Ruan Lingyu

I stumbled on a DVD copy of the film from the local library, but before that I never heard of this film. Stanley Kwan also directed Rouge, a film I enjoyed and liked very much, and that prompted my decision to make the time investment to watch it.

Center Stage, aka Yuen Ling-Yuk (Cantonese pronunciation of the main character) or Ruan Ling-Yu (the mandarin equivalent) is a slow film, a period piece focused on the life and premature death of an actress in the 30's in China. As a kid growing up in Asia several decades ago I never watched B/W silent films, so Yuen was never known to me, until now.

It was a slow film, but well acted and researched. I enjoyed the depiction of Shanghai in the 30's and the personification of various people in the entertainment circle. This film is obviously not for everyone. For the selected few with the interest or the cultural background, it is a film worth watching. If nothing else, it is a cultural lesson on the filming business and a snapshot of the Chinese society in 1930. Seeing some big name actors in it, doing what they do best, is a bonus.

An homage to Chinese silent film star Ruan Lingyu (1910-1935) starring Maggie Cheung is certainly compelling as a premise, and there are several things I liked about it, including the re-creation of old movie scenes played alongside the original, and the cast and crew talking about what had happened in her life. It also gave me a jumping off point into understanding this actor and her work better, and hey, Maggie Cheung is always a joy.

For 154 minutes, though, it's pretty surprising just how many details are left out about Ruan's personal and professional life. Director Stanley Kwan's storytelling tends to put the viewer into a scene like a dance floor and spend a lot of time there, without enough explanation for the things going on with Ruan, her lovers, or the directors she works with. It's frustratingly distant. Even after her elongated suicide scene, he opts to show his crew filming Cheung pretending to be dead, instead of referencing the extraordinary funeral procession Ruan had. In the end it made me think that just a straight biographical film that walked through the events of her life would have worked better, as it probably would have been more informative.

The experience of watching this film in 2006 has been similar to watching Marilyn Monroe in "Don't Bother to Knock" after having seen her later, greater performances. Maggie Cheung's (Garbo-like) capability to release interior emotion that will later haunt viewers in "In the Mood for Love" is beginning to take root in "Yuen Ling-yuk." Later on, Wong Kar Wai was able to use editing to sculpt her performance into consistent, unrelenting intensity. Here she is just beginning to explore the boundaries of her talent. This fits in with director Stanley Kwan's need to create a work in progress, like the productions we watch as they are filmed. He both exploits and denounces the artificial milieu as the actors slip in and out of their roles and the film steps in and out of period. The trial-and-error method of Yuen Ling-yuk is matched by Kwan's letting Cheung find her way through the moods of the character, as if she were trying on a different mask for each moment of the life she is embodying. By 2000 the integration of facial and corporal expressions into dramatic expression would be seamless.

It would be interesting to know which directors saw this film when it was shown on the festival circuit. Did Tim Burton know that he had a Chinese counterpart who also let his affection for a forgotten era in cinema guide the pace (disconcerting for many) of his tribute when he made "Ed Wood" a year later? In 1999 when Benoît Jacquot filmed "La Tosca," did he think of this film for his distancing technique that juxtaposed real singers at a recording session filmed in black-and-white with their operatic characters in colorful period costumes? Perhaps even Scorsese took inspiration for "Aviator" from the 1930s shadowy wood-paneling/glossy brilliantine look that comes much more easily to Kwan.

This film can be placed alongside "Sylvia Scarlett" or "The Unbearable Lightness of Being," wherein young actresses were given the freedom to go beyond what they had done before and reach for what they would do, under the guidance of a director whose search to take the viewer into (then) uncharted waters inspired the performers to deepen their potential.

This is a biopic about Yuan (Ruan) Ling-Wu, a movie star of the 30's in China. I've never seen any film she's been in, but I am very intrigued now. Maggie Cheung is excellent in this role. I feel Ms. Cheung is one of the best actresses in film, from any country. She is always interesting to watch. She plays Yuan sympathetically, passionately and solemnly. Looking at her in this role, looking at her pretty eyes, you can tell she understood this actress. At times, she looks flat out beautiful, especially when she smiles. I liked the style of this film, that the real Maggie Cheung comments on Yuan Ling-Wu during the film. Also commenting is the now departed contemporary of Ling-Wu, the very good actress Lilly Li (a few of her films have been recently released on DVD, and should be sought out). The film has a tragic air to it, as Ruan Ling-Wu committed suicide at the tender age of 25. Even if, like me, you have never heard of the actress, see this film. Ms. Cheung, with her smile, her sorrow, her anger all portrayed brilliantly through the film (she won Best Actress in Asia, richly deserved, just blows you away. Oh, and did I mention, she even dances in this film. A triumph, richly deserving of your time.

I saw Stanley Kwan's "Centre Stage" ("Yuen Ling-yuk") at a university series "New East Asian Cinema" on February 27, 2006. The film is a biography of Ruan Ling-yu (1910-1935), a silent film star of Chinese silent films.

The film describes the life and meteoric rise to fame of young Shanghai actor Ruan Ling-yu (played well by Maggie Cheung), who from the age of 16 till her death at age 24, was featured, often in a lead role, in over a dozen films. She was involved in extramarital affairs with two men and eventually the double standards that women suffer by catch up with her (but not with the married suitors), and dogged media slander her reputation. With her honor at stake, she sees no recourse but to commit suicide, and does so with an overdose of barbiturates. According to the wikipedia entry about her (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ruan_Ling_Yu), "her funeral procession was reportedly three miles long, with three women committing suicide during it."

The film cleverly goes back and forth in time, and includes excellent interludes from some of Ruan Ling-yu's films. These snippets, as well as the local color we see in 1930s Shanghai, reveal a vivacious setting in Chinese history that I would enjoy learning more about, including seeing some of the period cinema.

Not previously knowing anything about Ruan Ling-yu, I of course cannot vouch for the realism of the portrayal, but the acting of Maggie Cheung revealed a strong, magnetic, kind, talented, determined, and yet slightly aloof woman who enjoys many admirers. The other characters were not nearly as well developed, but that is understandable with the focus being on Ruan Ling-yu.

I wonder if Kwan could have set the stage, so to speak, a bit more economically, and found the first half to two thirds rather slow. But, without giving anything away, the ending (of course we know that suicide is the true history) is calmly dramatic and captivating. The manner in which Cheung shows the actor saying goodbye to her close friends, who don't know that this is in fact her farewell, is touching - I wonder if this is how it happened. A film worth watching and which I would like to see again - 7.5 stars out of 10.

--Dilip Feb. 27, 2006