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IMDbPro

In the Mood for Love

Original title: Fa yeung nin wah
  • 20002000
  • PGPG
  • 1h 38m
IMDb RATING
8.0/10
146K
YOUR RATING
POPULARITY
1,785
134
Maggie Cheung and Tony Chiu-Wai Leung in In the Mood for Love (2000)
Trailer 1
Play trailer1:54
5 Videos
99+ Photos
  • Drama
  • Romance
Two neighbors form a strong bond after both suspect extramarital activities of their spouses. However, they agree to keep their bond platonic so as not to commit similar wrongs.Two neighbors form a strong bond after both suspect extramarital activities of their spouses. However, they agree to keep their bond platonic so as not to commit similar wrongs.Two neighbors form a strong bond after both suspect extramarital activities of their spouses. However, they agree to keep their bond platonic so as not to commit similar wrongs.
IMDb RATING
8.0/10
146K
YOUR RATING
POPULARITY
1,785
134
  • Director
    • Kar-Wai Wong
  • Writer
    • Kar-Wai Wong
  • Stars
    • Tony Chiu-Wai Leung
    • Maggie Cheung
    • Siu Ping-Lam
Top credits
  • Director
    • Kar-Wai Wong
  • Writer
    • Kar-Wai Wong
  • Stars
    • Tony Chiu-Wai Leung
    • Maggie Cheung
    • Siu Ping-Lam
  • See production, box office & company info
    • 475User reviews
    • 36Critic reviews
    • 85Metascore
  • See more at IMDbPro
    • Nominated for 1 BAFTA Award
      • 46 wins & 51 nominations total

    Videos5

    In the Mood for Love
    Trailer 1:54
    In the Mood for Love
    In The Mood For Love: The Criterion Collection [Blu-Ray]
    Trailer 1:23
    In The Mood For Love: The Criterion Collection [Blu-Ray]
    In The Mood For Love
    Trailer 1:23
    In The Mood For Love
    How Marvel's Been Paving the Way for Shang-Chi
    Clip 3:54
    How Marvel's Been Paving the Way for Shang-Chi
    Jurnee Smollett's Valentine's Day Watchlist
    Full Episode 3:40
    Jurnee Smollett's Valentine's Day Watchlist

    Photos834

    Chow Mo-wan & Mrs. Chan
    Chow Mo-wan & Mrs. Chan
    Wong Kar-Wai on the set with co-cinematographer Christopher Doyle
    Chow Mo-wan & Mrs. Chan
    Maggie Cheung and Tony Chiu-Wai Leung at an event for In the Mood for Love (2000)
    In the Mood for Love (2000)
    In the Mood for Love (2000)
    In the Mood for Love (2000)
    In the Mood for Love (2000)
    Maggie Cheung in In the Mood for Love (2000)
    Tony Chiu-Wai Leung in In the Mood for Love (2000)
    In the Mood for Love (2000)

    Top cast

    Edit
    Tony Chiu-Wai Leung
    Tony Chiu-Wai Leung
    • Chow Mo-wanas Chow Mo-wan
    • (as Tony Chiu Wai Leung)
    Maggie Cheung
    Maggie Cheung
    • Su Li-zhen - Mrs. Chanas Su Li-zhen - Mrs. Chan
    Siu Ping-Lam
    • Ah Pingas Ah Ping
    • (as Ping-Lam Siu)
    Tung Cho 'Joe' Cheung
    Tung Cho 'Joe' Cheung
    • Man living in Mr. Koo's apartmentas Man living in Mr. Koo's apartment
    • (as Tung Joe Cheung)
    Rebecca Pan
    Rebecca Pan
    • Mrs. Suenas Mrs. Suen
    Kelly Lai Chen
    Kelly Lai Chen
    • Mr. Hoas Mr. Ho
    • (as Lai Chen)
    Man-Lei Chan
    Man-Lei Chan
    • Mr. Kooas Mr. Koo
    Kam-Wah Koo
    Szu-Ying Chien
    Szu-Ying Chien
    • Amahas Amah
    • (as Tsi-Ang Chin)
    Paulyn Sun
    Paulyn Sun
    • Mrs. Chowas Mrs. Chow
    • (voice)
    • (as Jia-Jun Sun)
    Roy Cheung
    Roy Cheung
    • Mr. Chanas Mr. Chan
    • (voice)
    Po-chun Chow
    Hsien Yu
    Julien Carbon
    • French touristas French tourist
    • (uncredited)
    Laurent Courtiaud
    • French reporteras French reporter
    • (uncredited)
    Charles de Gaulle
    Charles de Gaulle
    • Self (1966 visit to Cambodia)as Self (1966 visit to Cambodia)
    • (archive footage)
    • (uncredited)
    • Director
      • Kar-Wai Wong
    • Writer
      • Kar-Wai Wong
    • All cast & crew
    • See more cast details at IMDbPro

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    Storyline

    Edit

    Did you know

    Edit
    • Trivia
      Director Kar-Wai Wong was shooting the ending and editing the film a little over a week before its debut at Cannes.
    • Goofs
      When Mr. Chow is waiting with Mrs. Chan for the rain to stop, he is suddenly completely dry despite running through the rain only moments earlier.
    • Quotes

      Caption: He remembers those vanished years. As though looking through a dusty window pane, the past is something he could see, but not touch. And everything he sees is blurred and indistinct.

