The Actress
Director: Stanley Kwan
Year Released: 1992
Rating: 1.5
Distanced look at the tragic life of Chinese actress Ruan Ling-yu and the men of her life who helped make her what she was. Kwan draws parallels between his relationship to Maggie Cheung and that of Ruan and her director(s) - and splices in clips of the classic films Ruan starred in so that he could "reconstruct" the scenes for his own film - but the rest of the movie is static as opposed to dynamic (it's more Hou than Wong Kar-Wai), therefore negating the (eventual) impact of her suicide. Cheung's performance is definitely overrated - she can weep on cue, but the entirety of her presence seems to consist of Kwan getting the right light on her face.
