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Li-zhen (Maggie Cheung) and Chow (Tony Leung)
share an intimate moment in In the Mood for
Love.
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Like many movie buffs, French New Wave director Reni Vidal (Jean-Pierre Leaud) imagines Hong Kong actress Maggie Cheung spiraling through the air. His fantasy goes back to a Marrakesh cinema where Vidal first watched one of Cheung's chop-socky films. The way she flew, Vidal tells Cheung, convinced him that she was the actress to star in a remake of Louis Feuillade's Silent Era serial, Les Vampires. The fact that Cheung's flying was accomplished with stunt doubles doesn't matter to Vidal. In his mind, Cheung is a black-catsuit-clad Irma Vep.
That one scene in French filmmaker Olivier Assayas' moviemaking satire, Irma Vep, captures the ongoing allure of Cheung. To long-time fans, Cheung will always be a gravity-defying action heroine.
"I think Irma Vep opened a lot of doors for me unexpectedly," says Cheung, speaking recently from Los Angeles. "When I took on the project, I didn't expect it to have the same effects it has had up to now.
"But Irma Vep is the same as Dragon Inn, and it's the same as The Heroic Trio in that it's simply something that I've done. Without any of these films, my path to what is going on with me today would be slightly different. Irma Vep is another type of film I have on my list, and it makes the whole thing more interesting. People look and say, 'Oh, this women has gone through all of these, and now she's doing In the Mood for Love.' It makes it all the more interesting."
Cheung's chop-socky reputation was sealed by roles in 60-plus Hong Kong films. But Cheung wants to distance herself from her action past. She's more selective about her projects. It's important for her to be proud of each new film. At age 36, she wants to be known as a serious actress.
Cheung continues to remake herself with a starring role in Wong Kar-wai's In the Mood for Love, a melodrama about unrequited love set in 1962 Hong Kong. In the film, she plays Li-zhen, a secretary at an export firm who develops a covert friendship with a married neighbor named Chow (Tony Leung).
Filming was rushed on In the Mood for Love. Like all of Wong Kar-wai's films, the script was unfinished at the start of shooting. It was a familiar pace Cheung remembers from her work on three of the director's previous films: As Tears Go By, Ashes of Time and Days of Being Wild. He was the first director to take Cheung seriously. He also gave her the confidence to step away from chop-socky roles.
"I think this is the most contradicted character I've played so far," Cheung says, speaking deliberately. "For me, it's more interesting that the characters I play have a lot more going on inside. I'm trying to feel the pain of this person and it hurts ... That's why sometimes an actor can be very emotional. They go through a lot more emotions than a normal person."
As a young girl, Cheung was the only Chinese person in her English boarding school. She remembers feeling like an outsider, no matter how hard she tried to fit in with the other students.
After returning to Hong Kong, Cheung became a teen-age beauty queen and model. Her acting career began with co-starring roles opposite Jackie Chan. Life was a whirlwind of magazine covers and gossip columns. Glamour and appearances took high priority. Her acclaimed performance in Stanley Kwan's Center Stage permanently pushed her in a different direction. She wasn't interested in action movies like Dragon Inn and The Heroic Trio anymore. She wanted to be challenged dramatically.
"What the audience for As Tears Go By saw in me was the first time I was a serious actress," Cheung says. "But I don't think that would have lasted very long, and one film wouldn't have been enough. The experience of working with him (Wong Kar-wai) and what he taught me and what he gave me during that experience made me want to go on to be a serious actress. I don't think one good part is really enough for a whole career, but it can start something."
Cheung's aim to work steadily in dramatic films continues. She starred opposite Jeremy Irons and Li in director Wayne Wang's Hong Kong drama Chinese Box. She was an acupuncturist in Paris' Chinatown in the French drama Augustin, King of Kung-Fu. In Love At First Sight, Cheung was a San Francisco cabdriver who falls for a computer whiz who owns a cast-strapped dot-com. In all of these films, Cheung doesn't spin into the air once. Her feet remain firmly on the ground. Still, she has no regrets about her chop-socky past.
"For some people, those films mean a lot to them and, to others, they're just a load of rubbish," Cheung says. "Just because I have changed in my vision of my life and my career doesn't mean I think those films are pointless, because they're not at all. They are wacky, and what's wrong with that?
"I have nothing against being in an action film. I know I'm not very good at them. I'm not Michelle Yeoh. I'm not trained to do martial arts. I'm older and my reactions are not as quick as before. I'm not physically fit enough to do them. I love watching those films, but if it involves too much action. I don't think I can manage."
Cheung spends time with her husband, Irma Vep director Olivier Assayas, between homes in Paris and Hong Kong. If the success of Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon creates a new wave of Asian cinema, Hollywood might be the next stop in Cheung's newfound career plans. She's not sure what the future will bring. All that's certain is that she has become a slightly different Maggie.
"If I didn't make Dragon Inn, it would be somebody else you're speaking to, and I might be less interesting. I think it's all one thing in the end that makes one person. But I think what's fun in my life right now is I never know what's happening next week or what country or continent I might be in. I'm always on the go and I'm enjoying this busy life for now." ©
