For my philosophy teacher, the "trap" they were in was that they had fallen in love with each other because they were the faithful ones, but to act on it would make them unfaithful, thus breaking the grounds of what brought them together. I like this theory, it gives their choices a more deep meaning instead of just being social pressure or fantasy.
Then it comes down to the real question. There is no happiness with either choices. Humans created so much religious rules against basic human desires, in terms create frustration, anger and fear.
What does religion have to do with their choices? Infact, religion would have facilitated their union. SInce both of their spouses had cheated, it would totally be reasonable for them to leave their partners and marry each other.@@youbyoubalancedliving9700
The blocking in this movie was brilliant. The particular scene where Mrs. Chan confronts his husband but it turns actually was Mr. Chow. Director was literally manipulating into believing that it was her husband. That was the best scene for me in the movie, how it unfolded.
Indeed. It was so powerful because the movie had already established the spouses being filmed in the back without showing their faces, so when the scene starts that way we are easily manipulated. Such a brilliant moment.
For me the frames within frames created atmosphere of tension. It somehow felt that characters were "stuck" in these frames: between walls, between neighbors, between social norms, between their spouses' phantoms as you called. The pain they suffered was intensified with these walls. They don't let you breathe. This movie is painfully great. p.s. and the music is just brilliant!
The frames also need to be seen in conjunction with the rigid social norms of Chinese society, where family, face and reputation is paramount, even over ones' own suffering. Family is forever, whilst you are only one short stage in the timeline. The framing would have intensified that social aspect even further for a Chinese audience.
I feel like these frames were meant to symbolize intimacy as well as oppression. It's oppressive because Mrs Chan is afraid of what people will say if they see her together with Mr Chow so these two always stay within the frames but they can't ever break free (from their marriages or from social prejudices). And it's about intimacy too because when I see Mrs Chan and Mr Chow alone within another frame, I feel like what I'm doing is voyeurism. I'm intruding their intimacy. The viewer is basically an outsider but is also part of the movie.
It's like mystic choice-lessly witnessing , object & subject , both jus simply without identify with self , that's true meaning of authentic life without any conditioning or prejudices or belief system as well , as well , their you are not part of happiness & pain or good & bad, right & wrong, friend & foe or birth & death either , their only possibly one can be eternally at peace with self & around in all it's naturalness & existential reality of true consciousness. Where their is eternal Ananda & Bliss & Divinity at its peak without death of self as well for ever... It's master piece to trigger to explore , Express & experience the mystic alchemy of each one's life , through certain mystical magical processes , Who all are feel reslly ready & ripe are welcome at no monetary cost at all but it's of highest value for sure.
also Mrs. Chan beeing portrayed as retired/restrained (almost insistently from the beginning: through many scenes, like when Mrs Koo invited her many times to join them to dinner and she always refuses: Mrs Koo described Mrs Chan as very reserved); both of the 2 characters are very reserved... It could seem like "obvious" all the movie through, as we observe them, and even (quickly) understood their personnalities from the beginning on (and kind of easily admit it that asians are often reserved in their mindset/behaviour)... But their whole gesture, expressions/glances seem slow/sad/"insipid"... not to mention that they do not speak a lot. The (same) music speaks a lot... Nothing is opulent here: neither the characters, or even the decor (the hotel, work environment). All of it enhances the constrast between their first question "how did it begin/happen" (the relationship between their respective spouses) and the "void" (the silence/loneliness, their reserved mind, and the fact that they do not have a real obvious answer...). I love how paradoxically the silence let the characters "speak" or how Wong Kar Wai expresses the creation of their relatioship/love, adding some mysterious and romantic aspects to their "relationship". At the end, it is no more a question about how their relative spouses began a relationship, or how they (Mrs Chan and Mr Chow) connected and also beeing alduterous (so no repentance or clemency to any infidelity), but the mystic thing of how love begins... through little things, through details, and even silence. Not even in control, in languages and in propitious contexts. I do in a way, see it as kind of an ode for love. But this was not the whole/major meaning of the movie I think... Maybe the same element (silence) is also the ground for their lack of relationship. Unfortunately, the sad aspect of their separation does cover the beautiful side of the creation of love. Maybe someone sees something about the meaning of the movie? This whole song comes over and over in my head and this last scene, when Mr. Chow speaks in a tree hole does speak something that goes beyond my understanding...
