100th Review: In the Mood for Love (2000)

In the Mood for Love; or, Secrets of the Flowery Years

     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.

Well, here it is, my 100th blog review. To some bloggers it may not seem to be a great achievement, but I have never expected to come so far when I launched this blog over 3 years ago. Many things have changed since then (which is a subject for another post), but I tried to make the latest reviews as special as they could possibly be. For my 100th film to be discussed, I did not want to write about any random movie, but the one which I regard as one of the most important in the history of moviemaking. Hence, this is my review of Wong Kar-wai’s In the Mood for Love.

Release Info

Directed by: Wong Kar-wai Starring: Tony Leung Chiu-wai, Maggie Cheung, Rebecca Pan

Language: Cantonese Original Title: 花樣年華 Runtime: 98 min

Synopsis

Hong Kong, the 1960s. Mrs Chan (Tony Leung Chiu-wai) and Mr Chow (Maggie Cheung) rent rooms in the adjacent apartments on the same day. They move in with their spouses who are extremely busy as each of them works abroad. Mrs Chan and Mr Chow often spent their lonely days in the neighbouring apartments, accidentally encountering each other from time to time. With the passage of days and weeks, they begin to suspect that their spouses are cheating on them with each other. Mrs Chan and Mr Chow share their suspicions with one another, but they do not dare confront the situation. In fact, the two try to understand how the romance was initiated and they grow closer together in the process, yet Mrs Chan and Mr Chow do not want their relation to transform into a typical love affair...

Tenderness of Devotion

First of all, I was quite shocked to discover the polarity of opinions about In the Mood for Love. I did not expect everyone to unanimously hail the movie as the art-house masterpiece, but for each positive comment there is a negative one, for example: 90 minutes of boredom; Wong Kar-wai is a hack; Why didn’t they just live happily together? Of course, everyone is entitled to their own opinion, but I suspect on the basis of the enumerated statements that some of the viewers did not entirely understood the story that was laid out in this film.

In the Mood for Love is not a standard romance picture focusing on the development of a burning passion between two people. Rather than that, it is about the understanding of love as a feeling. Mr Chow and Mrs Chan’s relationship stems directly from the infidelity of their spouses. Instead of dealing with this issue, they re-enact the moments of temptation. Through this complex series of re-enactments, they gradually start caring for each other. Mrs Chan makes Mr Chow a sesame syrup when he’s sick and Mr Chow asks Mrs Chan for tips when writing a martial arts serial for a newspaper. They build a perfect world around themselves in order to escape from their marital solitude, yet at the same time, they dread to come clean about their feelings.

On the one hand, they do not want to confront their spouses, but on the other, they are afraid of gossip and social ostracism. "We will never be like them," says Mrs Chan at one point. The two protagonists are entrapped in the confinements of their own doubts and insecurities, whereas the viewers become the voyeurs of their daily interactions. Only when Mr Chow confesses his love to Mrs Chan is the existence of their microcosm destroyed completely. "I thought we wouldn’t be like them, but I was wrong," says Mr Chow. However, it is not the end of their story.

What can I say more about this movie? It is visually stunning, but the form does not overshadow the thought-provoking content. 15 months of shooting under the skilled guidance of Wong Kar-Wai and two brilliant cameramen, who provided magnificent cinematography (Christopher Doyle and Mark Lee Ping-bin), resulted in a breathtaking experience that is In the Mood for Love. The enchanting and evocative soundtrack provided by Michael Galasso and Shigeru Umebayashi cannot be forgotten as well. With regard to performances, Tony Leung and Maggie Cheung are at their very best here, outstanding and mesmerising with their unforgettable performances.

Recommendations

Highly recommended to anyone who would like to spend a thoughtful evening immersed in the painting-like world crafted by Wong Kar-wai. To be honest, I enjoyed the movie more during the second viewing after a couple of years. It leaves you thinking about such things as love, longing, nostalgia, and past. I wish that Mr Chow and Mrs Chan could be together, but that’s a happy ending which does not always take place in real life... All things considered, I would really like to visit Angkor and whisper into a hole that I consider In the Mood for Love to be a modern masterpiece of Asian cinema.

     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.

Overall score: 10/10