Paul Fonoroff (born 1954 in
Cleveland
Cleveland ( ), officially the City of Cleveland, is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Cuyahoga County. Located in the northeastern part of the state, it is situated along the southern shore of Lake Erie, across the U.S. ...
,
Ohio
Ohio () is a state in the Midwestern region of the United States. Of the fifty U.S. states, it is the 34th-largest by area, and with a population of nearly 11.8 million, is the seventh-most populous and tenth-most densely populated. The sta ...
) is one of
Hong Kong
Hong Kong ( (US) or (UK); , ), officially the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China ( abbr. Hong Kong SAR or HKSAR), is a city and special administrative region of China on the eastern Pearl River Delt ...
's best known
film critics
Film criticism is the analysis and evaluation of films and the film medium. In general, film criticism can be divided into two categories: journalistic criticism that appears regularly in newspapers, magazines and other popular mass-media outlets ...
and film historians.
Biography
A native of Cleveland, Ohio, Paul Kendel Fonoroff began studying Chinese in high school, continuing at Brown University and at Singapore’s Nanyang University. Turning his focus to film, he subsequently obtained a Master’s in Fine Arts at University of Southern California, and a grant to research Chinese cinema at Peking University. In 1983 he moved to Hong Kong, where he remained for decades, hosting over a thousand television segments related to film (in Cantonese, Mandarin, and English), and appearing in over twenty movies. He authored over two thousand articles for an array of publications, primarily as movie columnist for Hong Kong's ''The South China Morning Post'' from the 1980s to the 2010s.
Some of Fonoroff’s columns from these years have been anthologized in ''At the Hong Kong Movies: 600 Reviews from 1988 Till the Handover'' (Hong Kong, 1998). This was preceded by his ''Silver Light: A Pictorial History of Hong Kong Cinema 1920–1970'' (Hong Kong, 1997), a picture book based on Fonoroff's extensive collection of Hong Kong movie memorabilia, which was simultaneously issued in Chinese translation. The collection was later showcased in ''Chinese Movie Magazines: From Charlie Chaplin to Chairman Mao 1951-1981,'' included in ''The New York Times'' selection of ''Best Art Books of 2018.'' In 2016, Fonoroff's collection was acquired by the University of California-Berkeley's CV Starr East Asian Library and christened the Paul Kendel Fonoroff Collection for Chinese Film Studies.
Fonoroff is a member of the Hong Kong Film Critics Society and the Performing Artists Guild of Hong Kong, and advisor to the Hong Kong Film Archives.
Movie-Related Series
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Watching Cantonese Classics 粵語長片是咁睇的'' (2021-2022) - Cantonese
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Asian Movie Archaeologist 方保羅-電影考古家'' (2010) - Mandarin
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Hong Kong Movie Odyssey'' (2004) - English
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Phoenix Tonight 相聚鳳凰台'' (1998-2002) - Mandarin
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Movie World 電影世界'' (1996-1998) - Mandarin
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Entertainment News 非常娛樂'' (1994-1996) - Mandarin
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Movie Station 電影情報組'' (1994-1995) - Cantonese
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Look for a Star 星海追蹤'' (1993-1994) - English
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Camera Time 開麥拉時間'' (1991) - Cantonese
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Movie Talk 戲人戲語'' (1990-1993) - Cantonese
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Movie World 電影世界'' (1989-1993) - English
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Eye on Hong Kong 放眼香港'' (1987-1989) - English
Filmography
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Helios 赤道'' (2015) Martin Koo
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Amphetamine 安非他命'' (2010)
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Drink-Drank-Drunk
''Drink-Drank-Drunk'' () is a 2005 Hong Kong film directed by Derek Yee.
Plot
A romantic comedy, the film is about Siu Min, a Budweiser girl who takes pity on Michael, an ethnic Chinese restaurateur from France drinking away his misfortune b ...
