Clean marks Maggie Cheung and her ex-husband Olivier Assayas's 1st project after the divorce.
As i personally unable to catch Irma Vep, the French vampire drama which both previously worked together, i am unable to say how well Maggie Cheung has acted in French, but seriously, i am really impressed by Cheung's performance in her 2nd French film. Playing the role of Emily Wang, a rock singer's husband, Maggie presented herself in fluent English, French and Cantonese, her native language. When Emily was arrested for possession of drugs after her husband died of overdose of heroin, she was imprisoned for 6 months. After her release from the prison, she promised her father-in-law (Nick Nolte) that she would start her life clean, so as to get back her son. During this period, she worked in a Chinese restaurant as a waitress, and at the same time, she wants to settled down with a proper job, which was none other but related to rock music.
Clean focuses on Emily's journey to start life anew, with some scene where her father-in-law is helping her to get back to life, by convincing her son, Jay, to go back to his mum. From the film, we could see the journey Emily has been through, right from the help given by her friends, how she was treated in the restaurant, to the reunion with her son. Maggie Cheung has proved the fim critics that being an Asian female movie star, she could also acted well in this multi-nation production which gains her an Cannes. Nick Nolte, on the other hand, helps to enhance the film with his role of the forgiving father-in-law, who was there to help his daughter-in-law to get back her son, rather than blaming her for his son's death.
It was quite sometime for the Asian audiences to see Maggie Cheung as the main actress in a movie after Zhang Yimou's Hero, which was seen as a failure in Asia. While Wong Kar Wai uses Maggie as Tony Leung Chiu Wai's memory in 2046, where she barely appears for less than 10 seconds in the whole film, Assayas fully enhanced Maggie's potential in Clean, which is a delight to Maggie's fans.
Also, Maggie Cheung performed the theme song for Clean for the first time, which also thrills and surprises her fans. Unlike Madonna and Jennifer Lopez, who are both singer and actress, Maggie Cheung has never recorded an album before, as she's not a professional singer. But with the new try in Clean, not only we could get a chance to see her impressive performance, but also judge on her vocal in the 2 songs performed by her in Clean. By acting and singing at the same time in Clean, Maggie Cheung has not let her fans down.
