In the Mood for Love (2000) User Reviews

Getting knocked up the old fashioned way (circa Hollywood 1940)

[johnho-1 · 9/10 · 21 June 2001]

WARNING: SPOILER,SPOILER,SPOILER!!!!

This is written for filmgoers who may have walked away from "Mood for Love" perplexed and confused about paths the main characters choose in life. From reading other comments and reviews it seems that many viewers and critics missed some very important details which may have prevented them from enjoying this delightful tease of a movie.

We are so use to seeing blatant SEX in narrations that we forget that there was a time when filmakers would suggest the "dirty deed" by simply showing the slack-mouthed couples ride off in a sleigh or haywagon only to return into the next scene with a bulging gut or a fat toddler stuck to the hip..."Meet your child".

The director chose the same nostalgic approach in telling the story of Mr Chow and Mrs Chan. Last warning...SPOILER SPOILER SPOILER

Mr Chow fools Mrs Chan into showing her real emotions when they rehearse his departure forever. Next scene: Mrs Chan leans her head on Mr Chow in the taxi and says "I do not want to go home tonight". Translation: "Let's Do It"

Why then did the couple just not do the modern thing of dumping their cheating spouses,get a divorce,raise their love child and live happily ever after? The answer is that this whole story takes place in Hong Kong during the Sixties. A bastard would live in a bleak life of shame if he were the child of an adulteress;whereas,a "legitimate" child could live a tragic but noble/honest life if his mother chose to raise him away from his cheating "father"-the invisible Mr Chan. In short,Mr Chow and Mrs Chan sacrifices their relationship for the future of their child.

That is why Mr Chow,upon learning that Mrs Chan lives alone with a little boy gives a knowing smile and ends his dreams of making Mrs Chan his Mrs Chow. He then,also realizes why Mrs Chan went to all the way to Singapore to be with him,only to reconsiders at the last momment and leave..,choosing to never see him again.(But not before taking some unnamed keepsake) Mr Chow lives with this wonderful secret with no one to tell. No one,except for a crumbling temple wall and of course we the viewer,...but only if we listen carefuly.

A film with no love is somehow one of the most romantic films ever made

[ASuiGeneris · 9/10 · 14 December 2017]

In the Mood for Love (2000)

Kar-Wai Wong has indeed created a masterpiece here. Not only created it but orchestrated it. I cannot think of a more accurate word to describe what he did here. "In the Mood for Love" should be included in the definition for mise-en-scène. I suspect that everything was deliberate. Every angle, every camera movement, every color choice, every glance, every song, every word.

It was a slow film, yes. But for once, it does not feel that way. It feels that it had to be exactly the pace it was. Prepare to be charmed, intoxicated, mesmerized, transported. I have to be honest, I have not seen this for the longest time because I was convinced that it was another art film that was completely overrated. This time, it was warranted.

The camera work. The movement. We peek around edges, we peer through holes, we pan across hallways, we zoom into apartments. We are able to see into the neighboring apartments, as each of them sits, lonely. As we pan back and forth, a wall reminds us. Almost the entire time, the photographer in me was admiring what great angles these were and imagining myself taking them; making a move to take a still every few minutes.

The music. The only other film I remember that uses one song so stylistically is Garci's "Volver a empezar" from 1982- which in my opinion was overused and became annoying at some point in the film. Here, it is Yumeji's Theme. In contrast, Wong mixes it up on the score and we do not tire of the theme. Instead, it signals yet another emotionally intense scene filled with longing, waiting, loving, wishing. This is the power this film has. To elicit so many emotions with a few minutes, a handful of glances, one song.

The costumes. Most notably, Mrs. Chan's dresses. Ever changing, ever gorgeous.

The set design. Oh, the lush and saturated colors. If one can call colors yummy, now is the time. We are almost exclusively indoors. It seems that every time we are outside, it is raining. The lovers run to get out of the rain, they wait for the rain to pause, they talk in the rain. Alas, no kissing in the rain.

My complaints? I wish the film was in Mandarin, not Cantonese. For two reasons. One is selfish, because I would be able to understand it without subtitles trying to accurately translate. Two, Mandarin is a less harsh, more fluid language. As far as beauty goes, it would have matched the film's tone better. I also feel as if the film was lacking character depth. That I still felt so much for them, therefore, is even more a testament to Wong's skill. I felt like I did not really know them; that I knew little more than the them strangers saw. Although this may have been a stylistic choice, that does not change the fact that I was left feeling like something was missing.

"In the Mood for Love" is as much about what we do not see and what is not said. Silences mean everything. One glance tells us more than words ever could. A minute shift in tone makes all the difference. For example, we never see the adulterers, Mr. Chan & Mrs. Chow. They remain off screen as other characters talk to them. We spend full moments focused on a character's face, watching them as they begin to cry or as they struggle internally.

Missed opportunities. Missed moments. Misunderstandings. Misconceptions. Wrong place, wrong time. A theme Wong uses in much of his work, such as "Chungking Express" (which I did feel was completely overrated).

Wong was in the mood for love. The audience is in the mood for love. Mrs. Chan and Mr. Chow are in the mood for love. She might not admit it, but Mrs. Chan is in the mood for love. Mr. Chow is in the mood for love.

Alas, still no love.

He calls her. "It's me. If there's an extra ticket... would you go with me?" No answer. Later in the film, their roles are reversed. She wants to know, "It's me. If there's an extra ticket... would you go with me?"

