Hong Kong, 1962. Chow Mo-wan and Su Li-zhen move into neighboring apartments on the same day. Their encounters are polite and formal—until a discovery about their respective spouses sparks an intimate bond. At once delicately mannered and visually stunning, Wong Kar-wai’s In the Mood for Love is a masterful evocation of romantic longing and fleeting moments in time. —The Criterion Collection
Born in Shanghai, he moved to Hong Kong with his parents at the age of five. Coming from the Mainland and speaking only Mandarin and Shanghainese, he had a difficult period of adjustment to Cantonese speaking Hong Kong, spending hours in movie theatres with his mother. He made his directing debut in 1988 with As Tears Go By, produced by Alan Tang. It was a crime melodrama of the kind then hugely popular, and with heavy borrowings from Martin Scorsese’s Mean Streets (1974), but already displayed one of his principal trademarks in its atmospheric and sometimes expressionistic color palette. It is his only box office hit to date. Wong went on to direct several more feature films in the 1990s, among these were Chungking Express (1994), Fallen Angels (1995), Ashes of Time (1994). His first major international recognition was at the 1997 Cannes Film Festival where he won the Best Director prize for Happy Together (1997). The filming of In the Mood for Love (2000) had to be shifted from Beijing… read more
Even tough the deepness of its simple portrait is remarkable, it kind of let me down at moments, when you expect a wider range of reactions involving love to be expressed by the characters, The repetition of songs imply something at first, but then, as they repeat over and over, they feel disponsable. It's a nice film but I guess not one for the ages
cinematographically speaking, one of the most rich films i've ever seen. tragic, desperate, melancholy and entirely worth your time.
This film possesses the greatest camera movement/artistry I've ever seen. Its power through simplicity lays the foundation for the presence and shape of the entire story.
The recent issue of UCLA’s Asia Pacific Arts Magazine has a timely new feature on: 'Social Change in Asian film'. As the authors themselves
The Aesthetic Amalgam
Is it in the name? Yes it is. Wong Kar Wai came up with the name “In the mood for love” in a hurried response to a passing Cannes submission deadline. Nothing could better… read review
Here’s my problem with this movie.
I think that a non-romance romance has the potential to be a really emotionally brutal, heart-wrenching affair. This movie is not that for a couple of reasons… read review