In the Mood For Love

Significant for a number of reasons, 'In the Mood for Love' is not only a great film, routinely voted in polls as one of the best movies of its decade, it also completes Wong Kar-Wai’s decade-long examination of the barriers to human connectivity, a series of now-iconic and influential HK films which includes 'Chungking Express', 'Happy Together', 'Days of Being Wild' and 'Fallen Angels'. It also comes at the end of the millennium, which has the impression of being cinema’s last word on the theme of love and romance in the 20th Century.

In the Mood for Love (2000) dir. Wong Kar-Wai
Starring: Tony Leung, Maggie Cheung

By Alan Bacchus

Part of the allure of the cinema of Wong Kar-Wai is it’s relation to the prevailing action genre in Hong Kong at the time. After the proliferation of John Woo/Jackie Chan-inspired action and kung fu extravaganzas in the '90s, Kar-Wai seemed like the supreme antidote to these overly produced, emotionally excessive exports. In the Mood for Love is like a delicate porcelain doll. With a wisp of a story, the film coasts on the constrained angst of the characters, but always with a supreme cinematic eye, as cool, stylized and memorable as those engrossed action movies.

It’s 1962, and here Kar-Wai’s frequent collaborator Tony Leung plays Chow Mo-wan, a journalist looking for an apartment for him and his wife. Same with Su Chan (Maggie Cheung), his comely neighbour, alluring and gorgeous in her 60s bees nest hairdo and form-fitting pattern dresses. But Su’s also married to a man as busy and unavailable as Chow’s wife. Conscious efforts are made not to see the faces of Chow's or Su’s spouses, a commonality the audience subliminally recognizes, thus connecting the two characters together.

Gradually through a series of impressively edited montage scenes we learn of an affair between the two spouses. The sequence ends in a magnificent restaurant scene, in which Chow and Su question each other about their respective accessories - Chow’s tie, which resembles the same tie Su gave her husband from abroad, and Su’s bag, which resembles a bag Chow gave his wife.

A love affair develops between the two without consummation. Together they vow not to ‘become like their spouses’ and betray their marriages. Kar-Wai turns these screws extra tight as Chow gradually grows fonder of Su, subtly inviting her to consummate their relationship. Thus, Su’s increasing apprehension and teasing love furthers the sadness of their forlorn love. And after a series of time shifts forward into the late '60s where we see a downtrodden Chow return to the same apartment years later looking for Su, Kar-Wai elevates his drama to near-Odyssey-like tragedy.

Before In the Mood for Love, Kar-Wai was celebrated for a unique fluid visual style, his camera seemed free to float in and around the busy HK streets at will. But here Kar-Wai consciously sequesters himself in the tight spaces of the cramped apartment space. Even with these limitations he manages to find evocative compositions in which to frame his characters. We never see Chow’s wife but immediately identify her by the semi-circular window overlooking her office. And the frequent meeting place for Su and Chow in the early days of their courtship is simply the landing of the building’s staircase. Kar-Wai maximizes these repeated and simple slow-motion shots with help from the indelible music cue from Shigeru Umebayashi, and of course Christopher Doyle’s lauded cinematography and lighting.

It took four years for the follow-up, 2046, to come out and three years after that came his English-language film, My Blueberry Nights. These lengthy intervals suggest perhaps, much like the effect Apocalypse Now had on Francis Coppola’s career, In the Mood for Love exasperated Wong Kar-Wai's remarkable creative juices. I hope this isn't true.

****

In the Mood for Love is available on Blu-ray from The Criterion Collection.

Chungking Express

Chungking Express (1994) dir, Wong Kar Wai
Starring: Brigitte Lin, Takeshi Kaneshiro, Faye Wong, Tony Leung Chiu Wai

****

By Alan Bacchus

The opening credit in this film belongs to Quentin Tarantino's distribution arm Rolling Thunder Pictures, in his usual font, Though it's thematically and aesthetically different than his work, it's easy to see why this piqued Tarantino's interest. Both females leads are elusive hip chicks, not unlike Uma Thurman in both Pulp Fiction and Kill Bill, Pam Grier and Melanie Laurent and others. Ultimately we could derive this type of character from Jean-Luc Godard in Vivre Sa Vie, Anna Karina, the waify bohemian prostitute who was so darn sexy in that demure sweater.

In Chungking Express Brigitte Lin and Faye Wong exhibit the same desirable qualities as Anna Karina and those Tarantino characters. They are so elusive Kar-Wai doesn't even give them names. Lin is unidentified but unmistakeable as the mysterious woman with the blonde wig who always wears sunglasses even at night. Faye Wong plays the niece of a convenience store clerk with a 'je ne sais quoi' carefree flightiness. Both gals have enough  spunk to attract the attentions of two lonely heartbroken cops.

