Center Stage feat. Jason Miller

Hit Factory

Writer, critic, and Hit Factory Discord all-star Jason Miller returns to the show to discuss Hong Kong director Stanley Kwan's 'Center Stage', an experimental biopic exploring the life and work of Chinese silent film star Ruan Lingyu who achieved an unprecedented celebrity before tragically taking her own life at only 24. Ruan is played magnificently by Maggie Cheung in one of her first "serious" (and arguably one of her very best) performances. The film brilliantly forgoes a traditional biopic structure, intercutting the filmic recreations with real footage of Ruan's handful of enduring film performances. From there, the film offers an additional layer of complexity by frequently inserting black & white interstitials of director Stanley Kwan and Maggie Cheung (as herself) discussing the life of Ruan Lingyu and the production of the film. As the film goes on, these distinct layers begin to fracture and smear, both emphasizing the unreality of the recreations and eliciting a deeper sense of truth to the real Ruan Lingyu that the film understands it can never fully capture.

We discuss the way Kwan navigates his experimental form through the lens of classic melodrama (taking influence from the likes of Douglas Sirk) in order to create something that invites even as it antoginizes and provokes. Then, we consider the real Ruan Lingyu and some of her most well-known works (including 'The Goddess' directed by Wu Yonggang) and how the open construction of 'Center Stage' invites us to pursue further understanding rather than attempt to act as the final word on Ruan. Finally, we look at the state of the modern biopic and the furstrating lack on ingenuity and experiementation when approaching the titanic lives that these films consider.

Follow Jason Miller on Twitter and everywhere else.

Watch Wu Yonggang's 'The Goddess' starring Ruan Lingyu on YouTube.

Watch Cai Chusheng's 'New Women' starring Ruan Lingyu on YouTube.

Watch Maggie Cheung on her acting style alongside fellow Hong Kong actor Phillip Chan.

Read Jonathan Rosenbaum on 'Center Stage'.

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