Themes: Suicide, Rise and Fall Stories, Actor's Life
Main Cast: Maggie Cheung, Carina Lau
Release Year: 1992
Country: TW/HK
Run Time: 154 minutes
Plot
In the 1930s, in China, there was a woman film-actress who was tagged as "the Chinese Garbo." She was a wildly popular performer who made her first film at age 16 and died by her own hand at age 25. Ironically, she was famous for playing tragic heroines, and her own life mirrored the kinds of situations she portrayed onscreen. In this biopic, Ruan Ling-yu (Maggie Cheung) is riding high in her career when the press decides to take her down a notch or two, bitterly criticizing her for an affair with a married man. This situation is unbearable for her, and she kills herself, but not before uttering the words "Gossip is a terrible thing." In addition to the central drama, scenes from actual films starring the actress are included, and the actors in this biopic occasionally step out of character to address the camera, recounting some significant fact about the individuals whose lives they are playing, and the nature of those times in China. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide
The film is based on a true story: the tragic life of China's first prima donna of the silver screen, Ruan Lingyu. This movie chronicles her rise to fame as a movie actress in Shanghai during the 1930s. Actress Maggie Cheung portrayed Ruan in this movie.
Nicknamed the "Chinese Garbo," Ruan Lingyu began her acting career when she was 16 years old and committed suicide at age 24.
The film alternates between present scenes (production talks between director Kwan, Cheung, and co-star Carina Lau, interviews of witnesses who knew Ruan), re-creation scenes with Cheung (as Ruan, acting inside this movie), and extracts from Ruan's original films including her final two films The Goddess and New Women.
In one scene, director Stanley Kwan is shown instructing Maggie Cheung how to cry on a hospital bed. Rumour has it that Maggie Cheung's tears and emotion were real due to her troubled relationship with Derek Yee at the time. Neither Maggie Cheung nor Stanley Kwan has response to this rumour. The rumour, however, generated parallel comparison of Cheung's and Ruan's private life.
Notes
^ "Yuen Ling-yuk" is the Cantonese transcription of "Ruan Lingyu".
