In contrast to most other directors of his generation, who are trying to learn to emulate the great foreign directors, Ko says that he never really watched either art-house films or Taiwanese films before he started university.
當同輩電影創作者多想著如何學習國外電影大師時，柯孟融卻說自己上大學前，完全沒有看藝術電影的習慣，以前也從不看國片。