Ironically, it is this film about a love that could be but never was that is named as the most romantic by many. This is one of the reasons I appreciated the film. Had this been filmed in this country, I can almost guarantee you the two of them would have ended up together. Wong did not take the easy way out. Not throughout the film- where he focused on the two being cheated on rather than the ones doing the cheating- and not in the ending, where they continued missing each other, over the years. He garners my respect for this decision. Because this is closer to reality. Often times, love is not enough. Life gets in the way. Circumstances, miscommunications. Excuses, maybe. But that is life. Unfortunately.

Some gems of relationship truth:

"I didn't know married life would be so complicated! When you're single, you are only responsible to yourself. Once you're married, doing well on your own is not enough."

Mrs. Chan asks, "Why didn't you call me today?" "I was afraid you won't like it," Mr. Chow replies. Her response? "Then don't call me ever again."

"In the old days, if someone had a secret they didn't want to share, they went up a mountain, found a tree, carved a hole in it, and whispered the secret into the hole. Then they covered it with mud. And leave the secret there forever." This is something Mr. Chow says to his friend Ah Ping. In the exquisite final scene, filmed in Thailand with "Angkor Wat Theme" playing, we see him peering into a hole; we then see it covered as he walks away.

From right after the title cards: "It is a restless moment. She has kept her head lowered to give him a chance to come closer. But he could not, for lack of courage. She turns and walks away."

From right before the end card: "He remembers those vanished years. As though looking through a dusty window pane, the past is something he could see, but not touch. And everything he sees is blurred and indistinct."

Mrs. Chan says, "You notice things if you pay attention." Indeed. The perfect tip to truly appreciate "In the Mood for Love".

what a poetic way to make a film....

[lilaqueen · 9/10 · 2 September 2004]

When I fist watched the movie, I said to myself, "so a film can be made like this." Wong Kar Wai's gorgeous poetic love story captured me throughout and even after the film. I must admit this is one of the best love movies, maybe the best of all, I have ever watched. The content and the form overlaps perfectly. As watching the secret love we see the characters in bounded frames that limits their movements as well as their feelings. Beautiful camera angles and the lighting makes the feelings and the blues even touchable. I want to congratulate Christopher Doyle and Pin Bing Lee for their fantastic cinematography which creates the mood for love. Also the music defines the sadness of the love which plays along the beautiful slow motion frames and shows the characters in despairing moods. And of course the performances of the actors which makes the love so real. Eventually, all the elements in the film combined in a perfect way under the direction of WKW and give the audience the feeling called love.

Nostalgic, elegiac tale of doomed romance

[seandchoi · 10/10 · 6 March 2002]

I think that New York Times film critic Elvis Mitchell wrote the best one line review of In the Mood for Love when he said that it is "dizzy with a romantic spirit that's been missing from the cinema forever." How true those words are! Truly romantic films are so rare these days, while films that include plenty of sex and nudity (which are often portrayed in a smutty and gratuitous manner) abound. So, given this cinematic climate, Wong Kar-wai's latest film feels like a much needed breath of fresh air. In the Mood for Love is about the doomed romance between two neighbors ("Mr. Chow," played by Tony Leung and "Mrs. Chan," played by Maggie Cheung), whose spouses are having an illicit affair, as they try "not to be like them." But after hanging out with each other on lonely nights (while their spouses are away "on business"/"taking care of a sick mother"), they fall madly in love, and must resist the temptation of going too far.

Several factors are responsible for making In the Mood for Love a new classic among "romantic melodramas," in the best sense of that term. First, the specific period of the film (i.e. 1960's Hong Kong) is faithfully recreated to an astonishing degree of detail. The clothes (including Maggie Cheung's lovely dresses), the music (e.g. Nat King Cole), and the overall atmosphere of this film evokes a nostalgia for that specific period. Second, Christopher Doyle's award-winning, breathtakingly beautiful cinematography creates an environment which not only envelopes its two main characters, but seems to ooze with romantic longing in every one of its sumptuous, meticulously composed frame. Make no mistake about it: In the Mood for Love was the most gorgeous film of 2001. (It should also be mentioned that Wong Kar-wai's usual hyper-kinetic visual style is (understandably) toned down for this film, although his pallet remain just as colorful.) Third, there is the haunting score by Michael Galasso, which is accompanied by slow motion sequences of, e.g. Chan walking in her elegant dresses, Chan and Chow "glancing" at each other as they pass one another on the stairs, and other beautiful scenes which etch themselves into one's memory. The main score--which makes its instruments sound as though they're literally crying--is heard eight times throughout various points in the film and it serves to highlight the sadness and the longing which the two main characters feel. Fourth, Tony Leung and Maggie Cheung both deliver wonderful performances (Leung won the prize for best actor at Cannes) and they manage to generate real chemistry on screen.

The above elements coalesce and work so nicely together to create a film that feels timeless, "dizzyingly romantic," and, in a word, magical. In the Mood for Love, perhaps more than any other film of 2001, reminded me why it is that I love "going to the movies." And I guess that is about the highest compliment that I can pay to a film.

The most disarming romance ever filmed.

[OttoVonB · 10/10 · 29 November 2004]

In 60s Hong Kong, a man and woman move in the same day into adjacent apartments with their respective spouses. Soon they suspect their ever absent spouses of having an affair with one-another. A strange bond emerges between the man and woman as they cope with their sadness by taking turns playing each other's spouse, before a more complex bond emerges...

