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New Century of Cinema
DOWSE Guide to the
Movies
by Tony Lee editor of
Pigasus
Press
In The Mood For Love
aka: Huayang Nianhua
98 minutes (PG) aspect ratio 1.66.1
Director: Wong Kar-Wai
review by Gary Couzens
In 1962 Hong Kong, Mrs Chan (Maggie Cheung Man-Yuk), a shipping-office clerk, rents a
room in a boarding house for herself and her husband. On the same day, Chow Mo-Wan
(Tony Leung Chiu-Wai) and his wife move into the adjoining flat. Soon it becomes
apparent to Chow and Mrs Chan that their spouses are having an affair with each other.
They go out for a coffee to discuss the situation, and slowly and tentatively a romance
develops between the two.
Mood is the perfect word. The plot is minimal to almost absent, with most
of the action (in the conventional sense of the word) taking place offscreen. But, as
with other films by this director (such as Chungking Express) that doesn't
matter: what takes its place is atmosphere, at times so delicate that overstatement
would crumble it. With the aid of his regular crew of Australian cameraman Christopher
Doyle, production designer William Chang, and composer Michael Galasso (with Nat King
Cole on the soundtrack), Wong conjures up images that cast a considerable spell. It's
a reminder that as well as epic scales, you need the big screen for small details that
carry a lot of weight. In The Mood For Love is heavy with love and loss, with
what might be and might have been, more erotic than any amount of explicit sex could
be.
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