By Chris Hyde

December 17, 2002

A number of fine actresses emerged during the 1980s in the Hong Kong cinema, and while the work of people like Anita Mui and Michelle Yeoh is of exceptionally high quality, none has quite attained the heights reached by the inestimable Maggie Cheung. First coming to prominence with her early role as May, Jackie Chan’s long suffering girlfriend in the Police Story films, this woman later fully broadened her range of roles and has gone on to become one of the world’s great movie actresses of the last 25 years. And perhaps if the confusion and seeming mishandling surrounding the 2003 North American release of Zhang Yimou’s Hero is ever sorted out, we here in the States will finally get the chance to see just exactly how far this woman’s unparalleled career has come.

Born in Hong Kong in 1964, as a young girl of eight the actress moved to England with her family, where she would remain until 1981. Returning as a model, in 1983 Cheung would be runner-up in the Miss Hong Kong pageant and later was the national representative in the Miss World contest that same year. Following the success of her work in this arena, she was offered a contract by TVB, the network television portion of the historic Shaw Brothers studio. The actress then did some tv and film acting in relatively small scale productions before garnering her big break in 1985 in the aforementioned smash hit Jackie Chan vehicle.

The exposure attained in playing second fiddle to the Hong Kong superstar was invaluable to the actress’ career; it afforded her the opportunity to lay the groundwork for the later, more artistic roles that would be her greatest legacy. Though her character in the Police Story series is a pretty, helpless young woman, Cheung’s performances are capable enough to flash some real talent even amongst the acrobatic antics of her famous lead. She also appeared in Chan’s 1987 Project A II, another popular film that would help solidify the public’s awareness of her talent.

Though it was the films with Chan that would bring Cheung to wider public consciousness, early on the actress realized that she would need to stretch beyond her hapless girlfriend character to leave a more distinct mark on the screens of Hong Kong and elsewhere. She began to take on more challenging work in the late 1980s; the most notable project being her first film with director Wong Kar-Wai, 1988’s The Days of Being Wild. This association would prove tremendously beneficial to Cheung, as she would ultimately collaborate five times with the Hong Kong art film darling (this count includes the coming long-in-production 2046) and in 2000 collected a Golden Horse Best Actress Award for her part in the wonderful In the Mood For Love.

However, it was not only the work with Wong Kar-Wai that would bring Maggie Cheung to the attention of international audiences. Continuing her quest to broaden the variety of projects that she was involved in, she also began to work with acclaimed director Stanley Kwan. Her acting in his 1989 Full Moon in New York would gain Cheung yet another Golden Horse award, but it was when she took the part of the Chinese silent film star Ruan Ling Yu for Kwan’s 1992 film The Actress (also known under the title Centre Stage) that the international art-film community took notice of her shimmering talent. At the Berlin Film Festival that annum, Maggie Cheung became the first Chinese performer to take home the eminent Silver Bear award for Best Actress that is awarded at that esteemed international fete, and with this role the world would come to know what Hong Kong audiences had seen for some time: Maggie Cheung was an actress of global importance.

But while the Hong Kong press has been known to deride the actress as being somewhat snooty due to her own supposed desire to be an Actress and not simply an entertainer, Cheung has never completely forgotten her roots in the action genre. Though in more recent years she is much more likely to turn up on the art house circuit (such as the shining bright spot she represents in Olivier Assayas’ interminable 1996 film Irma Vep), even after gaining the acclaim of the Silver Bear she reprised her role as May in Police Story 3. More interesting, though, was her successful attempt at demonstrating her own martial arts skills. In both The Heroic Trio and The Executioners, Cheung showed audiences that her own kung fu was fierce when she wanted it to be. Far from being the helpless wallflower of the Chan films, here she goes mano-a-mano with a proven action star (Michelle Yeoh) and proves capable of holding her own in onscreen battles.

While now approaching her fourth decade on the planet, this top-notch actress thankfully shows little sign of slowing down any time soon. 2003 should bring the release of the Wong Kar-Wai film 2046, as well as the aforementioned Chinese blockbuster Hero (aside to the people at Miramax: get it together. People want to see this film, and we’ll even willingly give you our hard earned money for it if you’ll just give us the opportunity). Cheung is also reportedly working with Christophe Gans on his new set-in-Asia pulp inspired epic The Adventurer. Given the obvious heavy Hong Kong influence on Gans’ last film (the entertaining Brotherhood of the Wolf) one can only imagine that he feels incredibly lucky to have the opportunity to work with one of the greatest actresses to ever emerge from that region’s film industry.

Cheung’s inimitable style of acting is in no way overt or heavily mannered; her most powerful scenes tend to be carried off with a subtlety so restrained as to be almost unnoticeable. The small gestures or glances that intimate what her characters are feeling allow audiences to experience the emotions of her onscreen personas in a way that makes them easily accessible without being in any way overbearing. Cheung’s face is so expressive that the slightest tilt of an eyebrow or the simplest flicker of an eye can convey waves of meaning about her characters. But if the role she is playing calls for a more forceful statement than her generally reticent means of acting she is completely capable of delivering on this score as well, for the true talent of this great actress lies in the broad range of characters that she is able to play well. Whether it be stumbling, frail, starcrossed lover, historic actress or martial arts mistress, Cheung brings a quiet strength to her work that melds her own innate appeal with whatever varied character quirks her present role may require.

As she is approaching a stage in her career where many actresses tend unfortunately to begin to find it much more difficult to locate acceptable material with which to work, it’s refreshing to see that Maggie Cheung appears to be as much in demand now as ever. It’s hoped by this space that this will continue for years to come, as it seems that the actress has a timeless talent that shouldn’t be subject to the generally questionable filmic trend of favoring female youth over ability. While to this point she has laid down a body of work that compares favorably to any woman acting on the planet today, there appears to be plenty of room left for inspiring future work to add to this already brilliant legacy. With a spate of interesting projects emerging in the coming year, one can only hope that more film fans will come to realize just how special an actress this truly is. Maybe if Miramax can just see fit to finally bring Hero (*ahem*, in its ORIGINAL form) out to the wider attention of North Americans, even some of those who have thus far remained oblivious to the boundless talent of this supremely gifted woman will get a chance to see just what sort of skill Maggie Cheung truly possesses. Both film fans and the actress herself deserve that this should be so.

View other columns by Chris Hyde