Joan Chen will be attending the Sun Festival in Singapore

[燝凝]

Best of both worlds
By MICHAEL CHEANG

link: http://www.star-ecentral.com/news/story.asp?file=/2009/9/10/movies/4490284&sec=movies

Joan Chen, who will be gracing the Sun Festival in Singapore next
month, talks about her Asia-Hollywood experience.

THERE are only a handful of Asian actresses whose names are instantly
recognisable in both Asia and Hollywood. Joan Chen is one of them.

The actress will be making an appearance in Singapore’s Sun Festival
next month, where she will be the curator for the film segment of the
festival, and highlighting eight of her all-time favourite films.

Inevitably, one of the films that she chose is Bernardo Bertolucci’s
The Last Emperor, which won nine Academy Awards in 1987, including
best picture and best director for Bertolucci.

Chen played the wife of Puyi, the last emperor (played by John Lone)
and singled out The Last Emperor as the film that not only made her
name and changed her life, but also inspired her to become a director.

“The Last Emperor was perhaps the best-made film I was ever in. It was
exceptionally well-made, and I feel fortunate that I made that movie,”
said Chen in a phone interview from San Francisco. “I can still
picture it ... Bernardo talking in his walkie-talkie, walking me
through the final scene in which I walk into the big hall, up a spiral
of stairs to meet John (Lone)... I can still remember every detail of
how it was put together.

“The experience was life changing for me. For the first time since I
was 15, I was mesmerised by the process (of making a film) – the
beauty, the romance and the chaos. It made me want to become a
filmmaker.”

Chen, 49, began her career in Shanghai at age 14 in the film, Youth.
When she was 19, she won best actress at China’s Hundred Flowers
Awards for her role as the titular character in 1980’s Little Flower.
The next year, Chen moved to California to study film, after which she
began juggling a career that spanned both Hollywood and Asia.

She has since appeared in over 40 film and TV roles, including David
Lynch’s TV series Twin Peaks and Oliver Stone’s Heaven And Earth. At
the same time, she continued to make films in Asia, winning Best
Actress Awards at Taiwan’s Golden Horse Awards and the Hong Kong
Critics Awards in 1994 for her role in the critically acclaimed Red
Rose And White Rose; and most recently played a supporting role in Ang
Lee’s Lust, Caution.

Chen made her first foray behind the cameras in 1997, when she
directed the critically acclaimed Mandarin movie, Xiu Xiu The Sent-
down Girl. She followed that up with Autumn In New York starring
Richard Gere and Winona Ryder in 2000.

“I loved every minute of directing my two films, and I would love to
do it again once I get the chance,” she said, adding that these days
she is too busy taking care of her two young daughters.

“Acting is a little bit easier – it’s not as difficult as directing. I
try to do it once a year just to keep my feet wet and to be on top of
what is going on.”

Chen is a rare breed indeed – an Asian actress equally comfortable
acting in Hollywood as well as in Asia. Although she has settled down
in San Francisco, she still visits her parents in Shanghai, and to act
as well. Anytime she gets tired of Hollywood, she has her Asian career
to fall back on.

“I function perfectly and happily in Hollywood and in Asia. I went
back to China recently to play roles that were just more interesting
than those I got in Hollywood,” she said. “When I go back to Shanghai
– I just fall back to Shanghainese. I work with people who knew me
when I was 16, and talking to them in my mother tongue just feels
really wonderful.”

One of those people she worked with in Asia recently was Ang Lee,
another Asian who has made it good working in both Asia and Hollywood.
Chen was involved in Lee’s controversial but critically-acclaimed
Lust, Caution, playing a small but significant role as the wife of
Tony Leung Chiu Wai’s character, the adulterous and treacherous Mr
Yee.

“I’ve known him even before he made his first film, and I wish I had a
bigger part in that film,” she mused. “I made three separate trips to
Shanghai to film Lust, Caution, but every day I was there we had lunch
together. It was amazing how little small talk we had – he is so
immersed and focused in his work that not a second went by without him
thinking about the film.”

While she has seen her fair share of stereotypical Asian roles in
Hollywood, she brushed them off as an unavoidable situation.

“I think most roles for Asians are stereotypical not because they were
done on purpose, but because there just aren’t enough screenplays
written by Asians or people with an in depth understanding of who we
are,” said Chen. “When I was younger I minded the stereotypical roles
more, and was more critical about Hollywood portraying Asians in a
stereotypical way. I even turned down a couple of the more cartoonish
roles.”

On hindsight, she now reckons that it was unnecessary to turn them all
down, because first and foremost, it was for entertainment.

“Of course there will always be stupid things they ask you to do, but
this is not always about educating people about who you are. After
all, there are very stereotypical roles of White Americans as well ...
it’s just entertainment,” she explained.

Joan Chen will be attending the Sun Festival in Singapore from Oct 3
till 12. She will be involved in the film component of the festival,
selecting and curating eight films depicting ‘The Art Of Living Well’,
which is the theme of the Sun Festival. She will also be involved in
an exclusive on-stage interview session called ‘In Conversation With
Joan Chen’. For more information, visit singaporesunfestival.com.