Perhaps, but as Cheung notes, the world outside her native Hong Kong can also be a nice place to take a deep, cleansing breath.

Cheung is in town to serve on the Louis Vuitton Hawaii International Film Festival's Golden Maile Jury and to receive the festival's first-ever Award for Achievement in Acting.

Golden Maile winners will be screened on Sunday, starting at 4:45 p.m. at Signature's Dole Cannery 8.

Festival veterans know Cheung, one of Hong Kong's most popular and prolific actresses, from films such as "In the Mood for Love" and "The Soong Sisters." Mainstream audiences will recognize her from the blockbuster "Hero," in which she played an assassin dedicated to exacting revenge on a ruthless emperor.

The success of "Hero" hasn't made things any easier for Cheung, a frequent target for Hong Kong's notoriously aggressive entertainment journalists.

So sensitive has she become to the intrusions of the paparazzi that even in the relatively polite setting of the film festival's kickoff news conference, Cheung skillfully and with a smile made it a point to block her face from the most aggressive photographers.

And while Cheung is an outspoken advocate for Hong Kong's history, culture and arts, she relishes the peace and anonymity she's found in her adopted Paris.

Cigarettes in hand, Cheung chatted with The Advertiser about her dealings with paparazzi as well as film festivals, her experiences growing up in the golden age of Hong Kong cinema, and the reason she'll never be a director.

A. I used to go to a lot. Olivier (Assayas, Cheung's ex-husband and the director of "Clean") and I fell in love while traveling, so we agreed to go to many places, however far, however strange. I went to a few for "In the Mood for Love," and with "Clean," I'm going to a few.

I do like them. When you go to a festival, you can see most of the good films of the year. The public is picking up on foreign films, and you see the changes. It's no longer just the film critic who says, "I love your work."

Q. You've said that you'd like people to see more of what Hong Kong cinema has to offer beyond the kung-fu films and historical pieces. What, in particular?

A. Contemporary films, films of people now. Hong Kong is such a special place on this Earth. It was English, now it belongs to the Chinese — but it's not like China. It's important for me, being from Hong Kong, that people know the difference, because that speaks for me, too.

Q. You got your start when the Hong Kong film industry was producing 150, 200 films a year. How did working in that kind of environment affect your craft?

A. I've done 75 films, and most of those were toward the beginning of my career. It was tough, but I was young, so I had enough energy. It was a very good practice for me just to know what films are, just to know the technical stuff. Now I feel I'm quite free of the techniques; now it's about the emotions. Also, it helps me now not to feel so guilty to be working so little. I'm relaxed with the fact that I'm only doing a film every two years. It's usually quite worrying for an actor to be working that little.

Q. What's it like dealing with the Hong Kong media?

A. Well, they are very unbearable. They make us really pay a high price to be an actor or a celebrity. They keep saying it's your choice to be an actress, and when you're an actress, this is what you have to go through. I do not agree. I am an actress, and it's my job. Somebody has to do this job; I think people need films. Just because I do this job, it doesn't mean I have to give up all my private life. They treat us in a very unfair way, and they're not sorry for it.

Q. How do they compare to Western paparazzi?

A. There are paparazzi in every major city — London, Paris, Hollywood — but they're less vicious. They'll steal a photo of you from that window right now (points to a hotel window directly across) but what they'd write afterward is a bit less bad-hearted. Whereas, the ones in Hong Kong — you know, we're having an affair right now, according to them. They can't see anything as normal and clean and straight. ...

I'm quite paranoid about my photos being taken now. I get scared. When I'm in Paris and I see an Asian, I'm immediately, like, "Oh, an Asian," and I'll think he wants something from me. He'll take a photo from his phone and send it to Hong Kong. It makes me just not trust Asian people, and that's ridiculous! But that's the virus that I have from that.

Q. You were criticized pretty roundly for leaving Hong Kong ...

A. At first, every comment they made about me was about that. If I went to a Cranberries concert, they'd see me and say, "Oh, yeah, she admires Western music and not Chinese music. Yeah, the moon is rounder in the West." I think it's kind of childish, because I went to a lot of Hong Kong concerts, and they just didn't see me.

Part of it is my character. I speak out when I don't like something, and they don't like that. I don't tolerate and suffer quietly when they make me suffer.

Q. In speaking out and asserting yourself as you do, do you see yourself as sort of role model for Asian women?

A. I think somehow I kind of have been put in that position. I'm not sure why. But I do feel like I'm a kind of role model for a lot of Chinese girls in how to be independent and how to be strong, to speak out and not hide all your feelings. ...

Q. Some film critics in the United States have drawn parallels between the conflicting themes of revenge, sovereignty, imperialism, etc. in "Hero" and our current world situation. What's your take on that?

A. It's a strange thing, because we started in August (2001), and while we were filming, 9/11 happened. I remember clearly the producers and Zhang Yimou talking. Everyone felt so strongly about what happened in New York that we really wanted to downplay the revenge side, because it's not good for mankind to have that kind of feeling. They did not want to exaggerate more on that subject.