In the mood for love is probably one of the most iconic movies of all time and I’ve been meaning to watch it for a while. It was everything that I expected and more. Its one of those movie that for a person like me, a novice in the study of film making – seems like almost sacrilege to even attempt to critique the movie. Wong Kar Wai is an amazing director that many can learn from. This is just my humble attempt to be a part of that movie’s experience and elaborate on themes that I found interesting.
Narrative
The film opens with two couples moving in to an apartment building in Hong Kong. We are introduced to Mr. Chow and Mrs. Chan, who are moving in on the same date. This is their first encounter in the movie.
It is a restless moment. She has kept her head lowered… to give him a chance to come closer. But he could not, for a lack of courage. She turns and walks away.
Hong Kong, 1962
From their very first encounter in the apartment building, we are drawn into the narrow hallways, staircases, and cramped interiors. Spaces so tight they seem to force intimacy. These corridors press bodies into proximity, making it impossible not to breath in each other’s presence. While Mrs. Chan and Mr. Chow move with caution, almost avoiding eye contact, it is within these confined spaces that their emotional distance begins to dissolve. The narrowness becomes more than a physical constraint. It transforms into a recurring motif, shaping the quiet, suspended poetry of their relationship. In In the mood for love, space doesn’t just frame the story; it writes it. Softly, hesitantly, with the ache of beauty that haunts the film long after it ends.
Cinematographer Christopher Doyle uses tight framing to emphasize the sense of isolation the characters are feeling. It stirs inside them both but they rarely express it in strong words or emotional reactions. Our characters are often behind walls, seen through windows or mirrors. Its like we are watching their emotions from afar and there is a deep foggy divide between us and them. We want to reach out and comfort them but increasingly fail to do so by the way both of them wall each other off. And its not just for the observers. They carry this sense of detachment even with each other. We see it in the alleyways, in the hotel rooms and all spaces they inhabit. Like a wall they want to smash to pieces but just stop themselves right at the cusp of the moment.
The color pallette is rich with saturated colors. There is a generous use of reds and greens. In the long overflowing red curtains, furniture and in the character of Mrs Chan herself. Maggie Cheung’s timeless beauty and the elegance of her movements define her character but her wardrobe is something else entirely. Mrs. Chan predominantly wears cheongsams (or qipao), a traditional Chinese dress. These dresses are characterized by their figure hugging silhouette, high collars, and knee length hems. The prints are often loud and bold with vibrants colors. Its unmistakeable that beneath her grace and elegance, she carries quite a passionate personality. These cheongsams are more than just clothing; they are a key element in storytelling, conveying the emotions and restrained desires of Mrs. Chan.
We are never directly introduced to Mr. Chan or Mrs. Chow but we still strongly feel the impact of their actions. By the way their respective spouses exude the deep sadness and sense of betrayal. It appears in the way they carry themselves, flows when they look at each other and exits like a lingering scent in their silence.
It was the little things that awoke them to what was happening in the background of their marital screen. Clues about the affair between their unseen spouses emerge very gradually. Matching gift items, eerily similar routines. These echoes suggest not just infidelity, but a disturbing symmetry: that Mrs. Chan’s husband and Mr. Chow’s wife are likely entangled with each other. Yet Wong Kar Wai never confirms this directly. The truth remains just out of frame, like the spouses themselves. This ambiguity deepens the emotional weight.
The frames above are the moments when both of them are starting to fully realize the truth of the situation. That their loved ones had committed something horrible. An irreversible act of betrayal. The weight of that truth drowning in their eyes. When you are getting to know them in the movie, they both appear to be truly fine people. Gentle, loving and beautiful. The kind of people anyone would be lucky to have. The human condition is such that sometimes having the most wonderful person isn’t enough to quench the thirst of certain personalities.
It is these moments when I see people struggling to find a reason for a thing like that happening to them… Trying to figure out if they did something or didn’t do something that led to this. Truly heart wrenching. Nothing could be farther from the truth. There just are some people who simply don’t have the capacity to appreciate the loveliness of what they have. These are haunted beings who are always in the search of some kind of rush. The novelty of something new being enough to sacrifice the beauty of what is already there. This movie though, isn’t about the motivations of the betraying spouses. Its about Mr. Chow and Mrs. Chan and the kind of humans they were. The emotional world they inhabited, their desires and restraints.
They slowly begin being drawn to eachother. A sort of magnetism bringing their worlds together. The stories and the hurt they read in each other’s eyes. They indulge in sort of a poetic dance of trying to retrace their spouses steps. Trying to decipher their spouses movements. How did they meet? What attracted them to each other? What sort of things did they talk about? What did they do with each other? The same questions circling in their heads over and over again. Was it a quest for resolution? A desire for revenge? At times you’d feel that it was neither.
It just seemed like two hurt people trying to find solace in each other’s company. It seemed as if they had made a quite resolution. To not be like their betraying spouses and not repeat the actions that started all of this in the first place. It was a small gesture of not wanting to be like the people that hurt them.