No summary can do it justice, for Hong Kong auteur Wong Kar-Wai's "In the Mood for Love" is nothing short of a miracle. A story about sadness that manages to be touching and at times funny. A romance that never feels forced or fake. No doubt the director's method has a lot to do with that.

Directed from an inexistent screenplay (though the concept largely flows from a Japanese short story) to favor improvisation, the film is immediately set apart by the freshness of it's performances. All the film revolves around that and the rest is pure enhancement. At the core of the film are two characters that will ease into your heart and stay there long after the end credits roll: Maggie Cheung and Tony Leung are simply amazing and no language barrier undermines a single fragment of immediacy and truth they display. The additional material is also top-notch: the films is magnificent to behold (in part lensed by "Hero"'s Christopher Doyle) and the music is heartbreaking.

This is something everybody must see, if only because it is by far the most heartfelt, mature and authentic "love story" out there. Unmissable.

Beautiful, Elegant and Restrained

[mikecalla · 10/10 · 29 January 2005]

I won't bore you with story and plot lines, as they have been presented many times already on this page, so… It's been along time coming since I have seen such a film. Beautiful, elegant and restrained, with a narrative pace to match. A film with sensitivity and understated qualities that is rare in these times of clichéd plots. The beautifully subdued photography, saturated in rich luxurious colors, and for lack of better words, each frame is filled with an air of tension. The settings and locations are used repeatedly but the film manages to breath new life into them each time they featured, there always seems to be a key prop, light fixture, or set piece to slightly clue the audience as to where we are in the characters world.

The acting reminds me of the "The Bicycle Thief", not the style, but the fact that you forget that you are watching two actors engaged in their craft. There is meaning behind every gesture and almost every movement has assigned significance to explain the inside world of the characters, the relationship, the feelings, and situation of the two lovers. The dialogue is sparse but like the rest of the movie, is imbued with meaning. Speaking of meaning, the soundtrack is infectious. Used here it becomes a story telling device. And although the film is of Chinese origins, even a song sung in Spanish by Nat King Cole imparts the film with subtle meaning. The orchestrated soundtrack is repetitive, but the repetition is what makes it comfortable. It is used in conjunction with the story, and not just a means to put music to action, or to cue the audience to feel a certain way at a certain plot point.

I would not recommend this film to anybody, I fear most people would be jaded by the calm flow of the story, but I would recommend it to someone who is looking for an alternative to the romantic schlock that fills the multiplexes on our side of the world. I must say that I was completely taken by this film, and continued to watch it night after night. The story takes time to present itself and bears repeated viewings as very few films in this genre are open to such a broad interpretation. A very beautiful movie.

Possibly Wong Kar-Wai's best film

[repulsion · 10/10 · 17 December 2000]

It's easy to see why many people consider In the Mood for Love to be Wong Kar-Wai's best film. The toned down appeal of the film, centering on the studied view of a relationship put through an emotional ringer, is a retread into Happy Together territory but without the hyper-kinetic patchwork of jarring film stocks and hyper-saturated sequences that have become a trademark of Kar-Wai's films since Chungking Express. Like Soderbergh's The Limey, this is a different kind of curio for Kar-Wai; where dialogue and plot are forsaken by mood and composition in order to create a tale of two delicate lives in a seemingly confining emotional stasis.

It's a testament to the genius of Kar-Wai that he is capable to making such a simple tale so resonating. Chow Mo-Wan (Tony Leung) and Su Li-zhen (Maggie Cheung) move in next-door to each other within the same apartment building. He's a journalist who dreams of publishing martial-arts novels and she is a secretary at a shipping company. Their eventual coupling is obvious from the beginning but the pleasure here is the way that Kar-Wai ambiguously paints such a journey with his grand masterstrokes.

The key to the success of the film is Kar-Wai's use of the interior space, playing with foreground and background planes in ways that are similar to the works of Polanski. During the wooingly sensuous first half of the film, Kar-Wai isolates Leung and Cheung within shots in such a way that the second person in a conversation is never visible. Kar-Wai is concerned with environment and space here, creating a cramped emotional dynamic between his characters. It's also telling that Kar-Wai never chooses to focus on the physicality of Mo-Wan and Li-zhen's spouses. Their faceless partners are noticeably absent from the film, as they are tending to their own love affairs with each other.

This is not to suggest that In the Mood for Love is a confining experience because Kar-Wai manages to inundate his film with broad splashes of hypnotic camera movement and sound. There is one shot where Cheung's slow, sensual rise up a metaphorical stairway turns into Leung's descent down the very same stairwell; their movements perfectly compliment each other, bookending the shot and creating a sense of erotic duality between the two figures. Their souls have connected but they have yet to physically unite. The erotic displacement of these scenes is both fascinating and frustrating, as two star-crossed lovers reject physical consummation due to their humble fidelity.

Other scenes in the film are punctuated with brief slow-motion shots of Cheung erotically moving through her interior surroundings, set to Mike Galasso's hauntingly beautiful score. Cheung's dresses beautifully compliment her exterior space as she moves slowly through her surroundings. Her movements slowly build up to what seems to be an inevitable fusion between Li-szhen and her dream lover even though the seduction process seems to be entirely sub-conscious.

