Maggie Cheung: 10 essential films

Maggie Cheung is often introduced as the muse of such arthouse favourites as Wong Kar Wai, Stanley Kwan and Olivier Assayas. But she is very much the author of her remarkable career.

A true global citizen and polyglot, Cheung’s life and screen identity are defined by rootlessness. Born in Hong Kong in 1964, she was raised in the UK and returned to Hong Kong to pursue modelling before transitioning to acting, then lived in Paris. Revisiting her filmography reveals key themes across varied roles: individual and cultural identity, displacement, immigration, loneliness, feminine agency, and the intersection of art and life.

Since her career took off when Hong Kong’s film industry was operating at full throttle, Cheung has appeared in almost every genre from heartfelt romances to zany comedies to martial arts fantasies. She broke out opposite Jackie Chan in Police Story (1985), only to be typecast in comedic or girlfriend roles. That changed when Cheung embarked on her fruitful collaboration with Wong in his debut feature As Tears Go By (1988).

From then on, Cheung’s intuitive approach to creating multi-dimensional characters through body language worked wonders in both contemporary and historical settings. This is demonstrated by such diverse yet equally relatable performances as an immigrant building a new life in New York in Clara Law’s powerful drama Farewell China (1990) and as a fearless assassin seeking revenge against the King of Qin in Zhang Yimou’s resplendent wuxia Hero (2002).

Cheung wound down her acting career in the mid-2000s to focus on music composition and her role as UNICEF Ambassador to China. However, her exceptional performances continue to resonate with audiences worldwide since they transcend cultural boundaries by embodying universal emotions. Here are 10 to savour.

Director: Clarence Fok

Clarence Fok’s unabashedly wacky wuxia casts Cheung as streetwise femme fatale Polly who is ostensibly the foil to Fong Sau-ching (Yuen Biao), an honourable guard from 16th century China who has been transported to 1980s Hong Kong. However, Polly is no mere sidekick: she’s soon taking charge of Fong (and the film) by tricking him into being her bodyguard and servant. It takes a true star to pull off such a role since this manipulative, chain-smoking hustler is clearly a downright terrible person. Yet Cheung’s knack for comedic timing and ability to hint at vulnerabilities beneath the brash bravado makes Polly paradoxically charming.

Director: Wong Kar Wai

In 1960s Hong Kong, Su Li-zhen (Cheung) works at a sports stadium snack bar where she encounters narcissistic playboy Yuddy (Leslie Cheung) with whom she enters a tumultuous relationship. In her second collaboration with Wong Kar Wai, Cheung navigates the sensitive Su Li-Zhen’s initial wariness and gradual surrender to Yuddy’s cultivated charm before expressing the excruciating pain of unrequited love. One of the most poignant moments in the film occurs when Su Li-Zhen stands at a payphone late at night, contemplating whether to call Yuddy after their relationship has deteriorated. Without dialogue, Cheung powerfully conveys the irrevocably intertwined feelings of romantic longing and profound regret.

Director: Stanley Kwan

Stanley Kwan’s biopic of the Chinese silent film star Ruan Lingyu captures the actor’s cultural iconography and everlasting mystique, but Cheung’s portrayal never succumbs to imitation. Kwan intertwines documentary elements which simultaneously draw the viewer into Ruan’s struggle with celebrity status and deconstruct the many layers of artifice involved in acting. This metatextual approach requires Cheung to seamlessly switch between portraying Ruan as a character and as an actor preparing for her roles. It results in a complex tapestry of identity wherein Cheung’s performance pays fitting tribute to Ruan while serving to highlight the difficulties faced by women in cinema, both past and present.

Director: Johnnie To

While female action heroes were few and far between in 1990s Hollywood blockbusters, Johnnie To gifted Hong Kong audiences with three in one incredibly kinetic adventure: Wonder Woman (Anita Mui), Invisible Woman (Michelle Yeoh) and Thief Catcher (Cheung). Sporting a cool motorcycle jacket, the irrepressibly spunky Cheung provides a jolt of comic relief as the amoral member of the trio. In addition to flaunting the rebellious streak that ceaselessly annoys Thief Catcher’s fellow crime-fighters, Cheung is also no slouch in the action stakes. Her co-stars may possess formidable martial arts prowess, but Cheung holds her own by setting off explosives with mischievous glee.

