Winner of numerous awards including Best Actor at the 2000 Cannes Film Festival, In the Mood for Love confirmed that Hong Kong director Wong Kar-wai is a major figure in world cinema. As passionate as it is politely discreet, his film takes place in 1962 Hong Kong, where neighboring apartment dwellers Mr. Chow (Tony Leung) and Mrs. Chan (Maggie Cheung) discover that their oft-absent spouses are having an affair. This realization parallels their own mutual attraction, but fidelity and decency ensure that their intimate bond remains unspoken though deeply understood. With a stealthy, eavesdropping camera style and a screenplay created through spontaneous on-set inspiration, Wong Kar-wai crafts an intricate, finely tuned platonic romance, enhancing its ambience with a kaleidoscope of color (most notably in Cheung's dazzling wardrobe of cheongsam dresses) and careful attention to character detail. Deservedly placed on many critics' top 10 lists, this elegant film should not be missed. --Jeff Shannon
Spotlight customer reviews:
Customer Rating: Summary: Extraordinary Movie Comment: This movie is simply enchanting. The director's consummate use of color, the musical score, and the detailed attention to the historical setting -- 60's Hong Kong -- was sublime. The main characters are statuesquely beautiful and Mrs Chan, in particular, is delectable in her body hugging dresses (qipao). The real thrill is the story line: erotic, without being coarse, passionate and sensual without being prurient, provocatively sexy and yet moral. Its a refreshing change from the lascivious drivel that we often endure from Hollywood. Interview excerpts in the second CD (Criterion collection), especially the director's commentaries, as well as the alternative endings are both revealing and captivating. Customer Rating: Summary: The seductive quality of restraint Comment: There are only three romance films I will view time and time again - Casablanca, Cinema Paradiso and In the Mood for Love. To dismiss the third as simply a pointless art house film is, in my opinion, undeserved because I regard it as a prime example of cinematic art at its best and most accessible. A reviewer has termed the appreciation of this film as "cult following," and if that's the case, count me in as a cult member.
The story opens with a married woman, Chan Su Li-zhen, moving into an apartment in overcrowded 1960s Hong Kong. Moving in next door is a married writer, Chow Mo-wan. Their respective spouses are absent most of the time, with Mr. Chan often away on business trips and Mrs. Chow often working late. Not long after, through gossip and coincidence, Li-zhen and Mo-wan realize that their spouses are cheating on them. Both deeply hurt, they attempt to piece together the circumstances behind the affair and in doing so, they themselves fall in love with one another. They decide not to succumb to what their spouses have done, instead choosing to internalize whatever desire they feel for each other. Unable or unwilling to resolve their moral quandary, they attempt to go about their daily lives, tortured by the intensity of their feelings for one another, yet reluctant to do anything about it. "In The Mood for Love" doesn't demonize adultery nor does it ennoble fidelity; the film takes no stance and it's up to the viewer to judge.
It is to director Wong Kar-wai's credit that the reserve depicted by Li-zhen and Mo-wan sizzles hotter than any sex scene in movies. In here, the most one will see is a brief holding of hands, a pained embrace, a subtle grazing of arms, an intimate laying of one's head on another's shoulder. It is also to the actors' credit that they are able to suffuse the screen with varying degrees of passion and longing simply by the looks they give one another and the slow movement of their heads. It is all so restrained, so understated, and yet so sensual.
Its two handsome leads, Maggie Cheung Man-yuk and Tony Leung Chiu-wai, of course, add to the film's beauty, and with Kar-wai's cinematic skills the total package is drop dead gorgeous. Kar-wai heightens the claustrophobia of Hong Kong with tight, voyeuristic shots of narrow hallways, narrow stairs to a crowded noodle shop, and shots of apartment dwellers huddled over mahjong in a tiny room. A graduate of graphic design, Kar-wai has an unerring eye for aesthetics--many slow motion scenes of Cheung swaying in cheongsams that are explosions of color in dark and smoky backgrounds, the jadeite on a restaurant table that evokes a past era, each scene seemingly a tableau meant as a feast for the eyes and a chance to share its characters' sadness. Even the film's music emphasizes its mood and sensuality - from Shigeru Umebayashi's haunting instrumental to Nat King Cole's rendition of the Cuban romantic ballad, `Quizas, Quizas, Quizas (Perhaps, Perhaps, Perhaps),' to the original Spanish version of `Green Eyes,' `Aquellos Ojos Verdes.'