If I make it seem that these two characters are more like two birds unleashing pheromones on each other, it probably isn't that far-fetched of a statement. The tight bond these two characters have with their internal spaces is almost as intense as their relationship to the exteriors. The film rarely moves into an exterior space and when the camera does it is usually to peak through oval windows and symbolic bars that always remind us that these characters are like confined animals. Kar-Wai continues to tease us even when the lovers get close enough to touch, shattering the couple's proximity to each other by shooting them through mirrors or through gaps within articles of clothing located inside of a closet. Mother Nature even seems to respond to their love lust, often unleashing a soft crest of rain over the characters after their bodies have glided near each other.

Kar-Wai's hauntingly atmospheric shots of a waterfall allowed Leung's Lai Yu-Fai to experience a cathartic release in Happy Together, even if Leslie Cheung's Ho Po-wing was not there to enjoy it with him. By that film's end, love was so inextricably bound to the act of war that a third man's muted declarations of love signaled Yu-Fai's realization that his dreams of seeing a waterfall would bring him inner peace, even if it would not bring him back his lover. Mo-Wan's journey terminates within the confines of a crumbling temple. His own emotional depletion is paralleled nicely with the political climate of his country, and the absence of Li-szhen is only made tolerable by the fact that Kar-Wai allows Mo-Wan to experience a release of sorts. Mo-Wan caters to an ancient myth and his secretive release into a crack in the temple leaves him capable of living his days with the hope that all his loss and heartache somehow served a higher purpose.

Beautiful but cold

[wandereramor · 7/10 · 8 September 2011]

What Wong Kar-Wai is basically dealing with here is reality and artificiality. The two neighbours in this film begin their romance by imitating their idea of the romance between their spouses -- but the line between imitation and reality is always in question. As filmgoers, we believe in the fake romance and unconsummated adultery more than the real thing, as both spouses don't appear in the film. But there's also a dreamlike tone to the film and its cinematography that quashes any idea of reality.

With that said, I think it's this slippery idea of reality that made it so hard for me to engage with the film. There's not much traditional narrative to grab onto here -- the characters are ciphers and the story is slow and frequently interrupted by musical sequences. Kar-Wai is most obviously drawing on Sirkean melodrama and Ozu-esque slow family drama as influences, and I'm not a huge fan of either. It's a beautiful film, especially visually, lingering over the colours of 1960s China and often getting unorthodox, such as the long takes of just one side of a conversation. And it's given me a lot to think about, but the actual experience of watching the movie was kind of a drag. Maybe I'm just not a mature enough cinemaphile. Beautiful, but it's an estranged, sterile type of beauty.

Discover the beauty genially encrypted in "Asian Beauty"

[kyleroberts · 10/10 · 27 July 2004]

I was recommended this film as one of the best love stories ever told. And as I am huge fan of love, I bought the tickets and sat myself in the theatre. After 90 minutes I left the theatre with nothing but disappointment and the theme song as the only positive thing of the film. I was appalled at the story itself, that two people can love each other but be so afraid as to never act it. I just couldn't go passed the language barrier and the cultural barrier. The second time I ran into it... I was in a different mood, no longer had any expectation ... and had more patience, more relaxed mind to "see" the film... and as soon as I opened my eyes, I discovered the love... the beauty of the film. I went beyond the language and the love story and saw the acting (not even for a moment did I ever felt like they were acting!) and the cinematography. The first time I heard a definition of what a film is, I was told that it should be a chain of perfectly balanced photographs (shots) and this is the film to match the description. Almost every shot has an idea behind it, and combined with the music... and the light effects... the result is just a masterpiece! And a masterpiece is just something that you must have in your collection of films.

A little hard to follow

[colby_kayla1 · 7/10 · 10 December 2010]

I really enjoyed the aesthetics done in this film, but the content was a little hard to follow. The beginning is all over the place and it was hard to distinguish who was who. However, I really liked the director's style. It was very clear throughout the movie. I liked how he wouldn't show the wife or husbands face and his interesting camera angles to hide their appearance. I also enjoyed the music used and how it was repeated during certain sequences. I don't think I enjoyed the outcome in the end. I think everyone wanted them to just be together. Overall, I found the movie to be appealing to the eye but the story line left me confused and unsatisfied.

Wonderful Hong Kong Art-house.

[j30bell · 9/10 · 23 June 2005]

Two people living in the same flat complex find their partners are having an affair with each other. As they try and piece together how it happened, they also embark on an emotional journey that aches for a resolution…

Building on his previous success with Happy Together and Chungking Express, Wong Kar Wai gives us this rather old fashioned and marvellous story of reawakened passions, yearning and unrequited love.

Possibly, In the Mood for Love is not to everyone's taste. It wanders in rather lazily at 98mins: not particularly long for a film, but it appears longer because not a lot really happens. But this lazy feel conceals a quite tightly constructed film. Most of the story is cunningly woven around a series of set piece role plays, where the characters act out presumed scenarios between their respective spouses, trying to work out how the affair started. I say cunning because, of course, this makes it difficult for the audience (and the characters) to tell what is "in-role" and what is genuine.

If all this sounds rather arty and self-conscience, that's because it is. Unashamedly so. And it is played to perfection by two of Hong Kong's finest, Maggie Cheung and Leung Chui Wai, with some excellent support from Ping Lam Siu and Rebecca Pan.