« He remembers those vanished years. As though looking through a dusty window pane. The past is someting he could see but not touch. And everything he sees is blurred and indistinct. » In the mood for love
For me, the fact that the director and actors themselves made up the script on the fly is the most incredible part. Would have been intriguing to have been a fly on the wall in the making of this masterpiece
In the Spanish translation (and I'm guessing on the original version, as well) the characters would speak to each other by using pronouns in formal/respectful form; while switching to the familiar form during the re-enactment portions. This subtle touch frames the duality of the relationship between them even further by maintaining the proper social distance while being their "real" personas.
+NotYourBiggestFan In Cantonese speech, there is no difference between the formal and familiar form of _you_. In Chinese written form, there is a difference. 你 = tú = you (familiar) 您 = usted = you (formal) But when spoken in Cantonese, they are both pronounced as "nei". In Mandarin, they are both pronounced as "ni".
The Chinese language do not have formal or familiar forms other than a few nouns, the way we express our emotions and tonality of the speech dictate the levels of familiarity
@k ken 您 (Formal you) is relatively new word and came from Beijin version of 恁 (Plural You) around Yuan dynasty (元朝). So older language like Cantonese (粵) and Ming (閩) doesn't have it. As matter in fact early version of Kangxi Dictionary (康熙字典) also do not have the word 您. Also since Ming is less influenced by the other major languages when we speak we still use 汝 and only use 你 in writing.
Frames within frames (scrutiny by others), but also the extensive use of mirrors, reflections, and shadows. We often see the characters not as they are, but images of who they are. Which is what fantasy is: not the real thing, but a twist on the real thing. Also, mirrors are about examining the self, which is what these characters do. They are endless examining themselves, their relationship with themselves, and their relationships with their spouses.
Great analysis on this brilliant movie. Every few months, I come back to this movie and I am in awe of the movie for few hours before I am distracted by something else.
+TheRoomNumber Melancholia is the only remedy for distraction, exaltation the only way towards passion, the journey the creation of art, the downfall the replenishing of all.
I have seen this movie close to 20 times now. It's my one of fav movies. What makes it aesthetically beautiful is that there are fewer dialogues yet you get immersed in the story. Every frame of the movie looks like a painting. Such painstakingly beautiful movie. I badly wanted both the characters to hook up and get revenge on their respective cheating partners. But they did not and guess that's the beauty . 10/10 would watch again.❤️
I’ve read that Wong War Kwai began shooting the film without a complete script and kinda went along with the flow he said he had the rough idea I think that’s exactly what makes his films so “real” and yet so artistic it feels real because it doesn’t feel rehearsed because actors probably didn’t get a script to memorize as the story unfolds and depending on the chemistry of actors and the artistic direction I feel a dialogue that’s written before in an isolated room will feel forced or fake but his films has this flow it’s so beautiful if I were to direct a film this is how I’d do it I see it as a top notch work
i think the most interesting part of this is how their surveillance is mostly self-imposed. mrs chan even says it when she’s talking to mr chow, that they are probably being too cautious. and it’s true in a way. we never hear from any of the gossipers in question about mr chan and mrs chow. we just hear from mr chow and mrs chan that there is potential gossip. maybe they didnt need to be so careful, and if they werent, maybe they could have evolved past their simple ideation into real, genuine love.
I know this analysis is years old, but I still wanna post this comment on the most relevant video about this masterpiece of a movie: This movie effected me very deeply emotionally because it displayed my greatest fear: settling. Not settling *down...* just settling. I watched my parents do it, I watched my friends do it, I watched my relatives do it. They settled into marriages in which they're unhappy; they're abused, or cheated on, or just miserable, and my greatest fear is that I'll settle for a miserable love life just so that I can have any love life at all, and that I might realize that i *DID* settle far too late. I might feel real love after already being married to someone I'm indifferent to. And that's what happened to these characters. She's being cheated on, and she stays with her husband. It's doomed. It shattered me. I can't watch this movie more than once or twice in my life because it terrifies me.
Years later I came to the OST after a 10 year breakup, most people didnt watch or understood the film and found the melody calming...Im petrified, haunted, trapped by it, its masochistic, its perverse, its terrifying.
It helps to let go of this idea that there's one true love out there. This at first sounds bitter but it's not. You can choose who you want to spend your life with and not wait for verification by some symbol. True unconditional love exists between sisters or a mother with her children. But don't feel trapped by finding someone wasn't meant to be your one ans you're stuck with them, some relationships break apart and you can look back and beautiful memories and the idea that it could also have been nothing, but it was something, a dream, for some time.
