by Mehdi Achouche
There are two storylines at the center of Stanley Kwan's labyrinthine “Center Stage” (1991). The main one follows the life of Ruan Lingyu, a real-life actress who was perhaps China's most celebrated film performer in the early 1930s. Ruan arguably became even more of a legend when she committed suicide at age 24, as her private life became the scandalmongering subject of tabloid gossip. The second storyline is set in 1991 and follows a film crew (shot in black and white) making a biopic about Ruan. They discuss her life, interview some of the surviving film crews who knew her (it sometimes feels like a documentary of Kwan documenting his own filmmaking), and eventually recreate Ruan's life on their own soundstage.
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Archival footage of the actual Ruan Lingyu in some of her extant films allows audiences to connect and compare...
There are two storylines at the center of Stanley Kwan's labyrinthine “Center Stage” (1991). The main one follows the life of Ruan Lingyu, a real-life actress who was perhaps China's most celebrated film performer in the early 1930s. Ruan arguably became even more of a legend when she committed suicide at age 24, as her private life became the scandalmongering subject of tabloid gossip. The second storyline is set in 1991 and follows a film crew (shot in black and white) making a biopic about Ruan. They discuss her life, interview some of the surviving film crews who knew her (it sometimes feels like a documentary of Kwan documenting his own filmmaking), and eventually recreate Ruan's life on their own soundstage.
Buy This Title
by clicking on the image below
Archival footage of the actual Ruan Lingyu in some of her extant films allows audiences to connect and compare...
- 5/21/2024
- by Guest Writer
- AsianMoviePulse
Imagine for a second you are trapped like Malcom McDowell in “A Clockwork Orange” being subjected to watch a cinema screen with your eyes forced open unable to shut them to the horrors on screen. After the 90 minutes I endured watching “In Between loves” this is the movie I imagine playing if that nightmare were to ever happen to me. I get that in Hong Kong cinema genres blend, so a Horror\Comedy hybrid is to be expected. In fact, personally I feel that Hong Kong does these better than anybody. Yet every so often, we get examples of why this are difficult balancing acts. You could argue that this is the Ying to “Mr Vampire’s” yang. A balancing of the cinematic universe by making a movie so bad that you suspect its actually part of a “Producers” style scam.
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Chang Hsin Lung (Alfred Cheung...
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- 11/29/2021
- by Ben Stykuc
- AsianMoviePulse
"People can sometimes be very weak. But we hope to see strong people." Film Movement has released a new trailer for the 4K restoration of the beloved Hong Kong film Center Stage, made by filmmaker Stanley Kwan. It originally debuted in 1991, but didn't play at film festivals until 1992 when it showed at the Berlin Film Festival (where Cheung won Best Actress); it didn't even open in the US until 1994. The film is a biopic telling the story of 1930's Chinese actress Lingyu Ruan, played by the very talented Maggie Cheung. As The Film Stage explains: "Lingyu, who committed suicide at the age of 24 in 1935 after a tumultuous private life that was frequent fodder for the vicious Shanghai tabloids—and began to mirror the melodramas that brought her fame." The film's cast includes Han Chin, Tony Leung, Carina Lau, Waise Lee, Lily Li, Lawrence Ng, and Cecilia Yip. As always, discovering...
- 2/24/2021
- by Alex Billington
- firstshowing.net
Following her breakout with Jackie Chan in Police Story and before her iconic roles in the films of Wong Kar-wai and Olivier Assayas, Maggie Cheung delivered one of the best performances of her career in Stanley Kwan’s lush, definitive, and boldly conceived biopic Center Stage, also known as Actress. Now gorgeously restored in 4K from the original negative, and approved by Kwan himself, it’ll arrive next month via Film Movement Classics, and we’re pleased to present the exclusive trailer premiere.
The film follows Cheung as iconic silent film star Ruan Lingyu, who committed suicide at the age of 24 in 1935 after a tumultuous private life that was frequent fodder for the vicious Shanghai tabloids—and began to mirror the melodramas that brought her fame. With Cheung receiving the Best Actress award at Berlinale, the film also mixes in interviews dissecting acting and fame, while also interspersing actual footage from Ruan Lingyu’s films.
The film follows Cheung as iconic silent film star Ruan Lingyu, who committed suicide at the age of 24 in 1935 after a tumultuous private life that was frequent fodder for the vicious Shanghai tabloids—and began to mirror the melodramas that brought her fame. With Cheung receiving the Best Actress award at Berlinale, the film also mixes in interviews dissecting acting and fame, while also interspersing actual footage from Ruan Lingyu’s films.
- 2/23/2021
- by Jordan Raup
- The Film Stage
The 1990’s found Hong Kong cinema exploding into the minds and hearts of cinema lovers across the world. “Heroic Bloodshed” had become a genre in itself, The “Girls with Guns” wave lead by Michelle Yeoh was proving popular and category III with an increase in sexually explicit content was also finding a profitable market. So naturally, in the commercial mindset of the industry, someone was meant to combine the three. That man was Godfrey Ho and the film was “Lethal Panther”
Betty Lee (Sibelle Hui) is an agent trying to bring down a counterfeiting ring. After finding out the boss, she is caught in the crossfire, as two assassins take him out. She duels with Eileen (Maria Jo) as Amy (Miyamoto Yoko) finishes the job. It transpires his subordinate Bill Wong (Lawrence Ng) was the instigator and carnage erupts, as he seeks to clean up after himself.
Betty Lee (Sibelle Hui) is an agent trying to bring down a counterfeiting ring. After finding out the boss, she is caught in the crossfire, as two assassins take him out. She duels with Eileen (Maria Jo) as Amy (Miyamoto Yoko) finishes the job. It transpires his subordinate Bill Wong (Lawrence Ng) was the instigator and carnage erupts, as he seeks to clean up after himself.
- 10/15/2020
- by Ben Stykuc
- AsianMoviePulse
New Dragon Gate Inn is a 1992 Hong Kong wuxia film directed by Raymond Lee and produced by Tsui Hark, starring Tony Leung Ka-fai, Brigitte Lin, Maggie Cheung and Donnie Yen. It was released as Dragon Inn in North America.
The film is a remake of Dragon Gate Inn (1966). New Dragon Gate Inn was shot as a standard wuxia action thriller, with fast-paced action including martial arts, sword fighting and black comedy set in ancient China.
Now 20 years later, the movie as been brought back to life with its own high-tech enhancement. But it wasn’t Tsui Harks idea to bring this movie back, but old school producer Ng See Yuen (Drunken Master, Snake In The Eagle’s Shadow), he had this to say about the release, “There have been hundreds of Kung fu movies over the past twenty years. But few have managed to remain in people’s hearts. This...
The film is a remake of Dragon Gate Inn (1966). New Dragon Gate Inn was shot as a standard wuxia action thriller, with fast-paced action including martial arts, sword fighting and black comedy set in ancient China.
Now 20 years later, the movie as been brought back to life with its own high-tech enhancement. But it wasn’t Tsui Harks idea to bring this movie back, but old school producer Ng See Yuen (Drunken Master, Snake In The Eagle’s Shadow), he had this to say about the release, “There have been hundreds of Kung fu movies over the past twenty years. But few have managed to remain in people’s hearts. This...
- 3/8/2012
- by kingofkungfu
- AsianMoviePulse
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