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ASIAN AMERICAN ISSUES
IS JOAN CHEN DONE WITH HOLLYWOOD?
oan Chen had all but vanished from the Hollywood scene until transforming a friend's short story into Xiu Xiu: The Sent-Down Girl (1999) and reemerging as a director. Most of the film's $1 million budget came out of Chen's own pockets. The six Golden Horses it won in Taiwan translated into barely $1 million at the U.S. box office, however.
Its critical notices did persuade MGM to let Chen direct Autumn in New York (2000). A $50 million production with Richard Gere and Winona Ryder as the leads couldn't save the morose chick flick from box office oblivion. More recently Chen's prospects as a Hollywood director dimmed when she was dropped from the helm of an upcoming remake of The Apartment.
Chen herself admitted that she turned to directing to escape the B-movie rut into which she had fallen after portraying a seductive and mysterious mill owner in 16 of David Lynch's offbeat Twin Peaks TV series. The sole exception was her skillful portrayal of a 60-year-old Vietnamese peasant woman in Oliver Stone's critically acclaimed but money-losing Heaven and Earth (1993).
Now, at age 40, Chen's acting career seems to be winding down. Her most recent roles are a middle-aged Vietnamese American housewife (What's Cooking? -- 2000, independent) and a 90-year-old drama queens (Avatar -- 2001, Singapore). A far cry from her heyday as the world's reigning Asian screen goddess on the strength of her doomed junkie empress in The Last Emperor (1987).
But this isn't the first speed bump in Joan Chen's fairy tale life.
She was born Chen Chung on April 26, 1961 to a pair of eminent Shanghai doctors. They were among the elite sent down for reeducation during Mao's Cultural Revolution. At age seven Joan and older brother Chase found themselves sharing their home with several other families. At age 14 Joan was recruited into the state-run acting school. Within a year she was becoming famous throughout China by playing virtuous peasant girls in state-sponsored propaganda films. The social constraints imposed by the revolutionary heroine roles began to chafe, and as she neared the end of her teen years, Chen was desperate to escape. Fortunately, in 1980 her parents were invited to conduct research at New York's Sloan-Kettering Medical Institute. A year later Joan Chen obtained permission to leave China to study filmmaking in the U.S.
Within months China's most popular actress found herself waitressing in a San Fernando Valley Chinese restaurant while attending Cal State Northridge. To supplement her income she began auditioning for bit parts in small films. At age 23 she married a young entrepreneur named Jim Lau. Chen's first acting break came when Dino DeLaurentiis spotted her leaving an audition. He cast her as the concubine in the much-panned Tai Pan (1986). That role led to the breakthrough role in Bernardo Bertolucci's acclaimed 1987 costume epic. Her marriage was already on the rocks.
After the 1990 Twin Peaks series Chen settled into a string of a dozen B movies, including On Deadly Ground (1994), Judge Dredd (1995) and The Hunted (1995). During this period she seems to have gone out of her way to avoid sexual or stereotypical roles. She did portray a sexpot in a Hong Kong production called Temptations of a Monk (1993), but it was hardly a reprisal of the stereotypically submissive concubine.
As she entered her 30s Joan Chen had lost little of the petulant beauty and allure that had once made her "China's Elizabeth Taylor" and one of the "World's Most Beautiful People". Her aversion to sexual roles may have been prompted by her 1992 second marriage to San Francisco cardiologist Peter Hui with whom she had a daughter in 1998.
Chen may well have painted herself out of the Hollywood scene by her self-professed artistic integrity, both as an actor and as a director. As an actor, she has expressed open admiration for Bertolucci and Stone and unveiled contempt for Stephen Segal. Of her experience directing Autumn in New York she expressed frustration with having to defer major decisions to studio execs.
Her latest hiatus as a director may simply mean that she's developing another film project on her own.
Is Joan Chen done with Hollywood? Or is Hollywood done with Joan Chen? Or are they just taking a break from each other?
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WHAT YOU SAY
[This page is closed to new input. --Ed.]
(Updated
Tuesday, Apr 1, 2008, 06:09:32 PM)
Once you get into Hollywood and have the success she's had, you never leave Hollywood. It's not a break either. Some years you're busy, other years you're not. That's just the way the business is. That's why people encourage you to stay away from it. It's so unpredictable.
Iverson
Friday, December 07, 2001 at 11:31:41 (PST)
I saw Joan Chen in What's Cooking and I think she is very good. I don't think she is done. She is married now, have children and a life besides Hollywood. Also, she is branching out in directing and other behind the screen work. I think she should be applauded for making great films like Xiu Xiu,etc. More power to her as she is independent enough to decide whatever direction she wants to take her career.
Joan's fan
Thursday, December 06, 2001 at 13:07:09 (PST)
The actress is Lu Lu and the actor is a Tibetan named Lopsang. However, I don't know if they have made any other films.
Someone also affected by Xiu Xiu
Wednesday, December 05, 2001 at 12:48:23 (PST)
To this day, Xiu Xiu: The Sent Down Girl, still haunts me. Both the young actress who played Xiu Xiu and the older Asian man who played Lao Chen were absolutely amazing. Many thought the story was just a social criticism of the Chinese communist government, but there were themes in that movie that were universal as well. The music, the cinematography had such depth and power. It is rare that any movie has any such impact on me. I especially feel that the actor who played Lao Chen easily gave one of the most amazing performances I have ever seen. As one American critic said: "He did more acting in one scene with his eyes than many American actors have done in thier entire career."
I wonder, does anyone know if that actor or the actress who played Xiu Xiu have made any other films??? I would also like to know where I could get a copy of the music too.
I always liked Joan Chen for her beauty and always thought she was under utilized as an actress. As a director she amazed me with her work. I even watched that movie she directed starring Richard Gere and Winona Ryder ( I forget what it was called). The theme was again about an older man and a younger women, but clearly everything else was different. I wanted to like it but it didn't really have the same impact. I think it was sorely lacking in story depth and quite honestly while Winona and Richard Gere are both mega stars, I feel neither possesses the acting craft and skill of the actors in Joan's first movie Xiu Xiu.
Namor
Tuesday, December 04, 2001 at 18:54:37 (PST)
I've seen some of those B movies. They aren't worthy of her talent, but all her roles were of strong, independent women at least. I think Joan Chen is the kind of Asian director who can stand up to Hollywood and really help break Asian Americans out of those stereotypical roles and movies, much more so than people like Wayne Wang, An Wang or John Woo who are merely fulfilling Hollywood's expectations.
It's also refreshing to see an Asian actress who is married to an Asian male and is leading a normal family life.
I think she's probably regrouping for another big career push.
Trojan AM
Tuesday, December 04, 2001 at 06:12:45 (PST)
From what little I know of her, Joan Chen is a survivor and, more importantly, an immensely talented human being. She will survive and prosper, despite the vagaries of the Hollywood system.
Chen fan
Monday, December 03, 2001 at 19:24:32 (PST)
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