"'In the mood for love' is a gorgeous, quiet and painful exploration of what happens when the fantasy you create for yourself is a perverse one, when it only serves to keep you from confronting the pain that it was created to avoid". Indeed, such a relatable case.
This film probably had the biggest impact on my life as a amateur photographer in HK, inspiring me to love the city and the art in equal measures and in an interconnected manner. For me, each still is a lesson in composition. The framing, the reflections, the silhouettes and shadowplay, the vivid colours (red in particular), the low angles, the soft lighting, the blurred foregrounds (to name a few) - all adding to the magic of storytelling and evoking emotions so powerful and poignant that you can’t help but be in the mood for love (…for good cinema!)
"...painful exploration of what happens when the fantasy you create for yourself is a perverse one, which only serves to keep you from confronting the pain it was created to avoid." -- Nicely put, Nerdwriter. For more meta-cinematic "frames within frames" cf Sirk & Fassbinder
What we want is never what we can have for what we have is the reality. This film perfectly captures that feeling and the coming to realization of it all. It’s deeply personal to us all.
I have never seen this film, yet at 6:00-6:35 the way you describe what happens in the film brings me to tears. it must be beautiful. I'm now set on watching it.
“Everybody lives within fantasy within frames, sometimes the frames are made by us sometimes by others, sometimes we need to believe that those made by others are made by us. whatever the case there is no way out of the frame” couldn’t agree more.
+Nerdwriter1 Hey man, where are the subtitles? English isn't the native language of many people that watch this. At least, put the english subtitles. Greetings.
What a beautiful film it is. Something about pain feels beautiful when you love someone you can never have. Strange because you embrace that pain and never want to let it go - if it means having that person to yourself even in that way. Beautiful analysis. Thankyou
Videos like this make me wish you were able to put out videos more often, they become like an event, in the same way I eagerly await Every Frame A Painting, I also eagerly await the Nerdwriter. Excellent, thought provoking stuff my friend, well done as always. Any chance you could list a few film recommendations?
me watching the first 4 minutes of your analysis, then pausing it to finish the movie made everything 10x times better. I noticed all the subtle details that I missed in my first watch and I'm so glad you put it all here. thank you.
ladyjchow Thank you for saying good about hk. WKW is not a popular director for locals. People name him as an "export" director. His themes and scripts are frequently quoted as jokes.
This was a really high-quality film analysis. This is one of my favorite movies and you did a really good job with this video; the best I've seen from this channel so far!
in the mood for love is one of my favorite movies. and it is not just the script but also the cinematography that makes it so eloquent. I took many screenshots when I watch the movie and one of my favorite scenes is the one in which Mrs Chan standing in front of an open window in a floral dress holding a floral glass cup. the colors are so pastel and serene but there are storms breaking out inside of her brain. this video makes me want to watch it again.
I enjoyed it. Both. The film very much. I bought the movie poster as a visual reminder for home but also I enjoyed this narration. The film is bitter sweet. But I would have also added that the male protagonist did show all the signs of trying to turn a lemon into lemonade! But also even though she played along with him it always looked to me a broken hearted Chinese woman who still loved her husband and also had a streak of old-fashioned integrity running through her which prevented her from just copying her husband’s infinitely. It was written all over the males face that all the work he had put into wooing her wasn’t going to succeed and he had failed in a conquest and so been rejected twice! First by his wife and now by her lovers wife. I don’t think any other actors could have made this film work as well as they did. But without the amazing very moving background music the film may have died! It is so evocative and mesmerising it helps make this film so great. Like the narrator I too was shocked to hear how they worked to create such a great film. Expecting such art to have been planned meticulously.
initially it was the music which drew me to watch this film "In The Mood". Then I was impressed by the photographic approach to scene filming. Very clever. We were the 'fly on the wall*, and the events established themselves by silence, mood and visual angles which often only showed part of the 'bigger scene.' Your terminology '"frame within a frame" was a good explanation of what I had also noticed, but which would not have been able to describe so succinctly! I must admit I didn't understand the first half (or third) of the movie, but when the situation became clearer, everything was brilliantly portrayed, i.e. the love that grows from shared time, but which is constrained by circumstances, and how each of the two people behave and attempt to handle the situation. Thanks for your analysis.
i only started to appreciate this movie for what it is,, after watching over and over, on and off, over a few years - I guess I finally too settled in the right frame of mind and maturity to enable that to happen
one of my all time favourite films... more than just a movie.. a story... when you described the frame within a frame, you put into words what i had in mind everytime i watch it..... how beautifully the scenes unfold, the expressions, the mood, the lighting... the weather... it is such an incredible piece of work... the frames creat timing for me... pace... a slow meander i feel...