    • Connections
      Featured in At the Movies: Mission: Impossible II/Running Free/Passion of Mind/Big Momma's House (2000)
    • Soundtracks
      Yumeji's Theme
      Composed and recorded by Shigeru Umebayashi (as Umebayashi Shigeru)

      Courtesy of Emotion Music Co., Ltd.

    User reviews475

    Review
    Top review
    10/10
    Possibly Wong Kar-Wai's best film
    It's easy to see why many people consider In the Mood for Love to be Wong Kar-Wai's best film. The toned down appeal of the film, centering on the studied view of a relationship put through an emotional ringer, is a retread into Happy Together territory but without the hyper-kinetic patchwork of jarring film stocks and hyper-saturated sequences that have become a trademark of Kar-Wai's films since Chungking Express. Like Soderbergh's The Limey, this is a different kind of curio for Kar-Wai; where dialogue and plot are forsaken by mood and composition in order to create a tale of two delicate lives in a seemingly confining emotional stasis.

    It's a testament to the genius of Kar-Wai that he is capable to making such a simple tale so resonating. Chow Mo-Wan (Tony Leung) and Su Li-zhen (Maggie Cheung) move in next-door to each other within the same apartment building. He's a journalist who dreams of publishing martial-arts novels and she is a secretary at a shipping company. Their eventual coupling is obvious from the beginning but the pleasure here is the way that Kar-Wai ambiguously paints such a journey with his grand masterstrokes.

    The key to the success of the film is Kar-Wai's use of the interior space, playing with foreground and background planes in ways that are similar to the works of Polanski. During the wooingly sensuous first half of the film, Kar-Wai isolates Leung and Cheung within shots in such a way that the second person in a conversation is never visible. Kar-Wai is concerned with environment and space here, creating a cramped emotional dynamic between his characters. It's also telling that Kar-Wai never chooses to focus on the physicality of Mo-Wan and Li-zhen's spouses. Their faceless partners are noticeably absent from the film, as they are tending to their own love affairs with each other.

    This is not to suggest that In the Mood for Love is a confining experience because Kar-Wai manages to inundate his film with broad splashes of hypnotic camera movement and sound. There is one shot where Cheung's slow, sensual rise up a metaphorical stairway turns into Leung's descent down the very same stairwell; their movements perfectly compliment each other, bookending the shot and creating a sense of erotic duality between the two figures. Their souls have connected but they have yet to physically unite. The erotic displacement of these scenes is both fascinating and frustrating, as two star-crossed lovers reject physical consummation due to their humble fidelity.

    Other scenes in the film are punctuated with brief slow-motion shots of Cheung erotically moving through her interior surroundings, set to Mike Galasso's hauntingly beautiful score. Cheung's dresses beautifully compliment her exterior space as she moves slowly through her surroundings. Her movements slowly build up to what seems to be an inevitable fusion between Li-szhen and her dream lover even though the seduction process seems to be entirely sub-conscious.

    If I make it seem that these two characters are more like two birds unleashing pheromones on each other, it probably isn't that far-fetched of a statement. The tight bond these two characters have with their internal spaces is almost as intense as their relationship to the exteriors. The film rarely moves into an exterior space and when the camera does it is usually to peak through oval windows and symbolic bars that always remind us that these characters are like confined animals. Kar-Wai continues to tease us even when the lovers get close enough to touch, shattering the couple's proximity to each other by shooting them through mirrors or through gaps within articles of clothing located inside of a closet. Mother Nature even seems to respond to their love lust, often unleashing a soft crest of rain over the characters after their bodies have glided near each other.

    Kar-Wai's hauntingly atmospheric shots of a waterfall allowed Leung's Lai Yu-Fai to experience a cathartic release in Happy Together, even if Leslie Cheung's Ho Po-wing was not there to enjoy it with him. By that film's end, love was so inextricably bound to the act of war that a third man's muted declarations of love signaled Yu-Fai's realization that his dreams of seeing a waterfall would bring him inner peace, even if it would not bring him back his lover. Mo-Wan's journey terminates within the confines of a crumbling temple. His own emotional depletion is paralleled nicely with the political climate of his country, and the absence of Li-szhen is only made tolerable by the fact that Kar-Wai allows Mo-Wan to experience a release of sorts. Mo-Wan caters to an ancient myth and his secretive release into a crack in the temple leaves him capable of living his days with the hope that all his loss and heartache somehow served a higher purpose.
    helpful•188
    43
    • repulsion
    • Dec 17, 2000

    FAQ1

    • Where can I watch this film?

    Details

    Edit
    • Release date
      • March 9, 2001 (United States)
    • Countries of origin
      • Hong Kong
      • France
    • Official site
      • Jet Tone Films Ltd (Hong Kong)
    • Languages
      • Cantonese
      • Shanghainese
      • French
      • Spanish
    • Also known as
      • Three Stories About Food
    • Filming locations
      • Thailand
    • Production companies
      • Block 2 Pictures
      • Jet Tone Production
      • Orly Films
    • See more company credits at IMDbPro

    Box office

    Edit
    • Gross US & Canada
      • $2,738,980
    • Opening weekend US & Canada
      • $113,280
      • Feb 4, 2001
    • Gross worldwide
      • $14,202,625
    See detailed box office info on IMDbPro

    Technical specs

    Edit
    • Runtime
      1 hour 38 minutes
    • Color
      • Color
    • Sound mix
      • Dolby Digital
    • Aspect ratio
      • 1.66 : 1

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