But this is a Wong Kar-Wai film which means lovers getting together is not so easy. Like many of his works, in particular In the Mood For Love, Wai tells a story of the barriers to love, instead of the emotional bond which should bring them together,

It's mid-90's Hong Kong, a rain-drenched city bristling with colourful neon, inhabited by night owls, an amalgam of cultures, Chinese, British, American, South Asian. Think Blade Runner in the present. Wai divides his 90mins into two distinct narratives set around the aforementioned convenience store deep in the heart of this electric city.

Takeshi Kaneshiro plays cop 223, whose just broke up with his girlfriend and finds himself ogling a mysterious, cloaked, wigged and sunglasses wearing drug dealer (Brigitte Lin). In the second half of the picture we see Tony Leung as cop 663 who has also broken up with his GF but drawn to Faye Wong's sprite and young convenience store clerk.

Leung's staid expressions fit his formal police attire. For Takeshi K he’s more outwardly love sick and thus wears his heart on his sleeve. He’s more susceptible to getting drunk and confessing his inner torment. The two contrasting personalities, both with the same conflicts and goals, work like a classic ying and yang.We never see these stories intertwined, yet we feel as they are both happening simultaneous or in some kind of Inception-like dreamworld.

Chungking has an honest and rare cinematic purity to it. It's wholly stylish, but not in an obtrusive way. The streetwise motion and colours organically weaves itself into the dreamlike narrative. A scattershot story really barely held together by plotting. Instead Wai tells a dual story which works better as one.

The universal love story and mix of cultures infused with the pitch perfect mix use Western pop songs, ‘What a Difference a Day Makes”, “California Dreaming”, also the Cranberries' 'Dreams' in Chinese, adds to the accessibility of this story.

Much has been written about Wai's impressionistic style. Indeed it's a visual and aural masterpiece. Not a set piece driven film, but a mix of elegance and edgy art house sensabilities. It’s both formal and controlled and wild and meandering. Watch the dialogue scenes often filmed with long lenses with the camera locked down, throwing the background out of focus and beautifying the subjects. The rest of the camera is constantly in motion, whipping, panning and moving about, not haphazardly always following the subject either the physical motion or the emotional state of the characters. Slo-motion, reflective surfaces all add to his hip-romantic aesthetic.

CHUNGKING EXPRESS

Chungking Express (1994) dir-Wong Kar-Wai
Starring: Tony Leung Chiu Wai, Brigitte Lin and Takeshi Kaneshiro

****

Guest review by Blair Stewart

Do you ever smell a scent and suddenly find yourself ten years younger and in love?Hear a snippet of a song that takes you back to a forgotten memory, forgotten mood, and damned if it doesn’t just breaks you? From the first bars of its amazing synthesizer score, Wong Kar-Wai’s “Chungking Express” understands that sensation.

This was the first film I’d seen of WKW’s work and of Hong Kong cinema and still it remains my favorite. It is a dizzying pastiche of frantic camera speeds, big city noise and oddball characters falling in and out of love. The story is of two beat cops in the roughneck part of Kowloon in the 90’s, both mini movies of themselves that momentarily intersect, where one will always play the fool and one just might get the girl. Cop #223 (Takeshi Kaneshiro) is drowning his blues in nearly expired cans of pineapple (canned foods is a perverse WKW fetish.) and after a brief encounter develops a crush on a ruthless drug trafficker in a Rita Hayworth wig (Brigitte Lin). Cop #633 (the mighty Tony Leung Chiu Wai) has just found out that his ‘girlfriend is a highway and she went by pretty quick*. But unbeknownst to him his local cafe server (Faye Wong) has fallen hard for him. So hard, in fact, she’s taken to breaking into his apartment and cleaning it while listening to earsplitting renditions of the Mama’s and the Papa’s “California Dreaming”. Meanwhile, all around them, one of the world’s great cities whoops and blusters as only a great city can.

A breakthrough internationally for Wong Kar-Wai after Quentin Tarantino started singing his praises upon its festival release, it would lead to his other triumphs “Happy Together” and “In the Mood for Love”. “Chungking Express” was also a triumphant introduction to the idiosyncratic work of cinematographer Christopher Doyle, who not only had a tremendous flexibility in style and color has also lead a mysterious life worthy of J.D. Salinger’s next novel. Their collaboration is one of the great duos in cinema, two artists improvising on-the-fly and challenging each other with their craft.

If you are lovesick and seek a voice that speaks your language, you might find it here. If you have a good reason to celebrate and want background noise to your happiness, you will find it here. Enjoy.

*Thanks to Jonathan Richman and the Modern Lovers “Roadrunner” for that great line.

Buy it here: Chungking Express

DAYS OF BEING WILD

Days of Being Wild (1991) dir. Wong Kar Wai
Starring: Leslie Cheung, Maggie Cheung, Andy Lau

***1/2

“Days of Being Wild” was Wong Kar Wai’s sophomore film, and after mild success with his pseudo-gangster film, “As Tears Go By”, as his debut in 1988, it would take “Days of Being Wild” for Wong Kar Wai to announce himself to the world.

