Stanley Kwan

Director

“I always think that the women’s characters have more potential of exposure. They’re suppressed, but somehow at the crucial moment they’re strong, more powerful than the men’s characters. In Hong Kong the critics always say that the male characters in my films are always weak and dull.”

Biography

Stanley Kwan (simplified Chinese: 关锦鹏; traditional Chinese: 關錦鵬; Mandarin Pinyin: Guān Jǐnpéng; Jyutping: Kwan1 Kam2 Pang4; born October 9, 1957 in Hong Kong) is a Hong Kong Chinese film director and producer.

Kwan landed a job at the TVB after receiving a mass communications degree at Hong Kong Baptist College. Kwan’s first film was Women (1985), which starred Chow Yun-fat, and was a big box-office success.

Kwan’s films often deal sympathetically with the plight of women and their struggles with romantic affairs of the heart. Rouge (1987), Full Moon in New York (1989), Centre Stage (1992; aka Actress), a biopic on silent film star Ruan Lingyu and Everlasting Regret (2005), are all such typical Kwan films. Red Rose White Rose (1994) is an adaptation of an Eileen Chang novel.

Kwan came out as a gay man in 1996 in Yang ± Yin, his documentary looking at the history of Chinese-language film through… read more