AFTER AN ABSENCE of nearly seven years, Oscar-nominated actress Joan Chen is returning to her first love. This year, she'll appear in three movies (Saving Face, Jasmine Flower and Sunflower), stretching her acting abilities from comedy to drama.
'It's not like I've really planned it that way,' the softly spoken actress says, as she sips a cup of Earl Grey tea. 'The fact that I have three movies coming out at the same time is more of a coincidence than a grand plan.'
Chen took a break from acting because she wasn't being offered any interesting roles. 'I wasn't really doing great parts - nothing really professionally satisfying or meaningful,' she says. Although she didn't miss acting during her time away, when she went back on set, she felt 'a joy' that made her realise she'd missed it.
Wearing a black sequinned T-shirt and tight jeans, the petite Shanghainese actress is a far cry from the cheongsam-dressed Empress Wan Jung of The Last Emperor, the role for which she's probably best remembered.
She has just completed Sunflower, directed by Yang Zhang, a story of a family struggle set against the backdrop of China's Cultural Revolution to the present day. 'It's a story about ordinary people, ordinary struggles,' Chen says. 'My character is a mother who spends her life obsessed with finding a larger apartment for her family - but in the process she ends up losing her family. All she really wants is a decent toilet, but she gets obsessed, sidetracked, and somehow drowned by that emerging materialism.'
Chen will also play another tragic heroine in Jasmine Flower (Mo Li Hua Kai), a multi-generational family saga directed by Yong Hou, from the 1930s to the 80s. Chen plays two roles: the mother of rising Hollywood star Zhang Ziyi, as well as Zhang's older self. 'This was very challenging, because I play two different characters - two very different women. The role goes from a 40-year-old to an 80-year-old. So, as an actress, these are very interesting roles.