Set in 1960 Hong Kong, the film centres on the reckless romantic life of a playboy named York (Leslie Chung). The film opens with the patient and romantic courtship of Su (Maggie Cheung) who works a concession kiosk at a sporting event. Day-by-day, their one-minute encounters turn into two-minutes encounters and so on and so on until they are in bed together fully in a blissful passionate affair. But as soon as Su asks York about commitment, he shuts down and kicks her out of the apartment. York then moves on to Leung Fung-Ying (Carina Lau), a younger and more immature girl, who seems to serve the same place-holder requirement York needs in his life. Su, meanwhile, still shaken up by the breakup, continues to return to York’s apartment demanding answers. During this time she meets a handsome and well-meaning beat cop, Tide (Andy Lau). Their relationship is brief, but still manages to add depth to the complex emotional web spun by all the characters.

Midway through the film Wai turns the tables on the audience and reveals the inner angst of York which has caused so much turmoil with our characters. His domineering mother, whom we see as a pathetic (but rich) drunk, is actually his stepmother, and who has babied him his whole life. When York demands to know his who his real mother was, she denies him. So therein lies York’s attachment issues. York eventually learns the whereabouts of his mother and begins a journey to the Philippines to find her and hopefully reconcile the problems of his life.

“Days of Being Wild” was the first collaboration with renowned cinematographer Christopher Doyle. The film has a different look from his other 90’s works – this is more classically composed and framed, like “In the Mood For Love”. In fact, “Days” is an antecedent of that film in many ways. Wai and Doyle shoot hotel rooms, corridors and staircases like no one else (perhaps only rivaled by Polanksi). The gritty wallpaper, naked lightbulbs and fluorescent lights glowing in the background would become hallmarks of their future collaborations and influence many other filmmakers.

Thematically “Days of Being Wild” is typical Wai. No character has easily fallen in love in a Wong Kar Wai film. Wai puts up so many emotional barriers between his characters its exhausting for the viewer. Take for example the near-misses of two protagonists in “In the Mood For Love”. “Days Of Being Wild” is an anti-romance – it swelters with heat and passion, but in the end it’s a downward spiral into despair. Enjoy.

Buy it here: Days of Being Wild

Here’s the opening sequence. There’s no subtitles, but they’re not needed:

IN THE MOOD FOR LOVE

In The Mood For Love (2000) dir. Wong Kar-Wai
Starring: Tony Leung, Maggie Cheung

****

Guest review by Pasukaru

Oh, yes. Love is in the air. So I can’t help but think of the Hong Kong masterpiece "In The Mood For Love" by Wong Kar-wai. If one were to compile a list of the 10 best romantic films of all time, this gem would have to be considered.

The plot is simple: set in the early sixties in Honk Kong, two neighbors strike up a relationship after each discovers their respective spouses could be having an affair with each other. The ironic twist of fate is that they in turn develop an attraction. Now, here is where "In The Mood For Love" separates itself from the countless manufactured ‘romantic’ films that pollute our planet: they never actually consummate their love. What? No fleshy tryst?! The couple decides to not be like their spouses, despite the obvious fact that they are madly in love. Though of course this is not what makes it great, but everything -- from the luring soundtrack, to the understated performances by Maggie Cheung and Tony Leung, to the lush settings, to the lyrical visuals -- serves the sexy atmosphere.

Wong Kar-wai had been a scriptwriter before turning to direction, which makes his preference to shoot without a script more worthy of note. Many directors have attempted this, but most fail in delivering a satisfying movie. You could call him experimental, never avant-garde, but the subtle approach simply works with astounding results. “Visual poetry” is a nice way of putting it. It’s a culmination of years perfecting an anarchic style with master cinematographer Christopher Doyle through maverick films such as “Chungking Express” and “Fallen Angels”. Here, they’ve tamed the camera to a fetish-like restraint. Interestingly, to the exasperation of actors, crew, and financiers, the shoot took a Kubrickean 15 months to complete! Oh, but it was so worth it.

This film oozes desire. This improvisational style and the fly-on-the-wall perspective in cramped corridors and matchbox rooms make us feel as though we are eaves dropping on two people who obviously yearn for each other, but can’t seem to bring themselves to give in. The hypnotic atmosphere seduces. There is no rush to climax, or an explosion of suppressed longing, but a staid eroticism nestled between every frame. It’s subtractive cinema we as Westerners are simply not accustomed to, especially in this genre. Thus, the smallest gesture becomes relevant. Another interesting technique employed is how Wong Kar-wai deliberately conceals the faces of the spouses, keeping the audience always firmly fixed on the leads (and Cheung’s hips). The story is told in fragments; the audience is never certain where or when they stand, yet the elliptical timeline functions to adhere a mosaic of unfulfilled love. It’s like a wistful memory of two people, and the rendering of that memory to celluloid. Finally when the film ends, we desire to return to that dream like the lead character recollecting after the fact: “The past is something he could see but not touch." ‘Nuff said.

"In The Mood For Love" is a sublime experience you owe yourself and your loved one. Check it out.