In the Mood for Love


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In the Mood for Love
Directed by Wong Kar-wai
Produced by Wong Kar-wai
Written by Wong Kar-wai
Starring Tony Leung
Maggie Cheung
Music by Michael Galasso
Shigeru Umebayashi
Cinematography Christopher Doyle
Pin Bing Lee
Editing by William Chang
Distributed by USA Films
Release date(s) September 29, 2000 (HK)
February 2, 2001 (US)
Running time 98 min.
94 min. (Poland)
Country Hong Kong, France
Language Cantonese
Shanghainese
French
Preceded by Happy Together (1997)
Followed by 2046 (2004)

In the Mood for Love (Traditional Chinese: 花樣年華; Simplified Chinese: 花样年华; Pinyin: Huāyàng niánhuá; Jyutping: Faa1joeng6 nin4waa4), literally "Our Glorious Years Have Passed Like Flowers") is a 2000 Hong Kong film directed by Wong Kar-wai, starring Maggie Cheung and Tony Leung.

The film's original Chinese title derives from a song of the same name by Zhou Xuan from a 1946 film. The English title derives from a Bryan Ferry cover of the song "I'm in the Mood for Love" that is also used in the film.

The movie forms the second part of an informal trilogy, together with the first part Days of Being Wild (released in 1991) and the last part 2046 (released in 2004).

The film holds the top spot on They Shoot Pictures Don't They list of The 21st Century's Most Acclaimed Films[1] and the 317th spot on The 1,000 Greatest Films[2].


Contents

Plot

The movie takes place in Hong Kong, 1962. Chow Mo-Wan (Tony Leung), a journalist, rents a room in an apartment of a Shanghaiese family, on the same day as So Lai-zhen (Maggie Cheung), a secretary from a shipping company. They become next-door neighbours. Each has a spouse who is working and often leaves them alone on overtime shift. Despite the presence of a friendly landlady, Mrs Suen, and bustling, mahjong-playing neighbours, Chow and So often find themselves alone in their rooms, and they begin to strike up a friendship.

Chow and So finally admit their shared suspicions that their spouses are cheating on them with each other. Chow persuades So to re-enact what they imagine might have happened between their partners' and their lovers, and slowly the line between play-acting and real romance blurs.

Chow invites So to help him and write a martial arts series story that he has longed to create for ages. As their relationship draws closer, people begin to notice and suspect they are in love. Meanwhile Chow and So are convinced that they are no more than friends and will not end up like their spouses. However, as time passes, Chow falls in love with So. Firm in his moral convictions that forbid adultery, he leaves Hong Kong for a job offered by his old friend in Singapore. Chow asks So to leave with him, but she turns him down and Chow then leaves on his own. But not before they spend one night together.

The next year, So goes off to Singapore and visits Chow's apartment there. She calls Chow, who is working for a Singaporean newspaper. Yet, when Chow picks up, So remains silent... Later, Chow realises she has visited his apartment after seeing a lipstick-stained cigarette butt left on his ashtray.

Three years later, So goes back to her old landlord, Mrs. Suen's apartment and pays her a visit. Knowing that she is about to emigrate to the USA, she asks to rent her property again, but this time the entire apartment. Later on, Chow also comes back, presumably only for a visit as well. He finds out that his old landlord, Mr. Koo, has emigrated to the Philippines and he then leaves the building without realising So has already re-rented Mrs. Suen's apartment and lives there with her young son.

The setting of the final narration of the story is at Phnom Penh, Cambodia, Chow is seen visiting the Angkor Wat and whispers several years worth of secrets into a hole in a wall, before plugging the hole with mud - a method that he mentions which a secret can be kept whilst dining with his old friend during his stay in Singapore.

