In the Mood for Love
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| In the Mood for Love | |
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| 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 | Days of Being Wild (1991) |
| Followed by | 2046 (2004) |
| All Movie Guide profile | |
| IMDb profile | |
In the Mood for Love is a 2000 Hong Kong art film written and directed by Wong Kar-wai, starring Maggie Cheung and Tony Leung Chiu Wai. Its original Chinese title is 花樣年華 (Simplified Chinese: 花样年华, Yale (Cantonese): fa1 yeung6 nin4 wa4, Hanyu pinyin: huā yàng nián huá), which means The Age of Blossom; the English title derives from a song 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).
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[edit] Plot outline
The movie takes place in Hong Kong, 1962. Chow Mo-Wan (Tony Leung Chiu-Wai), a journalist, rents a room in an apartment on the same day as Su Li-zhen (Maggie Cheung Man-yuk), a secretary from a shipping company. They become next-door neighbours. Each has a spouse who is working and often leaves their spouse alone on overtime shift. Despite the presence of a friendly landlady and neighbours, Chow and Su often find themselves alone in their rooms, and they begin to strike up a friendship.
Eventually, they realize that their spouses are cheating on them with each other. Their mutual grief causes them to start spending more and more time together. In an attempt to figure out how their spouses started having the affair, they begin to play an elaborate game where Chow Mo-wan pretends to be actually courting Su Li-zhen. They meet for dinner, and start to be flirtatious with one another.
During this time, to help take their minds off their spouse's affairs, Chow also asks Su Li-Zhen to assist him in writing a martial-arts serial. They spend long hours together discussing various story-lines, and eventually rent another apartment (numbered 2046) where they can meet and avoid the gossip of their neighbors.
Though they try to keep their relationship platonic since they think that they are better than their spouses, they soon begin to genuinely fall in love with each other. Chow realizes that Su Li-Zhen is a far better woman for him than his wife, one with the perfect combination of beauty, caring, and intellect. Su Li-Zhen also starts to see Chow as a much more warm-hearted and caring person, someone with which she can truly be herself. Chow Mo-Wan asks her to leave her husband and run away with him. However, while Su Li-Zhen also has feelings for Chow, she refuses. Ultimately, they find out that they are no better than their spouses, and that feelings can develop no matter how hard one tries to suppress them.
Unable to bear the agony of the pretend relationship any longer, Chow leaves for Singapore. The loss of Su Li-Zhen is almost unbearable to Chow Mo-wan, and his recovery from this relationship is explored in Wong Kar Wai's next film, 2046
[edit] Style
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 everyday over a very long period of time. However, paying attention to the dresses (qipao) that Maggie Cheung wears reveals that she wore a different dress in every single shot in those sequences. Obviously they are not the same shot edited over and over again but actually artistic shots with different costume and makeup for each shot.
Also, 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.
[edit] Soundtrack
- Shigeru Umebayashi: "Yumeji's Theme" (originally from the soundtrack of Seijun Suzuki's Yumeji)
- Michael Galasso: "Angkor Wat Theme", "ITMFL", "Casanova/Flute"
- Nat King Cole: "Aquellos Ojos Verdes", "Te Quiero Dijiste", "Quizás, Quizás, Quizás"
- Bryan Ferry: "I'm in the Mood for Love" (the inspiration for the title, found on e.g. the French 2 CD Soundtrack, not in the film)
[edit] Cast and roles
- Tony Leung Chiu Wai - Chow Mo-Wan
- Maggie Cheung - Su Lizhen (Mrs Chan)
- Siu Ping Lam - Ah Ping
- Cheung Tung Cho 'Joe' - Special appearance
- Rebecca Pan - Mrs Suen
- Lai Chen - Mr Ho
- Chan Man-Lei
- Koo Kam-wah
- Roy Cheung - Mr Chan (voice)
- Zhi-Gong Chen - The amah (female servant)
- Yu Hsien
- Chow Po-chun
- Paulyn Sun - Mrs Chow (voice)
- Wong Man-lei - Koo Kam-wah
- Julien Carbon - French tourist (uncredited)
[edit] 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.
[edit] Awards and nominations
- 2000 Cannes Film Festival
- Won: Best Actor (Tony Leung Chiu-wai)
- Won: Technical Grand Prize (Christopher Doyle, Lee Ping-bing, William Chang)
- Nominated: Palm d'Or
- 2001 Hong Kong Film Awards
- Won: Best Actor (Tony Leung Chiu-wai)
- Won: Best Actress (Maggie Cheung)
- Won: Best Art Direction (William Chang)
- Won: Best Costume and Make-up Design (William Chang)
- Won: Best Film Editing (William Chang)
- Nominated: Best Picture
- Nominated: Best Director (Wong Kar-wai)
- Nominated: Best Supporting Actress (Poon Dick-wah)
- Nominated: Best Screenplay (Wong Kar-wai)
- Nominated: Best New Performer (Siu Ping-lam)
- Nominated: Best Cinematography (Christopher Doyle, Lee Pin-bing)
- Nomianted: Best Original Score (Michael Galasso)
- 2001 Hong Kong Film Critics Society Awards
- Won: Best Director (Wong Kar-wai)
- Won: Film of merit
- 2002 National Society of Film Critics (USA)
- Won: Best Foreign Language Film
- Won: Best Cinematography (Christopher Doyle, Lee Pin-bing)
- 2001 Cesar Awards
- Won: Best Foreign Film
- 2001 German Film Awards
- Won: Best Foreign Film
- 2001 New York Film Critics Circle Awards
- Won: Best Foreign Language Film
- Won: Best Cinematography (Christopher Doyle, Lee Pin-bing)
- 2001 BAFTA Awards
- Nominated: Best Foreign Language Film
- 2002 Argentinian Film Critics Association Awards
- Won: Best Foreign Language Film
- 2000 Asia-Pacific Film Festival
- Won: Best Cinematography (Christopher Doyle, Lee Pin-bing)
- Won: Best Editing (William Chang)
- 2001 Australian Film Institute Awards
- Nominated: Best Foreign Language Film
- 2001 British Independent Film Awards
- Won: Best Foreign Language Film
- 2002 Broadcast Film Critics Association Awards
- Nomianted: Best Foreign Language Film
[edit] Miscellaneous
While set in Hong Kong, the actual filming location of outdoor and hotel scenes was Bangkok, Thailand. The movie also incorporates footage of Angkor Wat, Cambodia.
[edit] See also
[edit] External links
- Official site
- In the Mood for Love at the Internet Movie Database
- Criterion Collection essay by Li Cheuk-to
- A review/essay of the DVD set released by Criterion Collection by David Ng.
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 (2007)
Short Films: wkw/tk/1996@7′55″hk.net (1996) • Hua Yang De Nian Hua (2000) • The Hire: The Follow (2001) • Six Days (2002)
