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

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

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.

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.

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.

The Heroic Trio