In the Mood for Love is about romantic love and intense longing without sexual culmination. It is about the sacrifice of passion at the altar of fidelity. Some viewers will find the film overly frustrating, like an extended bout of foreplay interrupted before release is forthcoming. The foreplay, however, is, in this instance, technically magnificent.

Historical Background: Wong Kar-Wai was on a roll at the end of the 1990’s, having three straight successes behind him in Chungking Express (1994), Fallen Angels (1995), and Happy Together (1997). Chungking Express was characterized by a quick pace, busy surroundings, and a kinetic soundtrack. For In the Mood for Love, Wong downshifted emphatically to a glacial, moody pace. The result was a film of mesmerizing beauty and meaning.

The Story: The plot is simplicity itself. Set in Hong Kong, two couples move into rooms in adjacent apartments on the same floor of the same building on the same day. The husband of one of the couples, Mr. Chow (or Chow Mo-wan) (Tony Leung Chiu Wai), and the wife of the other couple, Mrs. Chan (nee Su Li-zhen) (Maggie Cheung), are responsible for orchestrating the moves. Their respective spouses are never seen on screen although we hear their voices on a few occasions. Mr. Chow and Mrs. Chan occasionally pass one another on the stairs or in the street, greeting each other politely, barely noticing one another. It gradually becomes apparent to both of them, however, that their respective spouses are having an affair with one another. The spouses are absent during the same time periods and items picked up by the cheating pair overseas get passed on to their spouses and recognized. The affair is confirmed for the audience by an overheard conversation between the cheating spouses in Mrs. Chow’s apartment. The cheating spouses take an extended trip to Japan together leaving the bereaved spouses to console one another.

Li-zhen and Chow begin to develop a relationship, initially based mainly on mutual commiseration. Each is trying to come to grips with the infidelity of their spouse. They role play the part of each other’s spouse, trying to imagine how they met and became involved. They gradually come to look forward to seeing one another and discover some shared interests. Both enjoy the martial-arts serial stories in the newspaper and they decide to collaborate on writing one. Both believe in marital fidelity and also want to avoid gossip or the appearance of impropriety. On one occasion, Li-zhen has to spend the night and part of the next day in Chow’s room because the other occupants of Chow’s apartment returned sooner than expected and she can’t be seen leaving Chow’s room. Even then, their relationship remains chaste. Chow ultimately acknowledges that he has fallen in love with Li-zhen. Although she makes no such declaration, we feel that she loves him as well. Chow decides to take a transfer to his newspaper’s Singapore office to get away from what is becoming an overwhelming temptation and frustration.

Over the next few years, they continue to yearn for one another secretly, each coming close several times to seeking the other out. Gradually, as memories do, the yearnings begin to subside. For his part, Chow ritualistically whispers his “secret” into a hole in a wooden pillar of a monastery and then plugs the hole up. Li-zhen sublimates her yearnings by having a child.

Themes: In the Mood for Love is about two things: fidelity and longing. While longing is something that all of us can relate to and experience in pretty much the same way, fidelity is a concept and value about which there are wide variations in principal and practice from person to person and culture to culture. Both Su Li-zhen and Chow Mo-wan believe in the rightness of marital fidelity. They are hurt by the infidelities of their respective spouses. If they did not believe cheating to be wrong, the infidelities of their spouses would, in fact, be less hurtful. Quite a few reviewers state or imply that the two main characters have a “right” to bed down with one another because their spouses are cheating on them. That may feel emotionally right, because revenge is a powerful motive, but it is not for two reasons. First, had Su Li-zhen and Chow Mo-wan quickly decided to have sex with one another on a quid pro quo rationale, their relationship would be a very shallow one indeed – motivated by vengeance and pretty much unrelated to how they felt about one another. That argument would be obviated if they became sexually involved only later in their relationship after they had developed genuine feelings for one another. The second point, however, doesn’t go away so easily. If one believes that infidelity is wrong and one’s belief system has been carefully thought out and internalized, that belief should not be contingent on whether any particular other person does or does not engage in marital infidelity. The promise of fidelity included among the marriage vows does not include a qualifier invalidating the promise if the partner is unfaithful. The Christian commandment in relation to fidelity does not say, “Thou shall not commit adultery . . . unless your spouse does first.” It’s not my intention, here, to suggest to readers what their views in relation to fidelity should be. That’s none of my business. I’m only arguing that those who truly believe that fidelity is an inviolable commitment do not suspend that belief for purposes of revenge.