Style and themes

Wong states he was very influenced by Hitchcock's Vertigo while making this film, and compares Tony Leung's movie character to Jimmy Stewart's:

"the role of Tony in the film reminds me of Jimmy Stewart's in Vertigo. There is a dark side to this character. I think it's very interesting that most of the audience prefers to think that this is a very innocent relationship. These are the good guys, because their spouses are the first ones to be unfaithful and they refuse to be. Nobody sees any darkness in these characters - and yet they are meeting in secret to act out fictitious scenarios of confronting their spouses and of having an affair. I think this happens because the face of Tony Leung is so sympathetic. Just imagine if it was John Malkovich playing this role. You would think, 'This guy is really weird.' It's the same in Vertigo. Everybody thinks Jimmy Stewart is a nice guy, so nobody thinks that his character is actually very sick."[citation needed]

Two novel artistic devices are used in this movie. One is the use of seemingly repetitive scenes and the other is that certain sequences which look like one scene are actually a collage of numerous encounters of the two main characters in the movie. These techniques gave the audience the impression that these two characters were doing the same thing over and over again over a very long period of time. However, paying attention to the dresses (cheongsam) that Maggie Cheung wears reveals that she wore a different dress in every single shot in those sequences. They are more likely artistic shots with different costume and makeup for each shot.

Chow and Su's spouses are rarely shown and in those occasions their faces are not seen, resulting in brief one-sided scenes in which Wong uses only the angle showing either Chow or Su.

Title song

The track song Hua Yang De Nian Hua is based on a song by famous singer Zhou Xuan from the Solitary Island period. The 1946 song, used in Wong's film, is a peaen to a happy past and an oblique metaphor for the darkness of Japanese-Occupied Shanghai. Wong also set the song to his 2000 short film, named Hua Yang De Nian Hua after the track.

花樣的年華 The years slipped past like flowers...
月樣的精神 the vigorous light of the moon
冰雪樣的聰明 bright, clever as glacier snow
美麗的生活 our beautiful life
多情的眷屬 my affectionate spouse
圓滿的家庭 this happy and fulfilled family...
驀地里這孤島籠罩著慘霧愁云 suddenly gloomy clouds and fog loom across this solitary isle
慘霧愁云 clouds of gloom and melancholy
啊，可愛的祖國 Ah, my lovely native country
几時我能夠投進你的怀抱 when can I go back into your arms
能見那霧消云散 and see these fogs dispel
重見你放出光明 and behold you give off light again
花樣的年華 as in those flower-like years
月樣的精神 and of the moon...

Soundtrack

Cast and roles

  • Tony Leung - Chow Mo-Wan
  • Maggie Cheung - So Laizhen/Mrs. Chan
  • Siu Ping Lam - Ah Ping
  • Cheung Tung Cho 'Joe' - Special appearance
  • Rebecca Pan - Mrs. Suen, So Laizhen/Mrs. Chan's landlord
  • Lai Chen - Mr. Ho, So Laizhen/Mrs. Chan's employer
  • Chan Man-Lei
  • Koo Kam-wah
  • Roy Cheung - Mr Chan (voice)
  • Chin Tsi-ang - The amah (female servant)
  • Yu Hsien
  • Chow Po-chun
  • Paulyn Sun - Mrs Chow (voice)
  • Wong Man-lei - Mr. Koo, Chow Mo-Wan's landlord
  • Julien Carbon - French tourist (uncredited)

Box office

In the Mood for Love made HK $8,663,227 during its Hong Kong run.

On February 2, 2001, the film opened in 6 North American theatres, earning a strong US $113,280 ($18,880 per screen) in its first weekend. It finished its North American run with a respectable US $2,738,980.

The film's total worldwide box office gross is US $12,854,953.

Awards and nominations

Miscellaneous

While set in Hong Kong, a portion of the filming (like outdoor and hotel scenes) was shot in Bangkok, Thailand. The movie also incorporates footage of Angkor Wat, Cambodia.

See also

References

External links

v • d • e
Films directed by Wong Kar-wai

Feature films: As Tears Go By (1988) • Days of Being Wild (1991) • Chungking Express (1994) • Ashes of Time (1994) • Fallen Angels (1995) • Happy Together (1997) • In the Mood for Love (2000) • 2046 (2004) • Eros (The Hand) (2004) • My Blueberry Nights (2007) • The Lady from Shanghai (2008)
Short Films: wkw/tk/1996@7′55″hk.net (1996) • Hua Yang De Nian Hua (2000) • The Hire: The Follow (2001) • Six Days (2002)






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