ProfileHow Hong Kong actress Maggie Cheung went from commercial film eye candy to art-house legend

Between 1984 and 2010, Hong Kong superstar Maggie Cheung Man-yuk appeared in 79 films – though, by her own admission, she disliked many of them. She often felt at odds with the city’s commercially driven cinema industry, yearning instead for serious art-house projects.

Cheung did find some artistically inclined films to work on in Hong Kong, notably for Wong Kar-wai. The 2000 classic In the Mood for Love was one of her personal favourites, and she also had a cameo in its loose 2004 sequel, 2046.

Cheung also starred in Wong’s 1988 debut, As Tears Go By, which she said was “the first [film] in which I can recognise myself as an actress”. She also had a role in Wong’s groundbreaking Days of Being Wild (1990), though she noted it is more of a director’s film than an actor’s – “the film is the star,” she said.

But Cheung’s most impressive turn came not for Wong, but for Stanley Kwan Kam-pang, when she portrayed the ill-fated 1930s Chinese film star Ruan Lingyu in the intelligent 1991 biopic Center Stage (also known as Actress). Cheung’s meticulous, well-researched performance won her the Silver Bear for best actress at the Berlin International Film Festival.