It is also a virtuoso performance by Wong Kar Wai, who treats the audience to a sensory, and sensual, overload. Bringing together Christopher Doyle (who later deployed his lush, over-ripe style on Hero) and Pin Bing Lee (whose beautifully understated style can be seen on Springtime in a Small Town) was cinematographic genius. It has all the bold beauty of Doyle, without, frankly, the Athena-poster cheesiness of his work on Hero. The music, as always with Wong, is prominent. From Nat King Cole singing in Spanish, to the haunting strings of the main theme, it perfectly matches the eclectic beauty of the images.

All in all a top film, whether judged on plot, acting, cinematography or soundtrack. Similar to, but more accessible than, Wim Wenders' Wings of Desire, this is a beautiful, old fashioned story about love lost and regained.

And watch out for Tony Leung's hotel room 2046, which presaged Wong's recent film of the same name.

beautiful but slow going

[planktonrules · 7/10 · 13 March 2006]

This is an excellent film--with beautiful and haunting music and an interesting story. I like how the two people knew their partners were cheating on them but they were just too decent to return the favor. Their unresolved love was very well developed and really had me pulling for the characters. However, although I have a pretty high tolerance for slow-moving films, this one just seemed to drag and went at too subdued a pace. I actually liked the pacing, but kept expecting it to pick up a little more. But, it never really did, and this reduced my overall score for the film. I didn't need some sort of Hollywood happy ending, but the slowness just got to me after a while.

Restrained to the point of death

[natale-65917 · 2/10 · 25 May 2022]

The Asian version of Remains of the Day and that is not a complement. Pretentious, narcissistic and boring. The only pleasing thing are the fashions on the two female leads. Avoid at all cost.

Moody Mis-en-scene

[Fong_Chun_Kin · 10/10 · 24 February 2003]

The most attractive factor that lies in this masterpiece of a film is not the beautiful lead actors. It isn't their outstanding acting and sizzling chemistry either.

To me, it is the mis-en-scene of the entire movie. The settings, the lighting, the props... all add to the mood for love between the main characters. A whiff of smoke from Chow's cigarette tells us his state of mind, the ever-changing tight-fitting cheongsams of Lizhen reflects the constraints of decision-making, the ruins of Angkor Wat ties in with the deteriorating relationship of the two leads.

The excellent use of mis-en-scene gives the film just the right amount of feel needed to flesh out the complicated nature of the characters' relationship. The film leaves the audience fruitlessly yearning for more.

a poem

[david_schubert · 10/10 · 31 August 2002]

it is indeed a poem!

i'm aware of the fact that not everyone is going to enjoy this movie.. it's not about "getting it" or not.. it's about a certain sensibility.. you have to be receptive to it.. if you are able and willing to get lost in the movie's atmosphere you'll certainly love it.. i love it..

what an incredibly intensive tale.. so deeply sad and poetic.. and the score! particularly the score.. it's a piece of art..

just overwhelming

In the Mood for a Lovely Film

[brooke-25 · 8/10 · 4 May 2003]

Beautiful film set in 1962 Hong Kong about a man (Mr. Chow) and woman (Mrs. Chan) who become close friends when they suspect their spouses are having an affair. Stylistically, the film is also beautiful. Wong Kar-Wai uses a lot of slow motion and close-ups on parts of the body (feet, hands, waist). The film itself has a reticence and properness that suggests its time period. It's sexy without showing everything. Wong Kar-Wai also doesn't allow the audience to see what the spouses look like, suggesting that Mr. Chow and Mrs. Chan should be together. Smoking is even made to look elegant with close-ups of the curls of smoke. A really lovely film. Just prepare yourself for the ending.

The Art of Cinema

[swastikchoudhury · 10/10 · 14 December 2018]

IN THE MOOD FOR LOVE - will make you fall in love with Wong Kar Wai, especially, if this is his first film that you are watching. My thoughts on this sumptuously crafted and subtly woven film can end here for certainly that is the summary of it all. But there is a lot more to talk about the film.

(But before that - in a city like Bhubaneswar there aren't any public avenues to watch World Cinema. Certainly the larger demographic is oblivious to what World Cinema is. To most here Hollywood represents World Cinema and what could have been more disturbing than this? One can argue in favor of Netflix and Amazon Prime, but watching a thought provoking film in a big screen along with other curious mind(s) is an experience that no argument can counter. In such a scenario the Film Society of Bhubaneswar is the only savior. They screened Wong Kar Wai's In the Mood for Love along with Days of Being Wild as part of their June screening. I experienced Wai for the first time with "In the Mood for Love".)

One would instantly notice the detailing that has been maintained in every scene throughout the film. The slow panning has been interestingly used to bring the subject into frame, rather the frame onto the subject, thereby driving your empathy gradually towards the predicament the subjects are in. The other thing that has also been very uniquely used throughout is the screenplay from behind veils, translucent curtains, through gaps found in the back of chairs and such. It always gave into a mystery and mystic feeling about the characters who are in focus yet out of focus - signifying a lot about the many confusions that cluttered their minds: emotions and the natural urge versus the high moral standards they want to uphold to.

