Wong Kar-wai - In The Mood For Love

If you have never seen it, you likely know its image: Tony Leung Chiu-wai in a crisp, tailored suit; Maggie Cheung in a high-collared cheongsam so tight she can barely climb the stairs; the two of them passing in a narrow Hong Kong hallway, drenched in red neon rain. The film is a vibe before we had a word for it. But to reduce it to aesthetic is to miss the wound at its center. Mr. Chow (Leung) and Mrs. Chan (Cheung) discover their spouses are having an affair. That is the engine. But Wong Kar-wai is not interested in the affair itself. He is interested in what happens next: two lonely, honorable people trying not to become the thing they hate.

They are in the mood for love. They just refuse to call it that. Wong Kar-wai and his cinematographer, Christopher Doyle (along with Mark Lee Ping-bing), break every rule of coverage. They shoot through venetian blinds, behind door frames, under stairwells. They use slow motion so languid it feels like suffocation. The camera is always almost looking away. in the mood for love wong kar-wai

It is the question every first-time viewer screams at the screen. They are both victims. They are beautiful. They have chemistry so electric it hums in the static of a 1960s radio. If you have never seen it, you likely

So pour a glass of something amber. Turn off the lights. Watch two of the greatest actors who have ever lived do absolutely nothing except exist near each other. You will feel your own ribs tighten. That is the engine

And the cheongsam . Maggie Cheung wears over twenty different dresses. Each one is a kind of armor. When her husband leaves her, she wears red. When she cries alone, she wears blue. When she almost touches Mr. Chow’s hand, the pattern is a floral explosion of desire. The dress holds her body in a vise—just as propriety holds her heart.

But Wong Kar-wai is making a film about decency as tragedy. Mr. Chow and Mrs. Chan cannot commit adultery because that would make them equal to the people who betrayed them. They hold onto their pain like a moral shield. They would rather be lonely than be wrong.

Wong Kar-wai once said he wanted to make a film about "the things we don’t say." He succeeded so completely that watching it feels like reading someone else’s diary—and finding your own name on every page.