In the mood for love (2000)

Director: Kar-Wai Wong

Starring: Tony Chiu-Wai Leung, Maggie Cheung, Ping Lam Siu

Two neighbors, a woman and a man, 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.

There are two reasons I decided to watch this: (1) I love Korean cinema. (2) The film is on the IMDB Top 250 list of highest rated films.

Having watched this, I can’t possibly understand how this can be one of the highest rated movies. This is one of the most restraint (boring!) love stories I have ever seen. I mean, hell, could this have been anymore boring???

The director used very unusual camerawork and I’m not sure I like it. Some angles made me believe he desperately tried to make an art movie (which I suppose it is). This could easily have been a stage play, and actually also looks and feels like one. We never get to see Chow’s wife, or Chan’s husband.

‘In the mood for love’ is incredibly slow moving and more often than not gave me a sense of deja vu. How many times do I want to see them eat noodles?? How many times must they get caught in the rain?? How many times must they show Chan walking in slow motion?? I felt like playing the film in fast forward (I’m certain, even then, I wouldn’t have missed much). Even the dialogue was repetitive. The film is all (uninteresting) talk and  no action (action as in something actually happening).

‘In the mood for love’ is definitely an acquired taste. The ONLY thing I enjoyed about this dreadfully boring film, were the beautiful costumes.

In Cantonese.

Would I watch it again? YAWN. No.