The film's main narrative is nothing different if one would say it in plain text. But like an auteur's film, IN THE MOOD FOR LOVE wins you through its screenplay, usage of light, cinematography, acting and music which takes the entire context of adultery and morality deeper with a higher philosophical undertone. Set in Hongkong of sixties, the film is about two characters - Chow Mo-wan (played by Tony Leung), a journalist and Su Li-zhen (played by Maggie Cheung), a secretary from a shipping company, both of whom rent a room in an apartment of a building on the same day. Their encounters on the streets or in the stairs were limited to exchange of pleasantries but both of them shared together a lot of loneliness and pain separately in each of their apartment rooms. Chow's wife and Su's husband are most of the time out of the town on their work assignments thereby leaving their better halves to lead a monotonous life in an otherwise crowded city.

There are beautifully shot motifs with lovely background scores showing both these characters carrying forward with their mundane jobs with a smile in their face and hollowness in their heart. During the course of time both gather that their spouses are almost always out (of town) during the same time eventually realizing that they were having extra marital affairs. Chow and Su feel devastated to acknowledge this in front of each other, initially thinking, that only one of them knew about it. [Generally, had the film been made in Bollywood/Hollywood there would have been some very obvious direction that the narrative would have moved. Wong Kar Wai's mastery lies in exploring beyond the obvious even in such a straightforward plot.] Both Mr. Chow and Ms. Su become curious to know why their spouse's cheated on them or how it would have begun. Their conversations used to be "What would they be doing now?" followed up by some role play to understand their respective partner's psyche. While it was a futile exercise to do, they made a point - "We would not be like them" and they agreed, rather promised, to each other.

Mr. Chow nurtured few other aspirations, one of them was to write his own comic books series but never found inspiration. Ms. Su wished to have somebody to talk and share with but never had a soulmate beside her. For each other they filled these empty slots and they felt happy about it. But were careful about the fact that both had agreed "not to be like them". With passage of time, however, conversations became - "Why did you call me today?", "I wanted to hear your voice". They come close to each other literally, when Ms. Su in a reflex leans on Mr. Chow's shoulder and cries about her failed marriage, yet a dignified respect keeps them apart. The film actually goes on a high from here speaking a lot about the unspoken. You feel you have entered into a terrific drama (minus the melo) where both secretly craved, loved and desired for each other but wanted to uphold the other person's moral character. It's so suffocating at one level - where as an audience you also feel for their situation and want them to express their love for each other yet the film and filmmaker has a different plan. There could not have been a better emotional beating than this.

There are coincidences and narrow misses - which both understand and acknowledge - like the burnt cigarette with the lipstick mark in Mr. Chow's apartment in Singapore (where he had moved to so that Ms Su doesn't have to suffer since he has now developed feelings for her) informed him that even after a year's gap Ms. Su has not forgotten him. She had come all the way to Singapore just to see him, waited for him (to return) yet left without meeting him. And then many years later both turn up into the same apartment where once they lived, to look for the other, yet they could not meet.

Wai also touches upon the political issues of Hongkong in those days and how the society was conservative enough to dismiss a lonely married woman's late night outs or friendliness between two separately married man and woman. This would have also offered psychological resistance to Chow and Su from succumbing to their urges.

The film is filled with nuances and it ends on that note. The narrative becomes subtle and deep just because it never attempted to show any of the "obvious" action, throughout, yet you end up feeling obviously that's how it should have been. Though you cringe for their love to blossom, you know the beauty of their relationship lies in their mood to love each other without the obvious physical expression of it.

A must watch!

Repetition, Secrets, Space

[tedg · 3 May 2001]

Spoilers herein.

Start with your typical Hong Kong Kung Fu movie. A normal director will simply film that. But not this guy.

What drives kung fu movies is not the bozos doing the fighting, but the masters behind them who use them as surrogates. But then, what drives the kung fu masters? The fellow writing the story, that's who.

That's where this kung fu movie starts. The central figure is the writer of a successful martial arts series. But it is even more abstract: the film is about what creates him.

It is half about his space. every shot starts or finishes on the surrounding space, very close, confining. That space includes his neighbor, who is thrust into his life by proximity and indirect relationship.

I choose to think that the relationship between the spouses is imagined, part of an extended role playing activity which forms the core of the film. That's what we see: a story about the creation of a story (the relationship) which results in the story (the martial arts series).

All the mechanics are meditative, repetitive. We see countless small acts, the movements of people interacting with their environments. Lot's of close space, smoke, crimped walking, unsaid comments. The music recurrs. Everything repeats. All the major acts are relived or anticipated in practice.

Finally, the environment, hence the story unravels as the space changes, first as he gets a space in which to write, then moves to Singapore. Finally, he whispers the story into a hole in a ruin in Cambodia. Along the way we are transported to an abstract world of human causality.

This is great. In my rating system, for every high mark I give, I have to balance it with a low mark. Now I can watch a 2.

In the Mood for Love

[Shostakovich343 · 7/10 · 29 June 2020]

Whenever a serious list of the 'Greatest Films Ever Made' stretches into the the new millennium, bets are "In the Mood for Love" is included. I would personally not heap such praise upon the film, but it is hard to deny it boasts one of the most nuanced and subdued relationships in modern cinema.

The film plays like an Asian "Una giornata particolare". Our Loren and Mastroianni are Maggie Cheung and Tony Chiu-Wai Leung, known for playing action heroes and lovers, (or both, together, in the case of "Hero"). Here, they play everyday people: an editor and a secretary, both married, neighbours in a narrow Hong Kong apartment building.

