In the Mood for Love (2001)

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 Amazon.com

another great move

This movie is one of my favorites, the look, the music the wardrobe,the love story, great all round and i'm sure you will agree October 15, 2008

In the Mood for Love

"In the Mood for Love" is one of those films that if I no longer had it in my collection, I don't know that I necessarily would miss it. For me, it's not really a "must-have." Sure, initially you watch it and are bowled over. Style is so much a central element in this movie and you are drenched in it: the lurid colors (greens and reds and blues), the music (Nat King Cole, opera, Shanghai pop), the slo-mo as a character ascends back alley steps, the long takes in which there is just a slow drag on a cigarette, a glacial glance downwards. All of this is beautiful. Make no mistake. It is indeed wonderful to watch. But there are times in this film when all this languid atmosphere threatens to drown the rather simple story of two people, both married, who share an unlikely and upsetting bond. It doesn't quite, but it comes close. This is a chamber drama for the music video generation except perhaps the video lasts a tad too long. I give it four stars because of its sheer hothouse spectacle, the poignancy of the story, and because the director never quite loses control, though I do think Criterion's two-disc treatment lends it more of an importance than perhaps it deserves. Bottom line: I liked it more the first time I saw it; the novelty had worn off during the second time. October 5, 2008

Best movie ever !!!

If you're a real movie fan, this is one of the movies that you must see. This criterion collection edition of this classic is incredible, excelent extras and great package.

The only problem was that it arrived 2 weeks later than the date it was supposed to. September 2, 2008

Extraordinary Movie

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. August 18, 2008

The seductive quality of restraint

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) June 8, 2008

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