Hong Kong Cinemagic - Interview with Stanley Kwan in Paris


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		Interview with Stanley Kwan in Paris

	Coming Out	1/1 - Page 4

	Info

Author(s) :

David Vivier
Van-Thuan LY

Date :

2/7/2005

Type(s) :

Interview

Intext Links

People :

William Chang Suk Ping

Leslie Cheung Kwok Wing

Maggie Cheung Man Yuk

Anita Mui Yim Fong

Jimmy Ngai Shiu Yan

Wong Kar Wai

Movies :

Center Stage

Rouge

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Page 5 : A Man's words

HKCinemagic : You mentioned Center Stage. The role of Ruan Ling Yu should be held by Anita Mui. Why didn't she make the film eventually?

S K : It's Maggie Cheung who played Ruan Lingyu in this movie. I had just finished Rouge(1988) with Anita Mui, and I dreamed of work again with her. By chance, I had the opportunity at that time to attend to a tribute to Ruan Ling Yu from the Film Archives of Hong Kong. Then, I had the idea to make a film with Anita Mui about Ruan Ling Yu's life. I wanted to create a sort of "mirror game" between the fates of these two actresses. Anita Mui was very interested in this project. Alas! During the film preparation, occurred the events of the Beijing Spring. Anita was shocked by what happened to the students on June 4, 1989 on the Tian An Men Square. She sank into a deep sorrow. She was very angry against the Chinese authorities at the time. She stated that she would never work again in China . Yet the topic, the sets and the actors of Center Stage were in Shanghai ... Eventually, Anita Mui renounced to this project.

HKCinemagic : What memories do you have from Anita Mui and Leslie Cheung?

S K : In 2001-2002, I had a film project with them. I wanted to come back to them, and to make a "mirror-film" from our three lives. A kind of "reunion", many years after Rouge. The project could not be achieved because the script was not ready and the budget was probably too high.

For me, Anita Mui was the best actress with whom I have worked. It was the actress who had the widest range of emotions, expressions. She was very emotional.

Leslie Cheung was really perfect in Rouge. He was a very great artist. But he was also someone who attached a great importance to his image. He controlled himself a lot. He was very demanding on himself. He was perhaps too aware of his talent. If he had been able to "forget" himself a little, he would have had a less tragic fate. I think the disease he suffered at the end of his life was linked to this too great requirement towards himself ; he probably set the bar too high ...

HKCinemagic : It seems that in the documentary Yang + / -Ying, shot in 1996, you wanted to push Leslie Cheung to make his "coming out".

S K : The truth is that Leslie Cheung never admitted openly that he was homosexual. He had an ambiguous position on the subject : he said that if you considered him as an homosexual, then such he was, and that he was not upset by this idea...

HKCinemagic :If you had the opportunity to edit again this documentary, what would you do?

S K : This documentary was commissioned by the British Film Institute, as a part of the celebration of 100 years of cinema. I was offered to shoot a topic about the history of Hong Kong cinema, with a personal point of view. I decided to speak about homosexuality in Chinese cinema. This documentary was aired on television in Hong Kong and elsewhere. It has also been shown in many film festivals. It's almost 10 years old now. It is as it is. I am not one of those filmmakers who edit their films again many years after their release. It is to the public to judge the film now.

HKCinemagic : Has it been easy to convince straight actors to play a gay couple in Lan Yu?

S K : I'll take the risk to surprise you, and say : Ye Liu and Hu Jun, the couple of Chinese actors of the film, had immediately agreed when I proposed the project to them. They liked my work, and they also knew the value of the people who were associated with this project : Jimmy Ngai for the scenario, William Chang [ a essential collaborator in Wong Kar Wai's movies – editor note.] on the art direction and mounting, and so on. The film's budget was very small, but everyone believed in the project. The actors were very professional and the shoot went very well. The film is the adaptation of an homosexual novel, published on the Net [Beijing Story, written by a certain "Beijing Comrade" - the term "comrade" has become nowadays a synonymous with "gay" in China or Hong Kong-edition's note.] . In fact, the book was filled with pornographic passages. Jimmy and I had from the beginning decided to ignore this aspect of the novel to focuse on the story, the journey of the characters.

Lan Yu

HKCinemagic : Like in Rouge, this passion in Lan Yu was initially included in a ‘commercial' report : it's a link between a son of a good family and a prostitute in one, an affair between a prostitute and a businessman in the other. It's a story which appears very soon like hopeless ...

S K : Love may appear in any circumstances. But it's not because there is a question of money among them that their story is less pure. You can't occult material problems in a couple life. But I didn't think the tragic end of their affair was due to a problem of money.

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