Hong Kong’s Stanley Kwan’s film on ‘30s film actress Ruan Ling-Yu, is a like deconstruction of the traditional bio-pic. Sometimes called the ‘Shanghai Garbo,’ Ruan was more Luise Rainer meets Janet Gaynor in a handful of films, mostly silent*, up to 1935 when a combination of bad choices (debt-ridden husband, infidelity, hostile press, studio politics & gossip, general indifference and jealous rivals) led to early suicide at 24. Kwan brings a unusual texture to everything in here, not only in its look, but in the telling, nipping at expected bio-tropes in recreations, modern commentary from current actors & elderly acquaintances, snippets of actual footage & stills (not much appears to have survived), and a full-rigged period film with Maggie Cheung as Ruan. It takes a while to get the hang of his method, but it soon starts to pay off as the collisions in style & time frame bring new angles and clarity to what might have played as the usual too-much/too-soon tale of stardom turned sour. Indeed, Ruan’s suicide (leaving an elderly mother and adopted child) remains more mysterious than ever by the end. Note that the current restoration, out on Film Movement, adds a useful three reels (now running about 2.5') to the original cut.
ATTENTION MUST BE PAID: *Shanghai was late to add synch-sound. They also appear to have continued using color-insensitive orthochromatic stock long after panchromatic became standard. Note the heavy white makeup used. Yet with so many period details perfectly observed, Kwan has his cameramen cranking their cameras at an impossibly slow speed. You’d end up with under-cranked Keystone Kops comedy.
SCREWY THOUGHT OF THE DAY: Perhaps taking a cue from this breakthru role, Maggie Cheung has, with just a few exceptions, curtailed her work since 2003.
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