Their respective spouses are never fully seen. More often than not they are absent, always at the same time. It is hard to say when they begin to suspect, but before long our leads are faced with the fact that their partners are having an affair with each other. This discovery brings the two of them together in need of consolation and, perhaps, love. They are visibly attracted to each other, but agree to keep their relationship platonic.

It is the smaller things that earn "In the Mood for Love" its place on the 'Best of All Time' lists. The acting, writing, and directing are so subtle that describing the film in terms of events renders it meaningless. The great touches of drama lie in the way a person slightly turns his head, moves weight from one leg to the other, or closes a door.

That being said, "In the Mood for Love" suffers from too much of a good thing. The film's central fifty minutes follow the same pattern over and over again: our protagonists make an appointment; they meet; they decide not to have sex; repeat. Sometimes there are minute variations -- he decides to write a newspaper serial; one time it is raining -- but the basic pattern of meet, cut, repeat does not change.

This repetition is intentional to a certain extent. Whenever characters retread locations -- the street, the stairs, the hallway -- they are always filmed from the same angle, like rhyming stanzas in a poem on mundanity. However, these scenes stop presenting new information before long. The emotions don't intensify, they just drag on. We already know the relationship between these people is not going to change, yet are put through the motions another five or six times.

It is one of the medium's great tragedies that nobody cares about one-hour films. We have accepted that novels can be 100 or 3,000 pages long, that paintings can be the size of a matchbox or The Night Watch, but motion pictures of less than eighty minutes rarely qualify as feature films. "In the Mood for Love" certainly would have benefitted from being an hour long. Its intimate filmmaking demands to be seen, but for a 98-minute film to be this long-winded is a flaw too prominent to disregard.

Regrets from a Lost Opportunity

[nycritic · 8/10 · 16 March 2005]

Set in 1962 Hong Kong (in turbulent times, as we are informed), this extremely intimate story of a failed romance between a two married people tied to their traditions manages to recall the essence of old Hollywood in scene after scene of lush colors, evocative yet restrained sensuality (as opposed of the requisite sexuality and occasional nude scenes which has become part of the norm of a romance in film), and the use of facial expressions to suggest subtle changes in mood or communication. It's not hard to see the influence of Marguerite Duras here, since she is known for minimalism in storytelling as well as describing powerful drama using the art of verbal and non-verbal conversation between two characters with a strong bond as well as the use of re-enacting scenes that could eventually take place in both the characters' lives. From Hiroshima MON AMOUR to MODERATO CANTABILE, her pen is strongly visible here from the moment we enter the cramped rooms of Mr. Chow (Tony Leung) and Mrs. Su Li-zhen (Maggie Cheung) to the last scenes which explain the intensity of regret that he feels as he recalls the opportunity which was lost in reaffirming this relationship.

The plot even resembles something that Duras could have written: Mr. Chow and Mrs. Su Li-zhen, neighbors in a tenement apartment while both being fairly successful professionals, begin to discover in the most banal of ways that their spouses are cheating on them, and they discover quite naturally, it's with each other. The question is, should they act upon what they also feel towards each other or not be like their partners? Every scene plays with the notion that at any moment they will give in to each other, and at one point, it is suggested that eventually they do though as intrusive as the camera is in detailing to us their encounters (which seem to occur on a daily basis as seen by the frequent changes of Cheung's dresses), we never see it. And just as not seeing either of their spouses heightens their own love story, not seeing them carry through with their attraction makes the eventual separation even the more bitter because at every moment we want for something to happen -- some catalyst -- and the only one which comes is when Leung reveals to her that he loves her, followed by his quietly brutal revelation that she will never leave her husband, which implies that neither will he. It also gives us a glimpse of what culture and timing can do: from a Western point of view, a consummation of their romance into a more solid, lasting affair would have been possible especially in the 60s, but as it's Hong Kong, cultural values are markedly different.

Performances here are of the high order: it's very easy to play a torrid love affair, but to continually play a repressed, platonic relationship that is brimming with desire only barely suggested is hard and makes all the sensuality more cerebral than palpable or visual. Cheung and Leung smolder and their blighted chemistry lingers long after the credits have rolled.

Cinematographic masterpiece

[briancham1994 · 7/10 · 10 April 2021]

This film's strength lies in its mise-en-scene and cinematography. 1960s Hong Kong is brought to life through careful attention to detail and dynamic interplay of movement, colours, textures and rain. All of this is interwoven with the main storyline to infuse every moment with an unspeakable pathos that elevates the imagery beyond its rather pedestrian storyline. This is probably its main weakness - for those with no interest in human relationships like myself, this film will seem to have slow pacing and very little happening beyond colourful brooding.

In a mood for a memorable movie

[nohero114 · 10/10 · 16 February 2009]

Whoa… To be honest, I would have never seen this movie if it wasn't for my film class…. It would have been my loss. The beginning of the film starts with a two different people moving into an apartment. This is scene that most people get lost in and then can't understand the movie. The theme of the film is about a two people who find out that there spouses are cheating on them with the other spouse. This is where the film took a unique path from the other Hollywood films, it follows the journey of them falling in love. The film is not about cheating, it is about the struggle and the tension created by Chow and So can be felt. The film is not about a sexual affair, but it is about an emotional affair. The story has a perfect ending for this film. The film is not like the rest of the other Love Film genre. The best thing about the film is the way it was filmed. The movie is ALL about tone. The tone is created by the songs and by the color of the scene. The music compliments the scene so perfectly, that the songs could have been a character in the film. The slow motion is overly used in many other films, but it is used perfectly in this film. The color of the scene and dresses is used to show the emotion that the two characters cannot show to each other. This film is an example about how film about romance can be shown without sex. This is a perfect example of why film making is an art work. The film sets a great tone, that the song "Yumeji's Theme" haunts me at night.

