Stanley Kwan

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John Cope · #1 Post by **John Cope** » Sat Jan 06, 2007 1:46 am

I'm writing a piece on Kwan for a great directors anthology and was hoping for some suggestions as to what to emphasize beside the obvious. By obvious I mean the fact that Kwan is perceived by many as primarily a "woman's director". I am going to highlight the breakthroughs of Yang + Yin and Lan Yu so that will hopefully broaden the scope for some though it may collapse it for others. Kwan's work seems so much more important than what he is given credit for generally. The metatextuality of Actress worked to open up the text and expand mythos in ways that were breathtaking and productive. Perhaps this aspect is what should be emphasized the most as it is his greatest accomplishment in my opinion.

Presently though, the ridiculous notion that Kwan is just some sort of sub Wong hack really riles me. Virtually all the reviews I've found of Everlasting Regret made it sound like some slight upon and version of ITMFL. The effort to contextualize this picture within Kwan's larger corpus would reveal a work of art completely consistent with and advancing his thematic interests which are quite distinct from Wong's, despite some superficial overlap. For these critics, Wong and Kwan must just be interchangeable Asian sentimentalists, I guess; which doesn't suggest a particular rich understanding of ITMFL, a film they appear to cherish so highly.

Michael Kerpan · #2 Post by **Michael Kerpan** » Sat Jan 06, 2007 1:50 am

While I like Ann Hui's work even more than that of Kwan -- I think it is stupid to minimize his accomplishments. That said, I was quite disappointed by his latest (Everlasting Regret).

Not enough of a WKW expert to comment on similarities,

whaleallright · #3 Post by **whaleallright** » Sat Jan 06, 2007 5:41 am

If you haven't already, you should check out the conversation with Kwan in Michael Berry's Speaking in Images: Interviews with Contemporary Chinese Filmmakers.

The book also includes interviews with Ann Hui, Fruit Chan, Peter Chan, and Evans Chan, along with major PRC and Taiwanese directors.

colinr0380 · #4 Post by **colinr0380** » Sat Jan 06, 2007 11:11 pm

It has been a number of years since I've seen it, but I remember the ghost story Rouge making a big impression on me, but this is the only film I have seen by Stanley Kwan (apart from the Yan + Ying documentary). Could anyone help to put it in context for me and talk about where it would stand amongst his other films?