Director: Tsui Hark

Green Snake is a typically hallucinogenic Tsui Hark fantasy in which two spirits – White Snake (Joey Wong) and Green Snake (Cheung) – take human form. It’s one of Cheung’s most seductive performances, with Green Snake’s jealousy of the romance between White Snake and a hapless scholar Hsui Xien (Wu Hsing-kuo) sending her newfound sense of desire into overdrive. Cheung embodies the characteristics of a snake in dazzling fashion. Her fluidity of motion is often uncannily reminiscent of a snake gliding across water or coiling around objects, while sinuous body language with low stances and elongated limbs evokes the image of a serpent poised to strike.

Director: Peter Chan

Peter Chan’s bittersweet melodrama concerns Chinese mainlanders Li Qiao (Cheung) and Li Xiao-Jun (Leon Lai) who have individually migrated to Hong Kong in search of better opportunities. Due to mutual loneliness, they forge a bond that evolves into a passionate affair. Li Qiao is the savvier of the pair and a luminous Cheung makes her a model of determination whether serving fast food or selling bootleg Teresa Teng cassettes during a downpour. Resonating with themes of alienation and the yearning to belong, Cheung’s nuanced performance is not only relevant within the context of Hong Kong but also in broader discussions about the immigrant experience.

Director: Olivier Assayas

Olivier Assayas’s self-reflexive commentary on the state of the French film industry in the 1990s finds Cheung playing a fictional version of herself. As a star of Asian cinema who arrives in Paris to assume the role of Irma Vep in a remake of Louis Feuillade’s silent serial Les Vampires (1915), she intuitively taps into her alter ego’s sense of cultural discombobulation. Amid the satirical barbs, the sequence in which she strives to reinvent herself as the eponymous jewel thief is the highlight. By donning the skin-tight black catsuit and orchestrating an audacious hotel room heist, Cheung tantalisingly blurs the lines between reality and performance.

Director: Wayne Wang

Set against the backdrop of the 1997 Hong Kong handover, Wayne Wang’s melancholic drama takes terminally-ill British journalist John Spencer (Jeremy Irons) as its protagonist. However, it’s John’s video interview subject – disfigured street hustler Jean (Cheung) – who represents how the city will adapt to impending change. Working in a semi-improvised manner, Cheung eagerly embraces Jean’s ‘live for the moment’ ethos to create a defiant character who is vividly real yet fascinatingly elusive. It’s an entirely uninhibited performance which illustrates how someone who exists just above the poverty line can survive by shrugging-off misfortune and not being tied to any economic model or political ideology.

Director: Wong Kar Wai

In the Mood for Love finds Cheung inhabiting her second Su Li-zhen for Wong Kar Wai (or perhaps an alternative version of the same character). As the married secretary dealing with feelings towards her also-wedded neighbour Mr Chow (Tony Leung), Cheung blends exquisite elegance and suppressed frustration while generating palpable chemistry with her equally charismatic co-star. Throughout this unrequited romance, a poised Cheung wears a meticulously designed range of gorgeous yet restrictive cheongsams which emphasise Su Li-zhen’s grace while symbolising her entrapment within a conservative climate. Cheung’s physicality is crucial, with key gestures (adjusting her hair or delicately handling food) constituting telling flickers of emotion.

Director: Olivier Assayas

Cheung won the best actress award at the 2004 Cannes Film Festival for her tour de force in Olivier Assayas’s uncompromising recovery drama. She fully immerses herself in the struggles of Emily Wang, a former video jockey who has lost access to her son due to her arrest for heroin possession and the related fatal overdose of her rock star boyfriend. It’s an astonishing meditation on the capacity for change, with Cheung transforming Emily from an abrasive figure to a humbled individual seeking a second chance. This was Cheung’s last lead role and she gestured to her future by singing three of the songs on the eclectic soundtrack.

Maggie Cheung: Films of Romance, Melancholy and Magic runs at BFI Southbank in September.