Yuen Ling-yuk (1992)

Director:

Stanley Kwan

Writer:

Tai An-Ping Chiu (writer)

Release Date:

20 February 1992 (Hong Kong)

Genre:

Biography | Drama | Romance

Plot:

Biopic of 1930's Chinese actress Ruan Ling Yu. |

Awards:

7 wins & 5 nominations

Cast

Maggie Cheung	...	Ruan Ling-yu and Herself
Han Chin	...	Tang Chi-Shan
Tony Leung Ka Fai	...	Tsai Chu-sheng / Himself
Carina Lau	...	Lily Li / Herself
Waise Lee	...	Li Min-wei
Li-li Li	...	Herself (as Lily Li)
Lawrence Ng	...	Chang Ta-Min
Cecilia Yip	...	Lin Chu-Chu
Kelvin Wong	...	Nier Erh
San Yip	...	Ms Liu
Paul Chang	...	Boss of Lianhua
Yanyan Chen	...	Herself - Interview
Lingyu Ruan	...	Herself (archive footage)
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Stanley Kwan	...	Himself

Also Known As:

Center Stage (Hong Kong: English title)
Centre Stage (Australia)
Ruan Lingyu (Hong Kong: Mandarin title)
The Actress
The New China Woman

Runtime:

Australia:126 min | Hong Kong:147 min (director's cut) | Hong Kong:118 min (edited version) | Hong Kong:154 min (restored DVD version)

Country:

Hong Kong

Language:

Cantonese | Mandarin

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

South Korea:18 | France:U

Filming Locations:

China

Company:

Golden Way Films Ltd.

Trivia:

With her win for Best Actress at the 1993 Berlin Film Festival, Maggie Cheung became the first Chinese actor to win a major European film award.

Movie Connections:

References Xiao Wanyi (1933)

Cheung is China's actress.

This film took me two weeks to watch. I had begun this film , but found myself so bored with the story that it couldn't keep my interest. In fact, last night when I finally finished the film, I had to keep myself awake by pulling at my hairs on my head to keep me from dozing during this documentary.

I call it a documentary, but it is actually a representation of her life as an actress played by modern actresses. It is similar to the film JFK with several actors playing the part of actual people with clips of the event sewn throughout the film. This was quite possibly the dullest film ever made. I am surprised that it won any awards, much less sweeping the Hong Kong Film Festival. The characters were one-dimensional. They had no spirit, no soul, no care only to walk around in period piece costumes. Everyone in this movie is exceedingly composed - they speak carefully, and walk perpetually as if on eggshells. No one really comes alive until a scene at a dance hall near the end.

But despite all the sugary politeness, Cheung successfully conveys a woman who is being slowly destroyed by her oppressive environment. There are a couple scenes in which she completely loses it, and it's very affecting to watch, but not worth two hours of my time. I had trouble understanding this film. There was a rumor that when it was released at the film festival in 1992, it was accidentally shown out of order, yet it still won the praise of critics. That doesn't make any sense to me. How can a film be out of sequence, yet still being considered the best out there? There was times that I felt I was watching a PBS special, but a very poorly done special.

If a person from the streets were to come up to me and ask me what my favorite part of this film to me would be, I would have no answer. I did not like one portion of this film. The characters were dull, the story was tough to follow, and the pacing was completely off. Nothing made sense in this film. No acting actually occurred in this film. This was one of my first experiences with Hong Kong cinema, and I think I perhaps started on the wrong foot. I am looking forward to my next film from Hong Kong, because it can only be better than this. Even if it only showed growing grass for an hour and a half, it would be better. Perhaps I am being too negative about this film, but I just couldn't get into it.

Sorry Hong Kong!

Grade: * out of *****