"In the Mood for Love" - Film Review

If In the Mood for Love were made in the U.S., it would be about the other two spouses we don’t see having an affair, bored with their marriage. Instead, it’s the more interesting flip side of the equation: Chow Mo-wan (Tony Leung) and Su Li-zhen (Maggie Cheung) slowly coming to the realization that their distant, estranged spouses are having an affair and likely with the other one’s partner. Out of loneliness and a shared sense of connection from their problems, they begin a deeply meaningful but platonic relationship that grows as time goes by. Though they keep saying they want to be the better people and not act on their budding feelings, the tension between them remains rife and palpable. The more time goes by, the more we desire to see them tell their adulterous spouses off and get together.

Like Shigeru Umebayashi’s reoccurring, motivic “Yumeji's Theme”, the film is ferverous, passionate, and ready to boil over at any moment, but also filled with undertones of sadness, melancholy, longing, and lost.

The film is at once grounded and realistic, and yet stylistically and aesthetically interesting and ambitious. Auteur Wong Kar-wai fills the film with vivid imagery and interesting shots. The colorful, buoyant appearances formed from its 1960’s period piece dressing are undercut by long, slow moving sequences of isolation and sadness and shots framed to suggest how alone and trapped characters are (characters framed in doorways is a frequent motif of the film).  

Damaged, quiet and resilient, the characters keep fighting through their suffering and longing, hurting themselves and eachother more and more. Leung and Cheung have such obvious chemistry and give wonderfully understated performances. 

The film lets shots speak for themselves. Small gestures such as the caress of a hand, or longing looks, and sober, sorrowful expressions speak far more volumes than any amount of dialogue. 

Visually immersive and stylish, and quite unlike any typical romantic narrative, In the Mood for Love is a masterfully unique film. 

Grade: A