Review of In the Mood for Love (2000) by Vic R — 31 Dec 2009

In the Mood for Love remains Wong Kar Wai's masterpiece. The film tells the tale of neighbors that fall in love after discovering their spouses are romantically involved. Their inability to neither consummate their relationship nor save their respective marriages is paralleled by the political stalemate that Hong Kong was experiencing during the film's time frame. WKW along with his cinematographer, Christopher Doyle, capture these lovers perpetually reflected in mirrors and glass. The often claustrophobic interiors and use of repeated scenes enhance the memory-like tone of the film. The lovers are trapped by their own conditioning, meeting in secret under the auspices that they are practicing for real life but it soon becomes apparent they are simply using their meetings as another distraction. The sense of frustrated longing is sometimes unbearable.

Tony Leung and Maggie Cheung both give fantastic performances and are incredibly beautiful in their scenes; impeccable props in the tableau of their memories. The fractured images of their relationship conspire to become a memory itself; its fractured moments rearranged in the minds of its lovers. It is nothing less than the whispered regrets entombed in the ancient temple, at the film's conclusion.