CLEAN

Review by Yu Gu

Maggie Cheung, you are my hero.

In an opening sequence featuring a bland Hamilton landscape in contrast with a lush and intoxicated underground music scene, we are introduced to Cheung’s Emily Wang. She is an electric lady with a shock of black hair and a Kate Moss figure. Emily sustains herself on the afterglow of her rocker husband’s career and the catharsis of heroine. When her husband dies of an overdose with junk that she had bought for both of them, she is forced to live with the implicit guilt and the responsibility of cleaning up her life to get her son back.

Without mentioning Cheung’s success at Cannes, her performance was amazing. In a film with a soft middle, she really pulls it all together. Acting in three different languages, she manages to retain her character’s natural expressions, intonations and aura. From Jackie Chan’s Police Story, to Hero to Clean, Cheung has proved her versatile talent and maturation. Although the depiction of Emily’s struggle to reconstruct her life can be seen as slow and understated, what I really love about this story is its subtle weaving of larger social contexts. Without loading characters with chips on their shoulders labeled “interracial marriage,” “mixed-race child” or “Hong Kong immigrant,” Clean manages to portray a rich personal story that crosses cultures.

Assayas relies on intricately crafted handheld sequences and editing that borders on experimental. Through all of this kinesis, however, shine wonderful moments of inertia. When Emily first meets her son again after her husband’s death, she is silent and doesn’t shed a tear as she holds him. In the end, Emily’s down-tempo song evokes all of her love, heartbreak and hope.