Although the two protagonists express concerns about “gossip” and “appearances”, it is a mistake to argue that their respective commitments to fidelity are based primarily on social pressures. There are several occasions when they are alone together when they could have had sex without any additional risk to their reputations. In point of fact, they became the object of speculation by neighbors and colleagues despite their relationship remaining sexually chaste. They were concerned with “appearances” but in addition their internal moral compasses required that they not be unfaithful to their marriage vows. Two separate issues. Reviewers who attribute the lack of sexual culmination of their relationship to cowardice are wrong. They’re missing the point. One reviewer indicates that these “spineless characters made me sick” and blames it on an “incapacity of these two people to express love.” Another calls them “painfully reserved.” Another suggests they are constrained by “guilt.” Another says that they are “so afraid as to never act.” These reviewers are applying their own views in relation to fidelity and have failed to understand that these two people believe that infidelity is wrong and choose not to engage in it. The courage is not in cheating; the courage is choosing not to cheat despite a deep longing to do so. Su Li-zhen and Chow Mo-wan agree that “For us to do the same thing would mean we are no better than they are.”

Su Li-zhen and Chow Mo-wan do inadvertently develop a relationship far deeper than mere friendship. At first, it is founded mainly on their shared pain – at being victimized by cheating spouses. In a sense, they aren’t even truly alone together during their first few meetings – they have brought their respective spouses along in their thoughts. They playact how the two of them might have gotten started in their affair. They playact how Su Li-zhen might confront her husband when he returns. Ultimately, however, they develop a relationship separate from their shared pain – especially when they collaborate on a martial-arts serial story. Reviewers who say that these two “fail to connect” are also missing the point. They connect very deeply. They develop an intense longing for one another. They simply do not choose to take the step of physical consummation.

What constitutes “cheating” on a spouse? To be honest, there is a huge range of ideas about what degree of “intimacy” or “relationship” represents an offense. There are examples of supposed violations of “honor” in films that I would classify as pathologic jealousy. In Children of Paradise, for example, Count Edouard kills a man in a dual for merely smiling at his wife. In Rocco and His Brothers, Simone takes offense when his brother becomes romantically involved with a woman he had dated two years earlier. In my opinion, a reasonable definition of “cheating” has to be limited to physical intimacy. For one thing, people can’t control their feelings, but they can be held responsible for their actions. Take this hypothetical example. Suppose, for a moment, that the person that you are closest to in the whole world is one of your same-sex siblings. That sibling marries a man or woman and you gradually, not intending to do so, fall madly in love with your sibling’s spouse. Worse, you realize that the feeling is reciprocated. Both you and your in-law, however, love your sibling very much. You realize that your sibling would be devastated to discover that his or her spouse was cheating, especially with you. Despite your longing for one another, you suppress your sexual desire for one another out of love and respect for your sibling. In my opinion, that situation cannot rationally be considered “cheating.” Loving another person deeply, regardless of that person’s gender, is not cheating on your spouse. Having physical intimacy with that person (without your spouse’s concurrence) is cheating. The true test of marital fidelity is when one chooses not to act in the face of deep longing. Anyone can remain faithful if they never have opportunity or desire. What is thematically special about In the Mood for Love is that it combines profound longing with fidelity. The sexual tension is palpable but their love achieves a kind of noble perfection precisely because it is not sexually consummated. We yearn with them and feel their frustration. Some of us nevertheless applaud their choice.

