Stanley Kwan

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For those interested in Chinese cinema, here is something a bit different.
Centre Stage is about the life of Ruan Lingyu, Chinese silent movie legend of the 1930s. She was without equal in the depiction of the emotions of a woman seeking independence. Students worshipped her as a cult symbol. Men looked at her with dreamy eyes, and women looked at her sideways and full of hate. Her roles were typically of characters like girl student, rustic maid, factory hand, prostitute, socialite, and authoress. Ruan’s personal life often mirrored those of the tragic characters she portrayed on screen.
The recreation of sets, costumes and inclusion of original footage from films that have survived in which Ruan appeared have combined to produce a high quality and stylish film, giving the viewer a docudrama about an interesting woman from an interesting period of Chinese film history.Read More »

Chronicles the love life of a man, Zhenbao. He has a steamy fling with the wife of a friend, the saucy and exciting Red Rose. Even though he feels happy with her, he knows he will not end up with her. To maintain his reputation, he marries an antiseptic, frigid but classy lady of a prim and proper background (White rose). Dissonance abound when he finds his bride irritating.Read More »

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Beijing, 1988. On the cusp of middle-age, Chen Handong has known little but success all his life. The eldest son of a senior government bureaucrat, he heads a fast-growing trading company and plays as hard as he works. Few know that Handong’s tastes run more to boys than girls. Lan Yu is a country boy, newly arrived in Beijing to study architecture. More than most students, he is short of money and willing to try anything to earn some. He has run into Liu Zheng, who pragmatically suggests that he could prostitute himself for one night to a gay pool-hall and bar owner.Read More »

Fleur is the blue angel in one of Hong Kong’s “flower houses” – bordellos and night clubs of the 1930’s. A detached and beautiful performer, she falls in love with Twelfth Master Chan, heir to a chain of pharmacies. They agree to a suicide pact. Jump ahead 50 years to modern Hong Kong: Fleur’s ghost appears in Yuen’s newspaper office, wanting to place an ad to find Chan, who never arrived in the afterlife. Yuen, and his equally bewildered girl friend, An Chor, are captivated by Fleur and her story.Read More »