She
was one the biggest stars of her generation but the press was out to get her. Eerily, Ruan Lingyu’s short life paralleled the
trajectories of her most tragic roles. Her
career was marked by scandal, making her story a natural for big screen
adaptation. Mixing narrative with
documentary snippets, Stanley Kwan She
was one the biggest stars of her generation but the press was out to get her. Eerily, Ruan Lingyu’s short life paralleled the
trajectories of her most tragic roles. Her
career was marked by scandal, making her story a natural for big screen
adaptation. Mixing narrative with
documentary snippets, Stanley Kwan sympathetically profiles Ruan in Center Stage (trailer here), which fittingly
concludes the Asia Society’s Goddess film series tomorrow.
There
are two divas in Stage, Ruan and Lily
Li, played by two divas of a later generation: Maggie Cheung and Carina Lau,
respectively. A gifted actress, Ruan is
often called the Greta Garbo of Republican China. She gained fame as a romantic heroine, but is
now best remembered for her more politically charged films. Unfortunately, she fell for the wrong man at
an early age. Arguably, it was a mistake
Ruan significantly repeated once, perhaps twice. Ultimately, her ne’er do well ex would serve
as the media’s willing tool.
Stage can be quite
maddening, because it recreates scenes from many of Ruan’s films that are now
considered lost. Many of them look like
they were really darn good, but we can only hope they eventually turn up in a
mysterious film vault someplace. Naturally,
Kwan also gives the audience a behind-the-scenes look at the surviving
classics, Goddess and New Women, which kicked off the Asia
Society’s retrospective last month.
Cheung
is not a bad likeness for Ruan, perfectly expressing her brittle
vulnerability. Her Ruan struggles to
maintain a placid façade, but she obviously feels the sleights of others on a
very deep level. Indeed, screenwriter Peggy
Chiao clearly ascribes a great deal of her success as an actress to her remarkable
empathy. It is a star turn from Cheung, justly
awarded best actress at the 42nd Berlinale.
Kwan’s
talking head segments, both archival and original black-and-white interviews
with cast and crew, give the film a stop-and-start rhythm that can be
distracting. Still, much of this commentary
is rather interesting stuff, including the final sit-down granted by Li Lily,
Ruan’s friend and fellow diva (represented in the Goddess series with Daybreak). Cheung’s sympathetic take on Ruan adds an
intriguing meta-dimension to the film.
Her candid segments also serve as a reminder how striking she is,
considering how pale and drawn she often looks when appearing in character as
Ruan.