Format: Video from The Magic Flashdrive on laptop.
Every now and then I watch a film that I’m sure how to react to. Yuen Ling-yuk (which has a couple of dozen other names: Ruan Lingyu; Center Stage; Centre Stage; The Actress) is one such film. It’s an oddball of a movie, that feels like it doesn’t know what it wants to be, although it does. It’s brilliantly acted and filmed, unique in a number of ways, and I found a great deal to like here. I’m just not completely certain what I actually have to say about it. Bear with me; this might ramble a bit or go massively off-topic. You’ve been warned.
Yuen Ling-yuk) is in some ways a documentary about itself. It is also a biopic of the actress Ruan Ling-yu (Maggie Cheung). Ruan began acting at 16, starred in a number of films (about six of which survive), and took her own life at 24. The film is in part an exploration of what led to the suicide. It is also in part an discussion of the film itself by the actors and the director, Stanley Kwan. Frequently, we see scenes from Ruan’s life, and then the cast discusses what they think may have really happened or watches current footage of people who knew Ruan in the 1930s.
