In the Mood for Love

It has all been an interlude, a dream that couldn’t last, and yet they have the eternal feeling that they will never experience anything as beautiful again. When Mr Chow (Tony Leung) moves in next door to Mrs Chan (Maggie Cheung), the die has already been cast. They are married, yet so alone. Mrs Chan’s husband is always away on business, and Mr Chow’s wife is also always away. In reality, the two absent spouses are seeing each other and having a secret love affair. Fa yeung nin wah (In the Mood for Love) tells the story of those who stay. They stay in the street, in their kitchen or under the porch that protects them from the rain. They stay because they have to: society dictates it, the neighbours are watching. So when these two solitudes meet, they understand each other. From these two lonely souls a pure, forbidden couple is born. In the Mood for Love is a film dedicated to the breathtaking beauty of its actors. No one is classier than Tony Leung smoking a cigarette while elegantly wearing his shirt. No one is more dazzling than Maggie Cheung in one of her dozens of patterned dresses, perfectly fitted to her hips, which she even wears to fetch sesame soup from the night market. (...) Everything is hidden or diffused in Wong Kar-Wai’s film: love, the other person’s face, lies. The frame is constantly blocked because the characters are holding their breath. The alcoves and corridors suffocate them. There is a striking shot of Chow, sitting in the kitchen with his rice cooker in his hands, still with a cigarette in his mouth, doing nothing; a life of waiting, a life of hoping, but hope for what? (...) (Alexandre Mathis; revusetcorriges.com)