How biopic with Maggie Cheung as Chinese silent-film star Ruan Lingyu, Center Stage, surprised movie-goers in Hong Kong with its experimental format
- Filmmaker Stanley Kwan’s 1992 movie Center Stage is notable for Maggie Cheung’s career-defining role as the lead, and for its experimental nature
- The story of Ruan Lingyu, ‘China’s Greta Garbo’, who killed herself aged 24, it mixes interviews, archive footage and Cheung in scenes from the actress’ life
Back in 1992, Hong Kong viewers weren’t used to seeing local directors shoot experimental films, so Stanley Kwan Kam-pang’s Center Stage (also known as Actress), a biopic of Chinese silent-film star Ruan Lingyu, came as a surprise.
Kwan combined interviews with surviving colleagues of Ruan from the 1930s, and scenes of him discussing his subject with cast members, with more usual filmic recreations of her life to provide an innovative telling of the actress’ story.
Even the film’s producers, Golden Harvest, were surprised by Kwan’s approach, asking him to cut around 25 minutes from the film’s original 148-minute running time for its local release.
So who was Ruan Lingyu, the film’s subject? The actress was one of the most famous stars of Shanghai’s silent-film era, whose sad fate – she committed suicide in 1935, at the age of 24 – made her an icon for a time in China.