Centre Stage

Rating:
Summary: Center Stage
Review: Center Stage re-enacts the short life of Ruan Lingyu, who was arguably the cinematic queen in the 20's to 30's. The half-documentary film, with an unrivaled performance by Maggie Cheung, stirred the memory of the sensational silent film actress, whose films are rarely watched by the current generation of audience.

Ruan was a modern woman, yet still suffering from the weakness of her character, which eventually led to her suicide under the haunting of the malicious press. The man she loved betrayed her in distrust; her previous lover sold gossips to the press. She finally broke down in her no-exit fighting with "the mighty fear of the words" (from Ruan's will). Stanley Kwan and Maggie Cheung combined exquisitely in portraying the conflict between the stifling society and the rebellious yet weak character.

The movie chose to switch alternatively between the past and the present. With some footages of Ruan's films and interviews with the cast and relevant people in the present, it provides a contrast of the ways that we see things in different times, inspiring people to linger and rethink of their lives. A superb movie, in which Maggie Cheung and Ruan Lingyu, the two divas of their own days, meet across the time, flawlessly.

Rating:
Summary: another great performances from Maggie Cheung
Review: I like the movie much better because of Maggie Cheung's performance. It goes back forth among old footages, interviews with the actors and the movie itself. It's sort of a documentary film played by real actors. And again, it's hard not to like the movie especially with Maggie Cheung flawless performance. Two scenes that just convince me how great she is: First was when she was trying to re-create the scene from an old movie where she was supposed to die in bed. The cameraman continued to shoot her even when the director already said "cut." What we are allowed to see was how affected Maggie was with the whole scene -- she was still crying when her scene was supposed to be over.
Another one was when she came back from meeting her ex-lover, who was trying to blackmail her. She came out of the house to a mob of people who were ready to scold her because of the rumor that was spread by her ex-lover. One of the people made a cruel remark about her mother and she turned around and looked at that person with so much pain -- you would feel that the remark was made to you.
Maggie Cheung usually shines even more when she doesn't say a word. Her best performances are always the ones where she conveys her feelings through her expressions.
Highly recommended, if only to see one the greatest performance in a movie! I believe she won a best actress award in Berlin festival. Wonder when American audiences would finally find her.

Rating:
Summary: another great performances from Maggie Cheung
Review: I like the movie much better because of Maggie Cheung's performance. It goes back forth among old footages, interviews with the actors and the movie itself. It's sort of a documentary film played by real actors. And again, it's hard not to like the movie especially with Maggie Cheung flawless performance. Two scenes that just convince me how great she is: First was when she was trying to re-create the scene from an old movie where she was supposed to die in bed. The cameraman continued to shoot her even when the director already said "cut." What we are allowed to see was how affected Maggie was with the whole scene -- she was still crying when her scene was supposed to be over.
Another one was when she came back from meeting her ex-lover, who was trying to blackmail her. She came out of the house to a mob of people who were ready to scold her because of the rumor that was spread by her ex-lover. One of the people made a cruel remark about her mother and she turned around and looked at that person with so much pain -- you would feel that the remark was made to you.
Maggie Cheung usually shines even more when she doesn't say a word. Her best performances are always the ones where she conveys her feelings through her expressions.
Highly recommended, if only to see one the greatest performance in a movie! I believe she won a best actress award in Berlin festival. Wonder when American audiences would finally find her.

Rating:
Summary: A biography like no other
Review: Maggie Cheung ("Heroic Trio", "Chinese Box", "Irma Vep") delivers one of her finest performances in this biography of Ruan Ling Yu, a silent film star. The film is a collage of actual surviving film footage, interviews with ruan's costars, the cast of the current film, and reenactments of important events in Ruan's life. Flawlessly directed by Stanley Kwan ("Rouge", "Red Rose, White Rose"), and goregeously photographed, this is a must see for everyone who appreciates films and for Maggie Cheung's fans.

Rating:
Summary: A biography like no other
Review: Maggie Cheung ("Heroic Trio", "Chinese Box", "Irma Vep") delivers one of her finest performances in this biography of Ruan Ling Yu, a silent film star. The film is a collage of actual surviving film footage, interviews with ruan's costars, the cast of the current film, and reenactments of important events in Ruan's life. Flawlessly directed by Stanley Kwan ("Rouge", "Red Rose, White Rose"), and goregeously photographed, this is a must see for everyone who appreciates films and for Maggie Cheung's fans.

Rating:
Summary: A biography like no other
Review: Maggie Cheung ("Heroic Trio", "Chinese Box", "Irma Vep") delivers one of her finest performances in this biography of Ruan Ling Yu, a silent film star. The film is a collage of actual surviving film footage, interviews with ruan's costars, the cast of the current film, and reenactments of important events in Ruan's life. Flawlessly directed by Stanley Kwan ("Rouge", "Red Rose, White Rose"), and goregeously photographed, this is a must see for everyone who appreciates films and for Maggie Cheung's fans.

Rating:
Summary: Sorry Hong Kong!
Review: 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 *****