Centre Stage (Yuen Ling-yuk)Kwan's deeply moving account of the tragic life, loves and career of 1930s Chinese silent movie star Ruan Lingyu ("the Chinese Garbo") is one of the most sophisticated and beautifully rendered films of Hong Kong cinema.
Providing a fascinating portrait of pre-Communist China and it's relationship to contemporary Hong Kong, Kwan plays with the cinematic mode by dramatising the making of Centre Stage and interspersing clips from Ruan's New Woman and The Goddess.
For many people, Maggie Cheung's extraordinary performance as Ruan is the defining role of her career.
One of Jonathan Rosenbaum's top 10 films of the 1990s.
