- Daphne Watson
In the Mood for Love (Wong 2000): the universal language of the human experience
Like wine, some films need time before we fully appreciate them. Despite a lukewarm early reception, In the Mood for Love (Wong 2000) has aged well, developing a rich body with deep notes that have inspired the next generation of filmmakers.
Simplicity is striking in this film. The well-documented lack of a script creates a sort of literariness. Like a literary novel, the characters and the situation are the draws. Small but powerful moments stitch the story together. As Paul Arthur says in his self-proclaimed âlove letterâ to In the Mood for Love disguised as a review, the film lacks dramatic conflict, yet viewers remain transfixed (Cineaste 40). The masterful use of body language, shot composition, costuming, set design, and music captures viewers.
Set in a Shanghai-immigrant neighborhood of Hong Kong, In the Mood for Love places Mrs. Chen (Maggie Cheung) and Mr. Chow (Tony Chiu-Wai Leung) as outsiders who find themselves abandoned in a strange place that was supposed to be liberating. Their lives are askew. âOthernessâ is a familiar trait within this community, evident in how everyone interacts in the quest to find a new normal.
The music choices are bizarre yet beautiful. Nat King Cole singing in Spanish to narrate a Cantonese-language film is ironically brilliant. Thereâs no actual need for dialogue. When Cole sings of âThose Green Eyes,â âPerhaps,â and âI Love you,â heâs broadcasting our main charactersâ thoughts of jealousy, possibility, and loyalty. The songs lay out the conflict. I donât have to know Spanish to understand the emotional shift happening in these moments. The score also works well to amplify emotions and propel the film forward.
Mrs. Chen dresses like a fashion model yet cannot maintain her husbandâs attention. Sheâs sat on a proverbial shelf. Her landlady recognizes this abandonment and tries to bring Mrs. Chen into the boarding house community of wives. However, dogmatic loyalty doesnât allow Mrs. Chen to waiver from her seat by the door, literally holding her husbandâs slippers. That is until she hears her loneliness shout out back at her through Mr. Chow. Together, they act out how their spousesâ affair might have happened. Through a series of ârehearsals,â they grow more independent and self-aware, yet they cannot seem to break away from their philandering mates nor give in to their own heartsâ desires.
These desires are masterfully expressed through slight movements. Leungâs and Cheungâs faces never betray their charactersâ emotional journey. I cannot count how many times I held my breath when Mr. Chow reached for Mrs. Chen or Mrs. Chen leaned his way. The suppression and self-restraint that Mr. Chow and Mrs. Chen exhibit create an eroticism. These are two beautiful people who have been wronged. Should the two indulge in the desire they try to hide, they could easily find justification. The compressed closeness of the boarding house, the corridors, and the stairwells are luscious and all-consuming. Wong turns us all into greedy voyeurs.


Their repression is visceral. Not only do their neighbors recognize and share Mr. Chowâs and Mrs. Chenâs pain, but the audience does as well.
In a 2000 interview with Time Europe, Wang expressed his dislike of love stories, yet his films have a central love story masked as a compulsion for closeness. Wong also said that the Setting is a character in his films. In the Mood for Love utilizes its place to a sumptuous, layered effect that is immensely satisfying but also leaves viewers wanting.
The tight framing of most of the shots places these charactersâ emotions literally in the center of the film. There are moments when Mrs. Chen is in profile of the frame while life happens around her. Other shots of Mr. Chowâs cigarette smoke swirling in the air as heâs lost in thought imply that perhaps theyâre thinking of each other.
The filmâs verisimilitude becomes most potent when Mrs. Chen goes to get noodles. She is so posh and utterly out of place as she carries her tin pail through an alley to an open-air market. Then she passes Mr. Chow again and again and again. Each time they cross paths, the distance between them shrinks and practically suffocates viewers with anticipation.

The repetition calls into question the reality of their experience. Each ârehearsalâ plays to a different end. In âMake Mood, Not Love,â Wongâs filmmaking style is described as a master take or a rehearsal. Maggie Cheung, who plays Mrs. Chen remarked on âhow much was left out.â Even Tony Leung (Mr. Chow) said the final film was nothing like what he thought heâd spent the previous twelve-plus months making (Corliss, Short 2000).
What is real, not just for the characters, but for the actors and audience?
This open-ended-ness is like a literary novel. The reader invests in the characters for hundreds and hundreds of pages. Often, there is no tidy ending, only possibilities. In the Mood for Love gives its audience many opportunities to fill in moments after the ârehearsalsâ end. Wong has designed a vivid scenario with real people. He doesnât like love stories; he likes life stories.
Thereâs so much to say about this film and all its tiny but impactful moments. These are the kinds of stories I love. They stick with you. Theyâre the stories we discuss for decades and create college courses about. Wongâs impact on the next generation of auteurs is justified, as is In the Mood for Loveâs place among the all-time best of cinema. This isnât highbrow cinemaâit is Art as an extension and expression of humanity.
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Works Cited:
Arthur, Paul. âIn the Mood for Love.â Cineaste, vol. 26, no. 3, Summer 2001, p. 40. EBSCOhost, search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&AuthType=ip,uid&db=vth&AN=4830430&scope=site.
Corliss, Richard, and Stephen Short. âMake Mood, Not Love.â Time Europe, vol. 156, no. 20, Nov. 2000, p. 80. EBSCOhost, search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&AuthType=ip,uid&db=asn&AN=3762565&scope=site.
In the Mood for Love. Dir. Wong Kar-Wai. The Criterion Collection, 2000. Kanopy. Web. 10 Oct. 2020.
âThe Goddess - ç„愳âŻ: Free Download, Borrow, and StreamingâŻ: Internet Archive.â Internet Archive, 2010, archive.org/details/thegoddess.
Parkes, Douglas. âHow Wong Kar-Waiâs In the Mood for Love Became a Modern Masterpiece â 20 Years after It Premiered.â South China Morning Post, 18 May 2020, https://www.scmp.com/magazines/style/article/3084877/how-wong-kar-wais-mood-love-became-modern-masterpiece-20-years.