Review of In the Mood for Love (2000) by Matt R — 25 Aug 2008

Impeccably done, meticulously edited, and just down right gorgeous. I am still trying to figure it out and need to watch it again to document all of the signs that the film uses to transition from and into different temporalities and realities.

With that said, given the way that the divine is focalized at the end of the film (notice the long shot, where the camera moves behind the monk looking down at Mr. Chow was he whispers into the wood column cluing us as spectators into the fact that this act is being witnessed and offered to the divine), I would be tempted to read the film through this perspective.

Might not the divine be the secret that remains secret (as a spectator, do we really know what he whispers or would not every interpretation of what he whispers be just that, an interpretation predicated on what we desire and the place one takes in respect to the film) but that nevertheless generates and animates all motion and emotion.

..im not sure, but if this is the case, then I would be interested in thinking about how the film offers a meditation on love since this is no ordinary love story (it even keeps the obvious conventions of the love story secret from the spectator, ie, a consummation scene, etc).