''千杯不醉 (2005) Bookstore Owner
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A Family in Hong Kong 香港一家人'' (2000) (TV Series)
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What Are You Gonna Do, Sai Fung? 1959某日某'' (1999) Pierre Birton
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Dream Trips 夢之旅'' (1999) Dream Guide
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Spirit of the Dragon 老鼠龍之猛龍過港'' (1998)
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Bishonen''美少年之戀 (1998)
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Lawyer Lawyer
''Lawyer Lawyer'' (Cantonese , Jyutping syun3 sei2 cou2, literally "compute death weed") is a 1997 Hong Kong comedy film produced, directed and co-written by Joe Ma.
Plot
Stephen Chow is Chan Mong-Gut, a famous Chinese lawyer, who must defend ...
算死草'' (1997) - Judge
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I Have a Date with Spring 我和春天有個約會'' (1996) - Father Yung 容神父 (TV Series)
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Tristar 大三元'' (1996) - Bearded Mormon
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What a Wonderful Life 奇異旅程之真心愛生命'' (1996) - Reporter Going to Canada
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Once in a Lifetime 終身大事'' (1995) - Doctor
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The Final Option 飛虎雄心'' (1994) - Police Official
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The Rise and Fall of Qing Dynasty
''The Rise and Fall of Qing Dynasty'' is a long-running four part television series about the history of the Qing dynasty. The series was produced by Hong Kong's ATV and was aired on ATV Home from September 1987 to May 1992.Yesasia.com.Yesasia.co ...
IV 十三皇朝:溥儀'' (1992) -
Reginald Johnston
Sir Reginald Fleming Johnston, ( zh, s=庄士敦爵士, p=Zhuāngshìdūn juéshì, "Sir Johnston"; 13 October 1874 – 6 March 1938) was a British diplomat who served as the tutor and advisor to Puyi, the last Emperor of China. He was also the ...
(TV Series)
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Fight Back to School
''Fight Back To School'' () is a 1991 Hong Kong comedy film directed by Gordon Chan and starring Stephen Chow. This movie is set in Shatin College, Hong Kong.
It was Hong Kong's highest-grossing film of 1991. It was followed by sequels ''Fight ...
Part 2 逃學威龍2'' (1992) - Secretary of Security
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Summer Lovers 夏日情人'' (1992) - Laserdisc Shop Clerk
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Once Upon a Time in China
''Once Upon a Time in China'' (released in the Philippines as ''Enter the New Game of Death'') is a 1991 Hong Kong martial arts film written and directed by Tsui Hark, starring Jet Li as Chinese martial arts master and folk hero of Cantonese et ...
II 黃飛鴻2男兒當自強'' (1992) - British Consul
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Love: Now You See It... Now You Don't 我愛扭紋柴'' (1992) - Surveyor
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The Inspector Wears Skirts 4 92霸王花對霸王花 '' (1992) - Commander
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Once Upon a Time a Hero in China 黃飛鴻笑傳'' (1992) - Indiana Jones
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Alan and Eric Between Hello and Goodbye 雙城故事'' (1991) - Hairy Keung
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Sworn Brothers
Blood brother can refer to two or more men not related by birth who have sworn loyalty to each other. This is in modern times usually done in a ceremony, known as a blood oath, where each person makes a small cut, usually on a finger, hand or ...
''肝膽相照 (1987) - Extra in Courtroom
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The Herdsman
''The Herdsman'' () is a 1982 Chinese film about the life of a herdsman in western China from 1950s through the Cultural Revolution, and his reunion with his father from America. It was produced by the Shanghai Film Studio and directed by Xie Jin ...
牧馬人 (1982) - Extra Dancing in Restaurant
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The Sea is Calling 大海在呼唤'' (1982) - Mabasuo 馬巴索
References
External links
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Paul Fonoroff at scmp.com
Living people
American film critics
Brown University alumni
Peking University alumni
Writers from Cleveland
USC School of Cinematic Arts alumni
1954 births
Journalists from Ohio
American born Hong Kong artists
{{HongKong-bio-stub