“The 1930s and 1940s are the first golden age of Chinese cinema”, director Stanley Kwan elaborated, “It’s more about a cast & crew, who’d been through the golden age of Hong Kong cinema in the 1980s and 1990s, paying tribute to Shanghai cinema in the 1930s and 1940s than telling the story about Ruan Lingyu well”. Professor Dai Jinhua thought Maggie Cheung didn’t look like Ruan Lingyu at all when she first watched the film. She guessed if the director did so on purpose so as to compartmentalize the history while making connection. But she was suddenly touched by the tribute to history after watching the film over and over again.

As for the cause of Ruan Lingyu’s suicide, director Kwan didn’t think it was necessary to over think it. We are still fighting for equal status for women today. It was impossible to even mention suicide in that age. Just like Professor Dai commented, “New women in that age paved the road for us with their lives so that we can walk this far and even farther. There is nothing worth taking our own life. We should live more bravely.”