Somewhere between play-acting what their spouses did and performing small acts of affection, it becomes quite clear that they have started developing feelings for each other. Their glances filled with longing born out of despair. Their involvement with eachother started out of a need for understanding.
They sub-consciously saw each other as placeholders of the actual offenders. As if the person standing in front of them could give clues about their spouses. When Mrs. Chan looked at Mr. Chow, she was looking for the soul of his wife in him. Mr. Chow would frame Mrs. Chan in the shadow of her husband. It was the weirdest alchemy that started forming between them. These little enactments transformed their dramatic engagement into finding something special. Like a sculptor tearing away the stone in front of them piece by piece to see what form it would materialize as.
Their bond evolved from shared pain. Slow, deeply restrained. They become chained by what they refuse to do. Not pursuing each other romantically even with their emotions crying out for a resolution was not out of some commitment to their cheating spouses. It was a pursuit of what love can be. This movie showed me that love can have restraint, it can be more beautiful in its subtleties than an all consuming passion. In a way, I think they were trying to reinforce the sanctity of emotions such as love, attraction and affection.
Even before Mrs. Chan says anything, Mr. Chow almost reassures her that he knows she is not going to leave her husband. In this way, their longing becomes much more powerful than consummation.
When you think about a person all the time in this way.. It does something strange to you. Looking at the changing lines of their features, the way something sparks joy in their eyes, each movement of their body memorized… Yet to say to yourself that this isn’t meant to be, must be the hardest thing in the world. There’s a term in filmmaking that loosely describes this. “A defining moment.” The realizations that both of them go through and the emotions they start feeling define both of their personalities. Changing and transuting two souls forever.
I struggle a little to understand their motives behind not pursuing each other but i do get that it was more about the sanctity we spoke of earlier than anything else. Its maturity most of us cannot fathom. Most of us want to possess what we desire even if it meant the annihilation of the rest of the world. But here are two people who chose completely different paths.
It was a lot more to do with Mrs. Chan’s character than Mr. Chow I believe. Although we cannot deny him the respect of honoring Mrs. Chan’s wishes. While he did express his emotions and hinted that he was open to this relationship, we get very little confirmation from Mrs. Chan if at all. She never confesses her feelings. She was the one who chooses to stay with her husband. We are never told if the same thing happened with Mr. Chow or not. This was such a sharp contrast with the achingly beautiful exterior personality of Mrs. Chan. Her form hugging wardrobe with big, beautiful and colorful patterns. When you looked at her you could tell that she was an extremely self assured, confident and modern woman. And yet she carried the values of her culture. She cared about the land lady not thinking badly of her. She cared about what certain actions said about her. In essence, a direct contrast with Mr. Chow’s wife who appeared to be devoid of any moral compunctions and was cold and distant in her demeanor. Atleast from the interactions we saw of her with her husband. Mr. Chan was probably the same way.
Neither of them even confront their spouses. Mr. Chow did not betray a hint of anger, resentment or rage. Normally, you would expect the man to extinguish the life out of anyone who did this to him. It was not like Mr. Chow did not possess those emotions. He simply chose to sink in the hurt than externalize it. He redirected his energy to writing samurai novels that he often thought of doing. In a way, I feel they were better suited to be with each other than with their spouses. But such is the irony of life.
The relationship fades as slowly and quietly as it had started. All we are left with are the lingering notes of the main theme which had played over and over in all their encounters. All their slow movements imprinted in the minds of the viewers.
There was a dialogue in the movie where Mr. Chow speaks of secrets to his friend that I found very beautiful.
“In the old days, if someone had a secret they didn’t want to share… you know what they did? They went up a mountain, found a tree, carved a hole in it, and whispered the secret into the hole. Then they covered it with mud. That way, nobody else would ever discover it.”
This was brought to life when we see Mr. Chow visiting Cambodia years later. Amidst the ruins of the Angkor Wat temple, he places his mouth against a hole in the wall and whispers his secret into it. A symbolic act of burying his unresolved love and sorrow, just like the old myth. You almost feel as if one could breath life into a secret and enshrine it in the crevces of nature. Then your secret lives like a sentient being, with its own energy. Reverberating across mountains, rivers and forests forever in search of a resolution.
We live in the era where we all always must seize the day. Express what we feel. Go after what we want. Consummate our desires. And yet there are these characters who choose to live in the agony of desperate longing. You don’t see them thinking that they only have this one life. That if they did not go after this, all would be lost. They simply felt it and let it exist in the world.
Maggie Cheung and Tony Leung weren’t just beautiful to look at, their performances leave a lasting impression. They portrayed emotions through their eyes, their gestures and body language. It created a visual symphony that complimented that of the movie. Two red strings bound with each other like destiny. What happens to one person resonated in the other.
This is a movie that stays with you. Long after the credits roll.
Quanta Reads 