In the Mood for Love (2000)
5 /5Longing rendered as pure cinema — every corridor, cheongsam and cigarette a held breath.
Two neighbours in 1962 Hong Kong discover that their spouses are having an affair with each other. That is the entire premise, and Wong Kar-wai is not interested in the affair at all. He is interested in the two people left behind, and in everything they decide not to do.
The art of restraint
Tony Leung and Maggie Cheung play most of their scenes in narrow spaces: stairwells, rented rooms, the noodle stall at the bottom of the street. Christopher Doyle and Mark Lee Ping-bing frame them through doorways and behind walls, so we always seem to be watching from a slight distance, as if we were neighbours too.
Repetition does the emotional work. The same walk to the noodle stall, the same slow-motion pass on the stairs, the same waltz on the soundtrack. Each time it returns, it carries a little more weight.
Verdict
A film made almost entirely of gestures, and somehow one of the most romantic ever made. Watch it on the biggest screen you can find.
