{"id":2477,"date":"2006-05-07T23:05:27","date_gmt":"2006-05-07T23:05:27","guid":{"rendered":""},"modified":"2025-10-15T13:25:47","modified_gmt":"2025-10-15T13:25:47","slug":"maggie-cheung","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/asiancemagazine.com\/?p=2477","title":{"rendered":"Maggie Cheung"},"content":{"rendered":"

According to Stephen Holden of the New York Times, "Unlike the majority of recovery stories, in which sensationalism seesaws with gooey sentimental uplift, "Clean" shows just how hard it is to start life over in a lower key. Avoiding shortcuts and sugar-coated palliatives, it portrays Emily's acceptance of a more prosaic future as a torturous, quotidian process that moves"According to Stephen Holden of the New York Times, “Unlike the majority of recovery stories, in which sensationalism seesaws with gooey sentimental uplift, “Clean’ shows just how hard it is to start life over in a lower key. Avoiding shortcuts and sugar-coated palliatives, it portrays Emily's acceptance of a more prosaic future as a torturous, quotidian process that moves in fits and starts. Although the screenplay doesn”t go into pharmaceutical detail, she progresses from methadone, through illicitly obtained painkillers and marijuana toward relative stability and sobriety.”<\/i> <\/p>\n

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But it’s almost symbolic how we started out with a film and then finished with one. It’s something beautiful between us, even if there is no more marriage. <\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Maggie Cheung<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

It’s been almost a year since Maggie Cheung joined the Asia Society and other New York media to speak about her heroin addicted role in the independent movie, Clean, which garnered her a Best Actress award at the 2004 Cannes International Film Festival. This month Clean hits theaters and has been receiving rave reviews both here and abroad. As a Vietnamese American I’m enamored by her style, grace and old school class that seems to be missing in today’s genre of Hollywood actresses. <\/p>\n

Born in Hong Kong, Maggie Cheung has made a career for herself and pioneered the way for other Asian actresses to make it in the world of film. She doesn’t take just any role, but one that speaks to her on many different levels. “It took me the first 10 years of my career to learn what acting is, what filmmaking is,” said the 41-year-old-actress who got her start as a model and Ms. Hong Kong pageant winner “to avoid going to university.” The untrained actress, with the trademark sultry voice and disarming beauty, added, “The first 65 films I made were really my lessons.” <\/p>\n

Maggie is best known to the American audience as Jackie Chan’s girlfriend in the popular Police Story series. “I started making films, then I started making some more. I didn’t know how to say No to anyone”. After realizing that she had become stereotyped as the weak, ridiculous woman in the film version of Police Story, Cheung sought out more dramatic roles such as her work with director Wong-Kar Wai in As Tears Go By, Days of Being Wild and In the Mood for Love. Most notable was her role in Center Stage when she became the first Chinese performer to win a Best Actress award at the Berlin Film Festival. <\/p>\n

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