Home » Film & TV » Foreign Films » In the Mood for Love

In the Mood for Love

© John Nesbit

While Asian cinema has reached all time popularity with Ang Lee's successful Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, there are other amazing film artists now reaching American audiences. Of course, many have been familiar with the Hong Kong style of John Woo, but there's another marvelous Hong Kong director gaining wider acclaim with the U.S. release of In the Mood for Love -- Wong Kar-wai. He weaves such visual passion on the screen in this feature that you'll look forward to more of his work.

In the Mood for Love deals with the unrequited love that Chow Mo-wan (Tony Leung Chiu-wai of Hard Boiled fame) and Su Li-zhen (Maggie Cheung Man-yuk) feel for each other after discovering the adultery that their spouses have been practicing. They both want to understand why their spouses could do such a thing, and meet innocently to "practice" how they will deal with it and role-play to gain understanding. Though sexual tension arouses them, they strive to hold it back. After all, "For us to do the same thing would mean we are no better than they are."

Audiences seeking linear plots will find themselves uncomfortable with Wong Kar-wai's lyrical camerawork and narrative style. To enjoy this thoroughly let yourself go and soak in the visual vignettes that work like a smoldering music video to Mike Galasso's emotive instrumental score. We get a sense of Hong Kong culture with the camera shots that capture our lonely lovers framed into tight quarters of the hallways, streets, and noodle shops that mark their existence.

Often the frames nearly dwarf the two actors, and dominate the screen. But this framing adds an additional layer to the theme, as these two lovers can never be in control of their own destinies -- the timing isn't right and their landlords and neighbors will all gossip about them. There just isn't enough space in crowded Hong Kong to free them from suspicious eyes. This is most clearly illustrated when Mr. Koo returns early from being drunk, and his wife continues a marathon Mah Joong game throughout the night, trapping the visiting Su Li-zhen inside Chow's small apartment.

Co-incidence or Fate has brought them together. They have moved next to each other the same day sharing small rooms with two separate families in overcrowded Hong Kong. Their marriages are both having difficulty yet they quietly go about their business and pretend that all is well until they discover that their spouses are having an affair with each other. Another marvelous moment occurs late into the film when Chow and Su are painfully alone in their adjoining apartments, longing to be with each other, hungering to make love with each other, yet remaining steadfast to their moral stand. This is all captured wordlessly with visual panning between the two unrequited lovers.

The copyright of the article In the Mood for Love in Foreign Films is owned by Jennifer A. Wickes. Permission to republish In the Mood for Love in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.