In one of the last scenes, Mo-wan travels to Angkor Wat in Phnom Penh, where he whispers in a hole in a tree what we guess to be his longing for Li-zhen for we don't hear what he whispers. He then covers the hole with mud so the secret will forever stay buried. Among all the brilliant scenes in this film, this is the one that haunts me the most. "In the Mood for Love" is highly stylized and lush, and watching it is an intoxicating and hypnotic experience, but more importantly, it's a sensitive and thought-provoking film that will resonate to those who've loved and desired someone they cannot have. I can only wish more movies were made with this level of artistry.
(Language: Cantonese with English subtitles) Customer Rating: Summary: Worth watching just to see Tony Leung and Maggie Cheung. Comment: It's a shame the story idea for IN THE MOOD FOR LOVE never fully develops because this film has a lot going for it: a talented director, it's nicely photographed (almost in a film noir style with lush colors and Maggie Cheung's beautiful dresses standing out against the darker backgrounds) and great performances (especially by Tony Leung who is quickly becoming one of my favorite actors), but it all goes nowhere...slowly.
Tony and his wife and Maggie and her husband both rent a room in neighboring apartments. Life is normal until Tony and Maggie both notice that their spouses are missing a lot at the same time, sometimes for weeks at a time! From this awkward revelation a doomed relationship grows. That might sound interesting and it is for awhile, but then things just go into a holding pattern until the film crawls to a slow, boring death. Customer Rating: Summary: Started to like it, then... Comment: I immediately fell in love with this film. It was beautifully acted, and photographed. But that later changed. I loved the story of the 2 main characters and wanted to see their relationship develop (by either moving forward or even backward). Instead (about half way through the film), it was as if the director had run out of ideas. The plot/film just ran out of steam. The music cues (once beautiful) now became unintentioinally funny. The slow pacing became more exposed and obvious (since the story simply stopped) and the film dragged on to it's obvious conclusion. Overly self conscious. A shame really, as it started so promisingly. Customer Rating: Summary: Wonderfully Subtle Comment: As many have said, the cinematography is visually stunning and really sets the mood, akin to a smoky jazz club and you're the only one there, except there are no jazz clubs in the movie and there are actually two people... neither of them you. These people are Tony Leung and Maggie Cheung.
Some detractors of the movie claim it to be too slow or boring. Yes, it is a very slow moving piece and if you have a short attention span, you have to take that into consideration. If you do find that you are afflicted with ADD, try this... absorb the two main characters' acting style, notice the details, see how much they can convey through facial expressions and postures. That alone can carry the movie, the complex desires of what is not said... or rather what is said verbally but expressed differently. I'd say Tony and Maggie put on the best performance I've ever seen in any movie.
To those who found it boring and lacking plot, I kindly disagree with you. While you can watch the movie and get blown over questioning the existence of subtext and symbols (some of which may be nonexistent), wondering what anything means, the movie DOES have a plot. At the core, it is about two neighbors discovering that their respective husband and wife are having an affair AND how they come to terms with this: the little games they act out in hypothetical confrontations with their spouses, the little scenarios they act out as they puzzle over how a relationship begins, and finally the distractions they put play to put the affair out of their minds.
In particular, you may find it quite interesting and also quite realistic watching them come together by this betrayal and over time, growing fond of each other. If you are watching this movie for the Big Breakdown or a Dramatic Fight That Clinches Everything, you won't find it here. But there are many other pieces that can move your heart. Additionally, the dialog has a poetic cleverness at precise moments, allowing for it to be taken both literally and figuratively.
Quite beautiful.
One thing I thought worked very well for this movie is how ambivalent the ending is. Unlike Chungking Express where the movie ends on a definitive note or at a definitive point for each character, this movie plays more like real life. There are no actual 'endings' and there's always the potential for great joy or missed opportunity. If you didn't like this movie the first time around, give it another go with some patience. Admittedly, the first time I watched it I wasn't 'in the mood for love' and had to set it aside. Subsequent viewings have led to a deeper appreciation. Make sure you are inclined to be receptive.
