In the Mood for Love Wong Kar-Wai
Undoubtedly, the most beautifully-made film in Wong Kar-Wai’s arsenal of great films is In the Mood for Love. The film uses 1960’s Hong Kong as a backdrop to explore a common theme that has consumed recent Wong Kar-Wai movies – unrequited love. Maggie Cheung and Tony Leung, the Fred and Ginger of Hong Kong cinema, play neighbors who move in on the same day to a crowded apartment building. They each seem to be living normal mundane lives, one working for a newspaper, and the other as a secretary; until they discover that they shared more than an apartment complex. The story is less about “what happens” than it is about “how it happens.” The audience slowly finds out that Maggie Cheung’s husband and Tony Leung’s wife are having an affair at the same time as the two main characters. Though a shocking revelation, it is much more interesting to watch the repeated scenes between Maggie Cheung and Tony Leung. Each time the camera cuts to another angle of what seems to be the same scene, astute viewers will notice that Maggie Cheung’s many beautiful cheongsams change. Wong Kar-Wai uses cheongsams, traditional Chinese dresses with high collars that were popular with affluent women in Hong Kong during the 1960’s, as a way of depicting the passage of time. The two neighbors’ relationship grows out of quotidian encounters, such as nightly trips to the noodle stand, or rubbing shoulders in the tight stairwells of the apartment building.
Mr. Chow and Mrs. Chan grow closer to each other by exploring how their respective spouses started their affair. At dinner and in the streets, they play each other’s spouses, making sure to note that they will not become a couple like their unfaithful partners. Food seems to be one of the only outlets to express love. When the two lovers are together, they are almost always eating. A rainy day at the noodle stand was the first real connection the two characters had. During a later meal, when the two characters are eating what their spouses would eat if they went on a dinner date; Tony Leung scoops mustard on Maggie Cheung’s plate in a rare display of affection, teaching her how to correctly eat a steak. The film is not funny, but viewers can find themselves laughing at the bad luck that these two characters have, when they are stuck in one apartment with only sticky rice to entertain them as their neighbors decide to play mah-jongg right outside of the bedroom. Eating is also an indicator of how the characters feel, in this largely dialogue-free film. Near the end, when Maggie Cheung’s character decides to be more discreet about the relationship, she forgoes the noodle stand to eat with her landlady.
When their friendly relationship threatens to become more intimate, Mr. Chow moves away to avoid becoming like Mrs. Chan’s cheating husband, but their love for each other does not diminish. In a bit of dramatic irony, their efforts to find each other are unsuccessful, leaving Tony Leung to hide his secret love as people did in the old days. The idea of confessing a secret to a hole in a tree or wall is repeated in 2046, the informal sequel to In the Mood for Love. If they were not blown away by the beauty of “Yumeji’s Theme,” the orchestration that accompanied Tony Leung and Maggie Cheung’s courtship, audiences will be blown away by the awe-inspiring arches of Angkor Wat in the final scenes of the story.
The story of Star-crossed lovers is often done, but none as elegantly made as In the Mood for Love. From the reoccurring theme to the minimalist reserved emotions to the geometric “mod” patterns in the cheongsams and wallpaper, everything about the movie was absolutely beautiful. Wong Kar-Wai takes great care to insert many nostalgic elements to the set, like the first popular electric rice cooker from Japan and songs sung in Spanish by Nat King Cole.
This film deserves an A for originality, purely based on its non-sexual treatment of adultery. The visuals, spearheaded by frequent collaborator Christopher Doyle, and soundtrack are stunning, also A’s. The only thing working against the film is the sometimes-slow pace, giving the overall enjoyability an A- and the plot a B+. There is no excuse not to relax to such a beautiful film as In the Mood for Love.
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