To feel "clean," if you're a junkie, is to be in a state free of addiction, but more than that, it also implies a clean slate, a life wiped clean of its past temptations, joys and pain, in order to allow new beginnings to emerge.
This is the state Maggie Cheung will find herself in by the end of Olivier Assayas' "Clean," but Lord, what it takes to get to that point.
Maggie ("Hero," "In The Mood For Love") plays Emily, an all-attitude rock chick who envisions herself as rock 'n' roll royalty, despite the decidedly low-rent existence that she and her singer husband, Lee (James Johnston of The Bad Seeds), must endure.