Fidelity is not really an issue of sexual morality as some imagine. It’s an issue of having an honest foundation to a relationship. Personally, I have no moral objection to “open marriages” in which a couple mutually agrees that each may have sexual relationships outside of marriage. To me, honesty is what’s crucial to any healthy relationship.

Many viewers have trouble with the frustration factor. In the Mood for Love could be described as the world’s longest and most erotic episode of foreplay without culmination ever filmed. The words chosen by various reviewers are telling in that respect: the film “peters out in a way that satisfies neither character nor the audience” and the film has “no climax point.” Yes, precisely. Deal with it. That’s the point! Wong Kar-Wei is not going to pander to your need for release after all that foreplay as Hollywood would. The ending is exactly as it should be – beautiful, perfect, and transcendent. This film is about love without sex. Many films portray sex without love. Most of us understand that the best of life is when the two occur together, but sometimes one settles for one or the other alone.

Production Values: The production values for In the Mood for Love are startlingly close to perfection. The directing, cinematography, editing, soundtrack, and performances are all first-rate. Most of the scenes take place indoors in rather confined spaces. Even when Chow and Li-zhen are together, most shots encompass only one or the other. Some shots are taken through hanging clothes or between objects, emphasizing the crowded quarters. All of this has the effect of subconsciously illustrating how Chow and Li-zhen’s options are constrained by their belief systems and the mores of their society.

The burgeoning relationship between the two principals is developed by skillful editing and visual images more than dialog. We see them brushing past one another, one coming while the other is going, and, later, making eye contact, touching fingers, and later holding hands. Their love is woven stitch by stitch, leisurely, achingly slow at times, as real love occurs. All of the incipient-romantic scenes are accompanied by the beautiful, repetitious musical score of Mike Galasso, with emphasis on a solo cello (the ideal instrument to express longing) over percussion and songs by Nat King Cole. The lovers several times get caught on the street in monsoon downpours. Their faces glisten with beads of water, enhancing their sensuousness as though they were showering together. We see them repeating actions and dialog or oblivious to their surroundings – as people in love are wont to do. Cheung (as Li-zhen) wears a succession of beautiful, sleek, and colorful dresses with bright floral patterns. Leung (as Chow) is equally well coiffed. The color palette features rich reds, browns, and yellows. There are occasional freeze-frames and close-ups of slippers, walls, doorknobs, food, and so forth – just as we notice certain things in real life.

The device of excluding the cheating spouses from the screen is another marvel. How many films have you seen featuring the adulterer but not the faithful spouse at home? Here’s one that reverses the usual emphasis. More than that, it is Wong Kar-Wai’s way of saying that the lust of the faceless adulterers doesn’t deserve to share screen space with the idyllic, noble, chaste love of the faithful lovers.

Tony Leung Chiu Wai’s other appearances include Hard-Boiled (1992), Chungking Express (1994), and Cyclo (1995). Maggie Cheung appeared in Supercop (1992) and Irma Vep (1996). Their performances were such that one truly loses track of the fact that they are performances.

Bottom-Line: In the Mood for Love is an extraordinary piece of cinema. Its thematic territory is highly original and something that Hollywood would never think to tackle. The performances are exceptional and the cinematic qualities superlative. Yes, it’s a big tease – a big frustrating tease! We’re trained to want to see ours stars ripping off each other’s clothes and hoppin’ into bed. Here's a rare chance to soar through a loftier realm for a change. In the Mood for Love is mostly in Cantonese Chinese, with English subtitles. The running time is 98 minutes and it’s rated PG.


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You might want to check out these other excellent films from China, Hong Kong, and Taiwan:

Chungking Express
Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon
Eat Drink Man Woman
The Emperor and the Assassin
Fallen Angels
Farewell My Concubine
Hero
Raise the Red Lantern
Red Sorghum
Road Home
Shanghai Triad
The Story of Qiu Ju
Temptress Moon
Together
To Live
What Time is it There?
The Women From the Lake of Scented Souls
Yi Yi

Recommended:
Yes

Video Occasion: Good Date Movie
Suitability For Children: Suitable for Children Age 13 and Older