Hong Kong” (2002) and Vincent Chui’s “Fear of Intimacy” (2005).

Colette Koo (Hong Kong 2004) + Colette in "Let's Love Hong Kong" (2002)

Meanwhile, she started her own production company,Hippopotamus Filmsand produced the short movie “

Taped” (2004) starringMaggie Qand directed by her long-time partner and friendAntonySzeto.

Colette with the independent filmmakers of the I Shot Hong Kong campaign (to help promote independent filmmaking in Hong Kong) -http://tinyurl.com/2bj8shh

She then produced her first feature(Jackie Chan

presents) “Wushu”, also directed byAntony Szetoand starring Sammo Hung and newcomersWang Wen-jieandLiu Feng-chao. You can hear Colette translating them in the following video shot in 2008 during the Cannes Film Festival.

Colette Koo & Antony Szeto (Cannes - May 2008)

She was also the manager of theDropnight

club based in Lan Kwai Fong, and the co-founder of the restaurantF.I.N.D.S.

I had the chance to have her for two short documentaries

that I directed, “Inside Ho Yuk” and “The 7 th Art of Wong Fei-hung”, both released in France In 2006.

R.I.P. Colette. You’ll be missed…

Colette Koo (Hong Kong, March 2010)