In the Mood for Love

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In the Mood for Love

Directed by	Wong Kar-wai
Produced by	Wong Kar-wai
Written by	Wong Kar-wai
Starring	Tony Leung Maggie Cheung
Distributed by	USA Films
Release date(s)	Image:Flag of Hong Kong.svg Sept. 29 2000 Image:Flag of the United States.svg Feb. 2 2001
Running time	98 min 94 min (Poland)
Language	Cantonese Shanghaiese French
Preceded by	Days of Being Wild (1991)
Followed by	2046 (2004)
All Movie Guide profile
IMDb profile

In the Mood for Love (Traditional Chinese: 花樣年華; Simplified Chinese: 花样年华, Yale (Cantonese): fa1 yeung6 nin4 wa4, Hanyu pinyin: huā yàng nián huá, literal translation: "Age of Blossom") is a 2000 Hong Kong art film written and directed by Wong Kar-wai, starring Maggie Cheung and Tony Leung Chiu Wai.

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).

1 Plot outline
2 Style
3 Soundtrack
4 Cast and roles
5 Box Office
6 Awards
7 Miscellaneous
8 See also
9 External links

[edit] Plot outline

Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow.

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.

Chow and Su admit their shared suspicions that their spouses are cheating on them with each other. Chow persuades Su to reenact what they imagine might have happened between their partners' and their lovers, and slowly the line between playacting and real romance blurs.

Chow invites Su to help him with a martial arts series that he is writing for the newspaper. As their relationship begins to draw closer, people begin to notice, and Chow and Su try to persuade each other that they will not end up as their spouses.

Spoilers end here.

[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 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)
Chi Chi-ang - 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

Best Actor, 2000 Cannes Film Festival
Best Foreign Film, 2001 César Award
Screen International Award, 2000 European Film Awards

[edit] Miscellaneous

The movie forms the second part of an informal trilogy, together with Days of Being Wild (released in 1991) and 2046 (released in 2004).

While set in Hong Kong, the actual filming location of outdoor scenes was Bangkok, Thailand. The movie also incorporates footage of Angkor Wat, Cambodia.