2000–present: International acclaim
In the middle of the 2000s, Chen made a comeback in acting and began to work intensely, alternating between English and Chinese-language roles. In 2004, she starred in Hou Yong's family saga Jasmine Women, alongside Zhang Ziyi, in which they played multiple roles as daughters and mothers across three generations in Shanghai. She also starred in the Asian-American comedy Saving Face as a widowed mother, who is shunned by the Chinese-American community for being pregnant and unwed and has come to live with her lesbian daughter. In 2005, she appeared in Zhang Yang's family saga Sunflower, as a mother whose husband and son have a troubled father-son relationship over 30 years. She starred in the Asian American independent film Americanese and in Michael Almereyda's Tonight at Noon, the first part of a two part project, scheduled to be released in 2009.
In 2007, Chen was acclaimed for her performance in Tony Ayres' drama The Home Song Stories. She portrayed a glamorous and unstable Chinese nightclub singer who struggles to survive in 1970s Australia with her two children. The performance earned her multiple awards, including the Australian Film Institute Award for Best Actress and the Golden Horse Award for Best Leading Actress. The same year saw her co-starring in two other acclaimed films: Ang Lee's Lust, Caution, opposite Tony Leung Chiu-Wai, and Jiang Wen's The Sun Also Rises, opposite Anthony Wong Chau-Sang, for which she received the Asian Film Award for Best Supporting Actress.
In 2008, she starred alongside Sam Chow (simplified Chinese: 邹爽; traditional Chinese: 鄒爽; pinyin: Zōu Shuǎng) in Shi Qi (十七; Shíqī), directed by Joe Chow (姬诚; 姬誠; Jī Chéng), as a rural mother of a 17-year-old in eastern Zhejiang province. The same year Joan Chen portrayed a factory worker in Jia Zhangke's 24 City once fancied because she resembled Chen herself in the 1979 film Little Flower, but who missed her chance at love. She co-starred in Bruce Beresford's 2009 adaptation of the autobiography of dancer Li Cunxin, Mao's Last Dancer, along with Wang Shuangbao (王双宝; 王雙寶; Wáng Shuāngbǎo) and Kyle MacLachlan.
In 2009, Chen starred alongside Feng Yuanzheng and Liu Jinshan in the Chinese TV series Newcomers to the Middle-Aged (人到中年; Rén Dào Zhōngnián), directed by Dou Qi (斗琪; Dòu Qí), in which she played a female doctor facing middle-age problems. She also played the part of goddess Guan Yin in the 2010 Chinese TV adaptation of Journey to the West, directed by Cheng Lidong (程力栋; 程力棟; Chéng Lìdòng). In October 2009 Joan Chen was the curator of the first Singapore Sun Festival, whose theme was "The Art of Living Well". She selected five films for screening during the festival: The Diving Bell and the Butterfly, Dead Man Walking, Hannah and Her Sisters, Still Life and Edward Scissorhands.
In 2010, Chen joined the cast of Wang Leehom's directorial debut Love in Disguise, Alexi Tan's (陈奕利; 陳奕利; Chén Yìlì) Color Me Love (爱出色; 愛出色; Ài Chūsè; alongside Liu Ye), Ilkka Järvi-Laturi's Kiss, His First (alongside Tony Leung Ka-fai and Gwei Lun-mei) and veteran acting coach Larry Moss' Relative Insanity (along with Juliette Binoche). In May 2010, she was set to star and direct one of the three parts of the anthology film Seeing Red. In 2011, Chen played Secretary Bishop's girlfriend on the television series Fringe episode "Immortality". Chen was cast as the Mongol Yuan Dynasty empress Chabi in the 2014 American television series Marco Polo. Being somewhat unfamiliar with the Mongols, Chen read The Secret History of the Mongol Queens in order to prepare for the role. She also appeared in several episodes of the 2018 Chinese television drama Ruyi's Royal Love in the Palace as Ula Nara Yixiu (the Empress Xiaojingxian).
In 2014, Chen served as a jury member at the 71st Venice International Film Festival. In the same year, Chen presided over the jury for the 51st Golden Horse Awards. In 2023, she played a caring and compassionate mother to a rebellious teenager in the coming of age comedy-drama Dìdi directed by Sean Wang. Angi Han of The Hollywood Reporter wrote of her performance, that the "role often trusts her remarkable ability to convey a lifetime’s worth of regret or joy or swallowed anger through a simple gaze". For her performance, she was nominated for the Independent Spirit Award for Best Supporting Performance.
