In the Mood for Love

 

 

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This film is a teasing allegory of loneliness and longing. Here is a film without sex, or even kissing -- and it is no doubt one of the sexiest and definitely the most thought-provoking and psychological romance I have seen for a while. In addition to this Maggie Cheung can really sport some beautiful dresses through this film.

Telling the story of two people who coincidentally, live in the same apartment, and are a door away from each other. The film, like and unlike Random Hearts, is about how two people come together via the affair of their two lovers. Only once they receive this news, they take the time to think about the consequences of an affair, and each other's feelings towards having just broken-up -- and whether or not the two people are willing enough to fall back in love.

What's terrific about the film is the way director Wong Kar-Wai, presents each character's way of dealing with loneliness. Maggie Cheung and Tony Leung are both fantastic and Christopher Doyle is simply the best cinematographer in the business watch Temptress Moon (perhaps my favorite ever from him) for more evidence that what I say is true. With Maggie Cheung's character, he'll show her, in a repeated montage: leaving work, going home, watching her neighbors gamble, head to the noodle shop, leave the noodle shop, and bump into her attractive age-equal, played by Tony Leung. This is a clever, if not subtle and knowing technique to present loneliness. For it is when you are alone, when you find yourself falling into a loop. There are many, many close-ups in this movie, I really think this gives a claustrophobic atmosphere to their romance.

This comes as no surprise since the movie does take place in Hong Kong and we get the impression that this is a place where everything is cramped and everyone knows everything about everybody else. It seems like they give as much concern to seeing each other as they are to keeping their relationship within the confines of social standards as well. As I said before there is nothing explicit. It is all percolating under the surface. This lends itself to the feeling that the chaos of the world outside is mirrored by the chaos of their own hidden emotions on the inside. This film was forward to me by my friends who adores Asian cinema in return I will highly recommend this to you.

I was born in hongkong in 80's,and this movie portrayed the love between a journalist and his neighbour in 60's.Their love was unconventional when compare to the social taboo at that time.I found it the most fansinating that their attitude towards each other and the tone of their words were ambiguous!!After watching it,I search many pictures of Hong Kong in 1960's.They are wonderful and I love them so much.Nowadays,many hong kong students rare notice the bright side of Hong Kong in the past.They neglect the history and culture of Hong Kong.However,this movie , in fact, provided lots of pretty accessories and furniture in the 60's.They are incredible.

Besides,the sharp contrast of colour made by Wong was remarkable.The clothes were extremely beautiful and unique.The angle that Wong tried to shoot from the reflection of mirror was actually carrying out confusing ideas and ambiguities.Some of the scenes were blurred by rain ,shadow and smoke,maybe rendering a sense of escape and moral depravity of Chow.

Over all,the ending scene shot in AngKor Wat was excellent!!I love the quote ::: "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."
Though they have no future , they had once continued sacrificing,or giving, simply for each other.The background music "Theme" was also a great supplement!!

This Chinese film goes back to the recent past of Hong Kong, China and the Chinese. The love affair is delicate but it is not the essential element in the film, except as a metaphor for change, for the changing world. In those years (circa 1963) the world was changing but within a divided pattern, that of the two blocks and we feel this behind the scenes. The Shanghai community in Hong Kong, a symbol of the change in continental China. The family going to the US to visit their grandchildren, a symbol of the attraction of the US in those days, but also of the desire to go away from continental China and the danger some thought it represented. The visit to Cambodia and its sacred temples, with de Gaulle's visit in the middle of it in 1966, brings up the phantom of the Vietnam War behind this historical period. The spouses working in Japan or Singapore or Thailand shows the development of Asia in those days, led by Japan as the great industrial and commercial power it was becoming. But we have to think of the present. Things have changed so much. Japan is no longer the leading power in Asia. Hong Kong has found its place in continental China. Shanghai is more attractive than San Francisco. Cambodia has rebuilt its unity and independence after the tragedy represented by the intervention of the US on its territory and the subsequent bloody episodes. Today the Chinese are not emigrating abroad any more. They have become the engine of the development of Asia. This vision of Hong Kong in the early 60s emphasizes this change and the film is like archeology. The love affair then is symbolical of this evolution : the spouses emigrating to other Asian countries and having a love affair there ; the young man visiting Cambodia or even further and coming back not to discover, by lack of courage, what happened to the woman, though the film tells us about the son she got from her liaison with him, is a symbol of the complete beaking up of human relations in that world ; the vision of the Temples of Angkor, a Buddhist monk there, and the man burrying his secret in a hole in the wall plugged up with some earth, is a vision of very old traditions, beliefs and even superstitions, a world that has mostly disappeared. Very nostalgic. And the film is systematically invaded with music from Brazil or other distant, non Asian countries and in some foreign language that has nothing to do with Hong Kong. A symbol of the uprooting of this community brought by the divided world, but also announcing the globalization of the world that was to come at the time and is in the process of emerging today. The slowing down of some scenes makes these scenes look like some old dream, or old recollection, look like a mnemonic vision of a past that has disappeared.

Dr Jacques COULARDEAU

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4.0 out of 5 stars Much more then meets the eye .. prelude to 2046
I watched this movie late one night about a year ago on a 27 in TV. The pacing seemed slow and I was falling sleep through most of it. Read more

Published 10 months ago by Glenn Laycock

5.0 out of 5 stars An unforgettable journey.
'In the Mood for Love' is a touching, engrossing meditation on, you guessed it, love: what it is, what creates it, what ends it, what keeps it sewn strong together. Read more

Published on July 19 2004 by wannabemoviecritic

5.0 out of 5 stars Tertiary Love Film at its Highest Form
98 minutes of excellence. I am never a big fan for romantic films. Especially with the current scene filled with countless teen-or-chick flicks, I have become very picky on this... Read more

Published on May 5 2004 by Kelvicious

5.0 out of 5 stars A Masterpiece, flawless, perfect, beautiful!
Simply put, it is one of the more ravishingly beautiful films ever made! Every now and then, a director and his collaborators are so in-tune with each other, so opperating at the... Read more

Published on Mar 26 2004

5.0 out of 5 stars DVD's Don't Get Better Than This
This is a love story set in China in the early 1960's. A man and woman are neighbours and discover that their spouses are having an affair. Read more

Published on Jan 23 2004 by The Nippon Newfie

4.0 out of 5 stars stunningly beautiful but very restrained
Beautiful people, beautiful places and a great feel for Hong Kong in that era.

Published on Nov 30 2003

4.0 out of 5 stars Simply Magic
This is one of the most beautiful film ever made. It tells the story of how two people's lives became somewhat entangled after discovering that their spouses were cheating on them... Read more

Published on Oct 25 2003

5.0 out of 5 stars Beautiful and Profoundly Sad
There's more here than can be appreciated in a single viewing. I just finished my third pass and the film just blows me away. Read more

Published on Oct 17 2003

5.0 out of 5 stars A delicate hand
This is one of the most complete DVD packages I have ever seen ... something that couldn't have happened to a nicer film. Read more

Published on Aug 31 2003 by Eric J. Lyman

5.0 out of 5 stars Those amazing dresses!
This amazing film by Wong Kar-Wai tells the tale of two neighbors living in Hong Kong in the '60's. As the story unfolds, the two come to the realization that their respective... Read more

Published on July 4 2003 by M. Colford

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