In the Mood for Love is a Hong Kong film from the director of Chungking Express, and is a fairly interesting but slow film that might need a second viewing in order to be fully appreciated. I need a second viewing, that’s for sure! My first viewing was frustrating -- I was expecting an elegant masterpiece, but I got a fairly tedious affair, although there are some good moments. Typical! My expectations were too high, again!

The two lead characters of the film are a man and a woman who discover that their respective spouses are having an affair with each other. This situation allowed itself to happen because, as we see at the first of the film, the two couples move into an apartment complex, and each get the room next to the other. The trick to the movie is that we never see the adulterers, except for a couple of moments where they speak off screen or with their backs turned to the camera; the story takes place entirely with the offended spouses, who, in their attempts to console each other, quite possibly may begin an affair of their own. But that’s if they actually have the confidence -- or the gall -- to actually do anything about it.

The relationship between these two is very strange. There’s a lot of tension, but little action. The two do go out frequently; they pretty much have to, since their better (?) halves are always gone. And there are a couple of times where they do manage to hold hands and console each other. But as far as I can remember they never do anything like kiss and the movie seems to say that if it weren’t for the fact that they’re married (and the social graces which accompany such a fact), these two just might be able to fulfill a romance. Instead, the two people have to act all polite and subtle to each other, while pondering on what might have been, as the camera slows down in order to elevate this romantic tension to more grandiose heights.

There are some interesting elements in the screenplay. I said that the two people don’t get involved in a ‘real’ romance, but they do manage some associations with each other. The most notable is when they embark in a collaboration in creating a martial-arts story. Apparently, such things are popular enough that they are published in the daily paper (this is China, what, do you think they would dare publish facts and news in their newspaper???), and the two of them do something together that they would never have the guts to do separately, which is to write the story. But even this seemingly innocuous activity is fraught with problems, because this, like all the other stuff they do together, may be under scrutiny. They attempt not to be seen with each other at most any time, and when they decide to spend the night and the next day writing their little story, they end up having to lock themselves in the bedroom for the whole day because the people who rented out the rooms to the couples end up having a night-long (and day-long) card game. Much of the reason that their story writing comes about is because of an earlier conversation in which they talk about how married people have to decide for two, that is, decide what’s best for both sides of the couple, while neglecting their own personal interests, hobbies, etc. Marriage does sound a bit like that…. Somehow I don’t think, if I ever get married, I’d be doing the same trivial things I’m doing now to entertain myself. Somehow I don’t think I’ll be sitting here, writing movie reviews all the time, or watching certain movies (do you really think that I’ll be able to get away with renting a foreign film with my better half? Not bloody likely!).

As well, the two console each other, in somewhat strange ways. My favourite parts are when the two ‘rehearse’ possible scenarios. For example, the man and the woman play out a situation where the woman confronts her husband on his adultery. The man pretends to be the husband, and gives himself a defiant persona. The purpose of this is obviously to get the woman to face up to the truth, instead of keeping everything bottled up (although the man isn’t exactly any better at confronting his own wife about the affair either). There is also a scene near the end in which the two play-act a situation where they are doomed to part and not continue the obviously growing affection between them, but in that case it’s hard to say whether this façade will actually remain a fiction.

The film is alright, but oftentimes it seems to suffer from excess artiness. There are many scenes of repetitive music and slow motion which are nice from a cinematic standpoint (there are nice night-time shots of the characters in the midst of downpours, and romantic shots of the two meeting at the noodle stand), but which stop the movie cold. It soon becomes apparent that the movie is more about style than substance, which is why the movie moves so slowly. Not all slow movies are slow because of this reason -- today I just watched The Colour of Paradise, an Iranian film which also moves quite slowly -- but at least the Iranian film was slow merely because it told a quiet story. In the Mood for Love is slow because half of the movie devotes itself to pretty shots, and I feel like falling asleep because I want something interesting to happen! Most of the stuff I mentioned before is interesting, but that only consists of maybe less than half of the movie. There isn’t any real power at the end, at least as far as I was concerned.

The night of this movie was one of those nights where I wasn’t able to focus the majority of my attention (I’m far too scatterbrained to be able to focus all of my attention on any one thing!), and that was probably the reason why I didn’t care very much for the goings-on of these people in repressed love. It’s one thing if the film has a bizarre story, but if the movie with artsy elements in it is playing in front of a very distracted brain, the movie is not going to win the fight. Simple as that! Then again, I find that I’m a bit of an old school viewer most of the time --- I’d be more entertained by a movie filled with snazzy dialogue than with snazzy imagery. Give me a Billy Wilder movie any day.

Overall, In the Mood for Love isn’t a very fun movie. It’s rather inert at times, and without a lot of warmth or life -- it’s all rather slow and dry, and empty. Stories of affairs and melodrama can be good -- hey, I have here amongst all the junk in my room the box set of the first season of Upstairs Downstairs, a British soap with enough scandal and intrigue and melodrama to fill… well, to fill thirteen episodes. It is also slow and occasionally meandering --- and, unlike this movie, also static and cheap-looking -- yet I think I got more out of these pompous Brits than those emotionless Chinese. Oh well, better luck next time.

Recommended:
No

Viewing Format: VHS
Video Occasion: None of the Above