Stanley Kwan's Center Stage (the New Hong Kong Cinema Series)

Center Stage METTE HIJORT STANLEY KWAN'S Center Stage Hong Kong University Press thanks Xu Bing for writing the Press's name in his Square Word Calligraphy for the covers of its books. For further information see p. iv. THE N E W HONG KONG CINEMA SERIES Series General Editors Ackbar Abbas Wimal Dissanayake Mette Hjort Gina Marchetti Stephen Teo Series Advisors Chris Berry Nick Browne Ann Hui Leo Lee Li Cheuk-to Patricia Mellencamp Meaghan Morris Paul Willemen Peter Wollen Wu Hung • • • • • Other titles in the series Fruit Chan's Durian Wendy Gan John Woo's A Better Karen Fang Durian Tomorrow Tsui Hark's Zu: Warriors Andrew Schroeder From the Magic W o n g Kar-wai's Ashes of Time Wimal Dissanayake W o n g Kar-wai's Happy Jeremy Tambling Together Mountain STANLEY KWAN'S Center Stage Mette Hjort # m * * it |£ *fc H O N G KONG U N I V E R S I T Y P R E S S Hong Kong University Press 14/F Hing Wai Centre 7 Tin Wan Praya Road Aberdeen Hong Kong © Hong Kong University Press 2006 ISBN-13: 978-962-209-791-9 ISBN-10: 962-209-791-X All rights reserved. No portion of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopy, recording, or any information storage or retrieval system, without prior permission in writing from the publisher. British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library. Secure on-line Ordering http://www.hkupress.org Printed and bound by Condor Production Ltd., Hong Kong, China. Hong Kong University Press is honoured that Xu Bing, whose art explores the complex themes of language across cultures, has written the Press's name in his Square Word Calligraphy. This signals our commitment to cross-cultural thinking and the distinctive nature of our English-language books published in China. "At first glance, Square Word Calligraphy appears to be nothing more unusual than Chinese characters, but in fact it is a new way of rendering English words in the format of a square so they resemble Chinese characters. Chinese viewers expect to be able to read Square Word Calligraphy but cannot. Western viewers, however are surprised to find they can read it. Delight erupts when meaning is unexpectedly revealed." — Britta Erickson, The Art of Xu Bing To Wong Ting Ting Contents Series Preface Acknowledgements / ix xiii On Method, Production, and Reception l Angles and Approaches 5 Documentary Filmmaking in Hong Kong 10 The Making of Center Stage 16 Producers' Decisions, Distributors' Practices 20 The Constitution of Center Stage as a Classic of the New Hong Kong Cinema 24 viii 2 3 CONTENTS Film Style 35 The Cinematic Image as Historical Trace, Documentary Record, and Interpretive Reconstruction 37 The Director's Cut and the Shortened Version 49 Artifice, Reflexivity, and Doubt: Center Stage and the Question of Knowledge 58 Relevance and Meaning 89