The magnificent Maggie Cheung takes center stage for 4K restoration at Film Forum
Center Stage (Stanley Kwan, 1991)
Film Forum
209 West Houston St.
August 7-13
filmforum.org
metrograph.com
“Isn’t she a replica of myself?” Maggie Cheung says of Chinese actress Ruan Ling-yu in 1991’s Center Stage, in which Cheung plays Ruan as well as herself. “Maggie, may I ask if you wish to be remembered half a century later?” a man asks, to which Cheung responds, “That’s not so important to me. If future people do remember me, it won’t be the same as Ruan Ling-yu, as she halted her career at the age of twenty-five, when she was at her most glorious. Now she is a legend.” The Hong Kong–born Cheung, a former model and beauty queen, has long been a legend herself, having made more than ninety films since her career began in 1984, when she was nineteen; current and future people are sure to remember the glamorous superstar who continues to help spread Chinese cinema around the world even though she retired from acting in 2010.
In Center Stage, Cheung is radiant as both herself and Ruan as director Stanley Kwan goes back and forth between the present, as Cheung is making the film, and the past, as she portrays Ruan rising from an extra to a star in the late 1920s and early 1930s, at the same time Japan is mounting attacks against China. Cheung, who was named Best Actress at prestigious film festivals in Berlin, Chicago, Taiwan, and Hong Kong for the role, is joined by a stellar cast, including Chen Yen-yen, Lily Li, Tony Leung Ka-fai, Carina Lau, and Chin Han; the real Ruan is seen in archival footage.
For its thirty-fifth anniversary, Center Stage, also known simply as Actress, is screening in a new 4K restoration at Film Forum from August 7 to 13; Kwan, who has also directed such films as Women, Full Moon in New York, and First Night Nerves, will be on hand for Q&As following the 6:30 shows on August 7 and 8, copresented by the New York Asian Film Festival. Alas, Cheung, who makes very rare public appearances and eschews interviews, will not be there.
[Mark Rifkin is a Brooklyn-born, Manhattan-based writer; you can follow him on Substack here.]