Portrait of an artiste
In 1991, at the height of her fame, Cherie Chung turned her back on a dazzling film career. More than two decades later, she is making a name for herself behind a camera lens, and the spotlight is on Hong Kong, writes Vivienne Chow.
Time appears to have stood still for Cherie Chung Chor-hung. Posing in front of the camera in a meeting room overlooking Victoria Harbour, the former actress - an icon of the golden era of 1980s Hong Kong cinema - is as charming as she ever was on set. Sporting a glittering, charcoal, figure-hugging Agnès b blazer, with her wavy hair tied casually at the back, Chung, 54, seems as charismatic now as she was in 1987, when she appeared in An Autumn's Tale, arguably the pinnacle of her acting career.
Watch: Former actress Cherie Chung goes behind the camera in "To Hong Kong With Love"
Time, though, does march on. Seventeen years after the handover, the Hong Kong that its people know and love seems to be slipping away. And Chung is among those who are concerned. She wants the freedoms the city enjoys to remain intact.
"These are what we deserve," she says, firmly.
"Certainly I hope our rule of law won't change. I grew up with all these freedoms - freedom of speech, freedom of movement. Had I grown up in other places, maybe South Korea or Japan, where women do not enjoy the same freedom, rights and opportunities [as Hong Kong women do], I probably would've become a different person."
But departure is not an option for Chung, as it wasn't in 1997, when many fled the city in fear of the incoming Chinese authorities.