Center Stage – 88 Films

Director: Stanley Kwan
Screenplay: Chiu Kang-Chien
Starring: Maggie Cheung, Chin Han, Tony Ka Fai Leung, Carina Lau, Waise Lee, Li-li Li, Lawrence Ng, Cecilia Yip, Kelvin Wong
Country: Hong Kong
Running Time: 155 min
Year: 1991
BBFC Certificate: 15

Ruan Lingyu began her film career in the mid-20s at the early age of 16 and grew to become one of the biggest stars of the Shanghai film industry in the ’30s. However, at the height of her fame, personal problems spilled out into the public and she shockingly took her own life in 1935, at the tender age of 24.

The funeral was a grand event, with a procession reportedly running 3 miles long, in which three further women committed suicide. Such was the strength of her stardom.

Ruan’s fame diminished as time went on but, after coming across a retrospective of her surviving films, director Stanley Kwan was drawn to the actress and her story. So, he decided to make his next film, following Full Moon in New York, a biopic of Ruan Lingyu.

Kwan originally planned to cast Anita Mui in the lead role, as she looked quite similar to Ruan (which is supposedly what gave him the idea for the project in the first place). However, Mui refused to work in mainland China at the time, so declined the offer. Kwan instead opted for Maggie Cheung. That change, and the fact Cheung had some experience with a similar relationship scandal, made Kwan and his writer Chiu Kang-Chien decide to take a different approach to the film. They weaved together various layers of storytelling, blending recreations of Ruan’s life with archival footage, clips from her films and metatextual interviews featuring the film’s own cast and crew.

This worked a treat, leading to the resulting film, Center Stage (a.k.a. Ruan Ling Yu), winning numerous awards in its native country and beyond. It supposedly led to a resurgence in popularity of Ruan Lingyu and her films too.

Well, hot on the heels of releasing Love Unto Waste and Rouge on Blu-ray earlier this year, 88 Films are following these up with Center Stage. Having thought very highly of those first two releases, I couldn’t resist picking this one up too.

My thoughts follow.

As mentioned, Center Stage tells the story of Ruan Lingyu (Maggie Cheung) through a mixture of reconstructed material, clips from the original films and interviews with the cast and crew.

The film focuses on the 1930s period of her career, when she was a star, and delves into a handful of important relationships that shaped Ruan’s life and likely had a hand in her death. There’s her difficult relationship with Zhang Damin (Lawrence Ng), her first love. His gambling habit forced them apart, but he continued to come back to her, largely to get money. Then there’s Tang Jishan (Chin Han), her partner in her final years, who struggled to give himself entirely to Ruan. We also examine the actress’ close relationship with director Cai Chusheng (Tony Ka Fai Leung).

Kwan and his writer Chiu Kang-Chien put two years of research into the film and they also shot on some locations in and around where Ruan actually lived and worked. This dedication to the past is also reflected in the wonderful sequences on set, recreating the production of some of Ruan’s films. These are occasionally intercut with the correlating scenes from the films themselves, which shows the level of detail Kwan went to match them.

It’s a haunting film too, aided by an often quiet, graceful approach and melancholic tone that Kwan felt reflected the death of the silent era of Chinese cinema, as well as the end of Ruan’s life.

Like the other of Kwan’s films I reviewed recently, Center Stage isn’t overly concerned with telling a clear story. Instead he soaks up the atmosphere of the period, presenting a sumptuous series of snapshots of Ruan’s life that hint at the reasons why she killed herself, rather than explicitly stating them.

This more relaxed, mood-driven approach made the film feel quite slow and the enigmatic portrayal of Ruan made it difficult to fully warm to the character. However, its stunning beauty keeps you watching. The cinematography and production design are a sight to behold, taking some inspiration from classic cinema. The look and feel of it all reminded me of In the Mood for Love too.

I’m not normally a fan of biopics, as I find them too false a lot of the time. As such, I appreciated the metatexual, docudrama aspects of Center Stage. Having the cast and crew discuss the production as well as their thoughts on Ruan’s life adds greater depth. It’s blending of styles and approaches to the subject matter reminded me of one of my favourite biopics, American Splendour.

Before tying things up, I must sing praise of Maggie Cheung. It’s not just a case of matching the on-film mannerisms of Ruan that makes this a superb performance. Cheung adds subtle depth to the character through an understated but utterly beguiling approach.

So, overall, whilst the elusive nature and languid pace of Center Stage kept me at arms length in places, the beautiful craftsmanship and unique spin the biopic ultimately won me over.

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