Centre Stage (Ruan Ling-yu)
With a Best Actress Award from Cannes (for Olivier Assayas's Clean) and films such as Hero, In the Mood for Love and Irma Vep to her credit, Maggie Cheung Man-yuk is now the international face of East Asian cinema. In 1991 Stanley Kwan's Centre Stage (aka Actress) moved her to the forefront of her generation of actresses when he cast her as the famed Shanghainese star Ruan Ling-yu. Ruan appeared in films such as The Goddess and Love and Duty before sensationally committing suicide at the height of her fame in 1935. She truly was the original screen goddess destroyed by her own celebrity and the double-edged sword of public adulation. Her funeral caused a massive outpouring of public grief still unparalleled in China. Cheung gives a fiercely intelligent performance in this multi-levelled dialogue between the past and present of Chinese cinema.
Supported by the Hong Kong Economic and Trade Office
Reviews
“The greatest Hong Kong film I've seen.”
Jonathan Rosenbaum, Chicago Reader
“Tender, vivid and almost overwhelmingly moving.”
Time Out
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When
2:00 PM Wednesday, 23 February
Buy Tickets Online
Mercury Cinema
Ticket Price
Full price $14
Industry $12
SPU Concession $10
As Part Of
Hong KongScreen Goddess
About Centre Stage
126 minutes35mm
In Cantonese with English subtitles
Print Source
Chinatown Cinema
Phyllis Chan
phyllisc@chinatowncinema.com.au
Awards
Best Actress Berlin 1992Hong Kong Film Awards 1993
About the Director
Stanley Kwan
Stanley Kwan was born in Hong Kong in 1957. After studying communications he joined the TV station TVB as an actor before moving into production. From there, he worked as assistant to many of Hong Kong's New Wave directors before making his feature film debut in 1985 with Women. Since then he has become one of Hong Kong's great contemporary directors.
Filmography
Lan Yu (2001)The Island Tales (1999)
Hold You Tight (1997)
Still Love You After All (1997)
Yang + Yin: Gender in Chinese Cinema (1996)
Red Rose, White Rose (1995)
Siqin Gaowa (1993)
Centre Stage (1991)
Full Moon in New York (1989)
Rouge (1987)
Love Unto Waste (1986)
Women (1985)
Partners
