In the Mood for Love (Hua yang nian hua, 2000)

Wong Kar-Wai

Cast: Tony Leung (Chow Mo-wan), Maggie Cheung (Mrs. Chan)
Runtime: 98 min
Country: France/Hong Kong
Language: Cantonese (English subtitles)
DVD: TF1 Video 2-Disk Limited Edition (French)

Review © 2002 Branislav L. Slantchev

Some consider this film to be the director's finest achievement (for now). I have not seen all his other films, but I tend to agree with I have seen. It has all the usual trappings of Wong's style combined with Doyle's masterful cinematography and an unusually appropriate soundtrack.

Briefly, the film is about Chow (Tony Leung) and Chan (Maggie Cheung), who move in apartments next to each other. Both are happily married until one day they find out that their respective spouses are having an affair with each other. At first, they reenact the secret meetings trying to understand how and why it happened. Without realizing it, they slowly fall in love. As their spouses take an unusually long trip to Japan, Chow and Chan are left alone to struggle with their passion. However, they do not want to be like their unfaithful partners, and so they scrupulously avoid the physical consummation of their love. Never uttering a single word about their feelings, and never so much as kissing, they steam up the screen in a way that is seldom seen.

There are several achievements in this film that make it the unforgettable experience that it is: the cinematography, the acting, the story, the way the story is told, and the music. Now that I look at the list, these are the things that can make or break a film in general. Undoubtedly, any masterpiece would be strong in all of them.

The two leads carry the entire film with no noticeable effort. The cinematography, as smooth as the acting, follows their convoluted acting within acting, as the two fall gently and unwitting in love with each other even as they replay the illicit trysts of their partners in marriage. The film is emotionally draining. By the end, assaulted by the myriad of prominently featured clocks that first bring together and then mercilessly tear apart the unhappy couple, I wished for them to meet again for a "happily ever after" sort of ending. Happily, Wong resisted the unnatural, but rather common for the silver screen, deus ex machina and instead presented us with an elegiac conclusion, in which Tony Leung whispers wordless poetry into a whole in an Angkor temple and then seals his secret forever. This film is one of the very few that could not and should not have ended otherwise, regardless of how painful the unfulfilled love must be. The two did keep their vow not to become like their spouses, for better or worse; perhaps the latter, as it invariably happens in life.

Oh, and about the debate about the little kid (seen many years later when Chan visits her old apartment). Many believe that Chow and Chan actually did sleep together, and that the child is theirs. I do not believe so, mostly because it would invalidate the rest of the film. Wong certainly went out of his way to tell the story as obliquely as possible (I hear that he cut out all scenes of physical contact) and leave it to the viewer to imagine the rest. It may have been the case that the child was their in the original script, but it is not clear now, and I like to think that nothing of the sort happened between the two lovers.

I own the French special edition DVD and it is superb. There are tons of extras on the second disk, the picture has been cleaned up, and the sound is excellent. The English subtitles are bright, easy to read, and free of errors. I do not know what the upcoming Criterion edition will offer, but I doubt that it can improve much on this truly superior release. Among the extras (all subtitled in English as well): edited scenes, alternative ending, interview with the director, the music of the film, world tour with Wong Kar-Wai, biographies, prizes, and even recipies of authentic cuisine!

February 11, 2002