Too much subtlety

[khkyousuf-14788 · 6/10 · 24 July 2021]

I understand this is a classic, and from a technical point of view and acting point of view. The camera work is some of the greatest I have seen. There are tons of reviews highlighting positives and I agree with some of them.

The screenplay is just too slow paced and subtle for a 99 min movie I felt every minute of it. I have seen Irishman and other longer movies it didn't feel this slow to me.

In the first 20-30 min of the movie we get to know the main plot point and then most of the movie is just them glancing and pondering over either looking at each other or objects lying nearby.

The idea is to not show what the leads are feeling but it was too too subtle and hidden to the point it looked unnatural in certain moments that characters with such deep attraction would remain perfectly neutral and not even by mistake make a gesture or expression that shows their inside.

The side characters are also nothing special, nothing memorable about them or the side actors performances.

Overall it's a good movie but I don't think it belongs in such high rating ,with all due respect.

I might change my rating later if I view it again.

Boring.

[Lambysalamby · 5/10 · 3 August 2015]

I don't think I've been so shocked by a high rating on IMDb before. There are so many glowing reviews here I was expecting some kind of masterpiece but for me this was the biggest yawn fest I've seen in some time.

For one thing, I absolutely love foreign films and watch world cinema far more than Hollywood movies... I'd also seen Chungking Express from the same director as this movie and I quite enjoyed that..

While technically well made, with some beautiful cinematography, good cinematography does not a good film make.. You could equate it to a photo realistic painting of a stone wall, while the skill is impressive in doing that, it would still be a boring painting.

The dialogue was boring, and the plot was thin to say the least! I just couldn't get invested in these characters enough to care.. It became dull and tiresome very fast. Then the same music was used over and over which became very repetitive. I also noted this in Chunking Express which is making me rethink that film and the director...

Overall: I'm giving this film a 5 mainly for the cinematography, but I really feel like I wasted what was left of my night watching this instead of something better..

You notice things if you pay attention...

[JoeytheBrit · 10/10 · 2 October 2005]

Wong Kar-Wai's elegant study of the love between two lonely neighbours is a rare masterpiece of beauty and subtlety that will reward the close attention of any viewer willing to absorb the quietly defining moments of its character's lives and prepared to forsake today's seemingly pre-conditioned requirement for a story to be laid out for them like a menu. It is an intimate story, told with care at a deliberate pace, that captures with exquisite beauty both the depth of emotion shared by the main characters and the social constraints and sense of propriety that apparently precludes them from consummating their love.

Chow (Tony Leung) and Chan (Maggie Cheung) move into single rooms in adjacent apartments on the same day in 1962 Hong Kong. Chan's husband spends weeks at a time away from home on business while Chow's wife proves to be equally elusive. Over time, it becomes apparent to both of them that their spouses are engaged in an affair with each other, a realisation that draws them together and signals the beginning of a deep relationship.

Wong Kar-Wai has fashioned a story that is as beautiful as it is enigmatic. Almost everything is hinted at here, requiring a high degree of concentration from the viewer if they are to be rewarded with any kind of insight into the both the sexual and sociological elements with which the protagonists struggle and the irretrievable sense of loss that is the reward of those who lack the strength and courage of their emotions. The adulterous spouses are never seen on the screen – this isn't their story; they are merely the catalysts for the one we are shown – and the manner in which Chow and Chan uncover their infidelity is typical of the subtlety with which Wong Kar-Wai tells his story. We watch the emotions flickering beneath the surface of Chan's carefully composed face as she offers medicine to Chow's wife, knowing, before we do, that she has interrupted her illicit liaison with her own husband. Next shot: Chow's fist knocking on her door, wedding ring prominent – their wedding rings, symbols here of love, infidelity, and the guilt that separates them, are often prominent – while Chan cries in the shower. A couple of scenes later, the deceit is confirmed when both Chan and Chow realise their spouses have identical possessions that can only be bought overseas.

The mood is almost noirish at times, and the film is suffused with lush colours and patterns. Wong Kar-Wai repeatedly obscures our view, whether through dusty windows, or through skilfully composed framings designed to emphasise the sense of confinement within the teeming, over-populated city of Hong Kong. Many times, a wall takes up half (or more) of the screen. Wong also makes effective use of slow-motion to evoke the impression of loneliness and richly-textured memories, such as the moment early in the film when Chow and Chan, before their friendship develops, share a brief glance in the front room of her landlady in which a mahjong game is taking place. Leung and Cheung are perfect together, conveying their sense of guilt and frustration in performances that rely more on nuance than they do on words – it's the type of acting that only the most accomplished can pull off, and both Leung and Cheung do so admirably.

In the Mood For Love is a film about loneliness in a crowded place, about the bitterness of regret, and its story is told in an intelligent and seductive manner that leaves the viewer astounded by the director's seemingly innate sense of visual imagery and ability to deliver a film of highly-charged emotion in a restrained manner that reflects superbly the internal struggle of its protagonists. Anyone who considers themselves to be a true movie lover should make an effort to see this movie.