Wong Kar-wai’s 2000 “In the Mood for Love”

Wong Kar Wai’s (b.1958) In the Mood for Love is filled with luscious red and yellow hues, soft focal lenses, and hushed dialogue, producing an atmosphere of romance and yearning. It is an exploration of love and desire that transcends time, touch, and language. Set in early 1960s Hong Kong, two married couples move into the same building. The film is shot in the close quarters of a shared apartment, where Mr. Chow (Tony Leung) and Mrs. Chan (Maggie Cheung) live in separate rooms in the same building. Her husband is constantly traveling, and his wife is always at work. As a result, they begin to spend time with one another, but soon come to realize that their partners are having affairs. As they try to understand how this came to be, they too start to fall in love. As fiction and reality merge, they vow not to act on their feelings as their adulterous partners have.

By using recurring shots in narrow passageways and cinematography that emphasizes frame-within-a-frame, the overlap of their living quarters creates an intimacy with one another while simultaneously accentuating their distance. Wong Kar Wai specifically omits their partners, often alluding to them through shots of their backs, to further emphasize emotional distance. Wong Kar Wai works intuitively, often working on scripts until the very last minute and making changes based on the actors’ personalities.

For Valentine’s weekend, I wanted you to see one of the most visually stunning love stories of all time. I hope the film leaves what Wong Kar Wai calls an aftertaste that lingers with you afterwards. The film is part of a trilogy which includes Days of Being Wild and 2046. If you love this film as much as I do, I highly encourage you to see them to enrich your understanding of Wong Kar Wai’s cinematic world, one full of fleeting connections, temporality, and hallucinatory memory.