Maggie Cheung’s 7 most iconic roles: from Wong Kar-wai’s In The Mood For Love to Clean and The Heroic Trio – the best of a Hong Kong movie legend

Sep 20 , 2020

(From left) Maggie Cheung in Comrades: Almost a Love Story, In the Mood for Love, and Irma Vep. Photos: @moviesmoviesmoremovies/Instagram; Jet Tone Films; @ilovefilmstillzzzzzz/Instagram

The star of numerous Hong Kong classics like Comrades: Almost a Love Story and Wong Kar-wai’s Days of Being Wild, Maggie Cheung is arguably the most talented Chinese actress of her generation. Unofficially retired, she has won best actress at the Hong Kong Film Awards and Golden Horse awards numerous times and – a rare thing for an Asian actress – received acclaim in Europe, winning the Silver Bear for best actress at the Berlin International Film Festival in 1992 and best actress at the Cannes Film Festival in 2004.

Cheung, who celebrates her 56th birthday on September 20, was born in Hong Kong and raised in Happy Valley. She gave little thought to acting until she returned to the city, age 18, following 10 years in the UK. She entered the 1983 Miss Hong Kong Pageant and was noticed by talent scouts. This allowed her to ditch her sales job at Lane Crawford and begin a career in movies. Cheung soon landed envious roles – one of her earliest performances was as Jackie Chan’s girlfriend in the martial arts hit Police Story.

Throughout her career Cheung has starred in both high and lowbrow films, from zany Hong Kong comedies to European art house offerings. Her elective oeuvre means she not only has many classics movies to her name but also many memorable roles – here are seven of her most iconic.

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As Tears Go By

Although she hadn’t featured in a great number of films by this point, Maggie Cheung was already a well-known face by the time she was selected for Wong Kar-wai’s directorial debut – Police Story and Project A: Part II, another Jackie Chan success story, both saw to that. This, though, was her first opportunity at serious dramatic acting.

She plays Ah Ngor, a poorly girl living on Lantau Island who regularly travels to Kowloon for medical treatment. Cheung excels in this role, providing her character with a suitable mix of frailty and vulnerability that explains why she falls in love with Ha-tau, her gangster cousin, played by Andy Lau.

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Centre Stage

Stanley Kwan’s ambitious docudrama chronicles the life of Ruan Ling-yu, an actress popular during China’s silent film era, who committed suicide in 1935 at the age of 25. Cheung gives a masterful performance as Ruan, perfectly capturing the character and movements of the other actress – something that becomes apparent when real-life footage of Ruan plays within Centre Stage.

That is just one of Kwan’s meta tricks in this film, and one can’t help seeing Cheung’s own position at the time (in the early 90s) reflected in Ruan’s – two popular actresses hounded by a tabloid press that simultaneously elevated them as stars while questioning their artistic talent and sniffing around for gossip. It was for this film that Cheung won her Silver Bear award in 1992.

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The Heroic Trio

Following her success in Europe, Cheung was established as a serious actress of note. However, that didn’t mean she stopped doing popular, crowd-pleasing genre films. Just a year after Centre Stage she starred in director Johnnie To’s The Heroic Trio, a distinctly Hong Kong spin on super hero films.

Cheung is part of an all-star cast that sees her team up with Anita Mui and Michelle Yeoh as the titular heroic trio. All three shine, but Cheung, in particular, stands out, revelling in the opportunity to ham it up that is provided by the wacky story about an evil eunuch stealing babies and attempting to become the new emperor of China. Cheung struts throughout the film with a devil-may-care attitude perfectly suited to her role as the gutsy thief catcher, Chat.

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Comrades: Almost a Love Story

One of the most critically acclaimed Hong Kong movies of all time – it won nine Hong Kong Film Awards, including best actress – Comrades is anchored by Maggie Cheung’s exceptional portrayal of Lee Kiu, a mainlander recently arrived in Hong Kong and starting a new life. Her romance with another new arrival, Leon Lai’s Lai Siu-kwan, is pitch perfect. It is never over egged and avoids mainly of the common melodramatic tropes that can dog films of this type.

Lee’s transformation from a money obsessed immigrant to a more caring and considerate person who realises she needs more than just money in her life is startling. Unsurprisingly, this remains one of the most popular Hong Kong films of the 90s.

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Irma Vep

One of Cheung’s less well-known but most memorable looks appears in Irma Vep, a film she made with French director and future husband Olivier Assayas. Another meta production, similar to Centre Stage, Cheung plays herself shooting a film in Paris about a cat burglar.

Much of the movie deals with the behind-the-scenes shenanigans that result from cast and crew failing to grasp director Assayas’s pretentious waffle about what is meant to be happening and the meaning of cinema. Cheung is stuffed into a tight black, latex rubber catsuit for the role and watching her slink around the set and committing pretend burglaries is not only eye-catching but hugely fun.

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In the Mood for Love

Probably Cheung’s most famous role, at least internationally, In The Mood For Love was her fourth film for Wong Kar-wai. Her and co-star Tony Leung Chiu-wai are both compelling as neighbours who come together to learn why their spouses are having affairs – while vowing never to become like them.

Yet as the film progresses and the pair become more intimate, the strain of their initial resolution begins to tell. Superb at portraying a dedicated, traditional housewife struggling to come to terms with all manner of emotions – while acting on the surface as if nothing has changed – Cheung also looks radiant throughout this film in a variety of cheongsams. Her appearance alone, regardless of her skilful performance, is iconic.

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Clean

Cheung’s last major role to date is the one for which she was awarded the best actress prize at the Cannes Film Festival in 2004. Here, she plays Emily Wang, a drug addict with a son via her tempestuous relationship with a rock musician. Cheung truly inhabits her character here, successfully showing her personal journey from a prickly, self-centred video jockey to a mother more aware of her roles and responsibilities and her place in the world.

Equally, as a global citizen, Cheung’s Emily moves effortlessly between Vancouver, Paris and London, speaking English, French and Cantonese. It’s doubtful anyone could have played this role as well as Cheung.

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Asian cinema: Hong Kong film

Called the most talented Chinese actress of her generation, Maggie Cheung may be unofficially retired, but her star shines on in films as diverse as Clean and In The Mood For Love – we look back at 7 of her best movies