For me the frame is not only observation but the symbol of unceasing restriction and the need for the characters to lead a picture-perfect existence. I think all these things come together to fuel that claustrophobic feeling
One of my favorite films. A way I know if a movie is great is if the movie lingers with me long after I saw it. This can manifest as me remembering scenes, contemplating the meaning of the film, or just remembering the feelings I experienced watching. In the Mood for Love was one such films.
I love this movie, it's one of my favorites. I love the timing of the movie, how sometimes uses slow motion, to enhance the moments of solitude or company of each other.
I finished watching the movie recently, I've already seen two wong kar wai movies before, "Fallen angels" and "chungking express" and I have to say that everything he does is excellent and beautiful
ITMFL is such a sumptuous film. I absolutely love the period correct fashion, sets/locations, music, objects... EVERYTHING. Christopher Doyle's cinematography alone is top class.
This is so fantastic! I would love to hear your comments on the seemingly offput ending! To me, it seemed like a play on how though chan and cheung's encounter was a fantasy and has become history, it's about honoring that moment that they had with each other and that even though they moved on with their lives, they can always remember that past like a broken down historical monument. It's definitely an ambiguous one but I think it was perfect in that it really made me go backwards in the movie to find out why it would be there - literally, as a viewer, revisiting the history of the movie itself. Cheers! I had to bump up my patreon support because of this (:
I watched this video about a year ago and have had this movie in the back of my mind ever since. I finally got my hands on it and literally just finished watching it. It's absolutely stunning. Thank you for helping expose people like me to such beautiful art and storytelling!
In 2003 when I was at art school in Istanbul, this film was shown us for cinematography. This film -I don't know why, still- effected me a lot. A lot that changed me. My relationship effected, my education as well. May be that was just a push maybe it was not related to this film... This film is something else for me. So, special thank you to review this piece. It really helped me to solve its effects.
In The Mood For Love (Hong Kong, 2000) is one of the most beautiful Asian films I have ever seen. After all these years since its release and watching it back then, I'm still so mesmerised and inspired by it. Another beautiful yet utterly simple film is SPRING, SUMMER, FALL, WINTER AND SPRING (South Korea, 2003). Beautiful message too!
I used to watch Wong Kar Wai movies over and over just for cathartic feels. I didn't kno what it all meant but it feels good after you watch it. Thanks for putting words of analysis behind these images.
I keep coming back to this video time and again especially for the last part. If you ever take this down, it will be trauma like being in a storm. Thank you for penning this down and making a beautiful video for a beautiful film.
Okay, this is was so fantastic to listen to, Mr Nerwriter sir, that I fear when I actually watch the film, it wouldn't possibly be any more moving. Stunned by these amazing 9 minutes.
+Nerdwriter1 That was a really tight 9 minutes. I almost didn't click b/c usually these film analysis vids sound like they were done by bitter film school dropouts. But I stayed all the way through! I have seen the film- twice- I own it in fact. But I'm going to have to give it a 3rd go now. You exegesis is compelling :D
Amazing take on this film. Just watched this a couple weeks ago and then saw this today. Wong’s films need to be seen by a larger number of people, I have seen 4 of them and he has become one of my favorite directors in all of film.
I love Wong Kar Wai's work. If you enjoyed ITMFL, you'll definitely enjoy 2046. Thank you so much for your commentary! Jared from Wisecrack/Thug Notes sent me here and I'm glad he did. :) It also would be interesting to see commentary about interconnectivity in film universes, esp. by the same director. With the exception of the Grandmaster, Wong Kar Wai's characters occupy the same space even if it's "decades" between stories.
The commentary reminds me of the lover's discourse by Roland Barthes,like how we mourn the loss of the loved being image and not the loss of person itself,as a lover I am always a victim,I am always waiting,this is my destiny.If these stories and images in my mind collapse,I can no longer validate my existence in relation to loved being,I am not real,I cease to exist,I disappear.
Absolutely beautiful. Inspired me to dig thru old hard drives and find the paper i had written exploring the similarities and differences between this and several of Wang Kar Wai's other films.
Such a gorgeous movie. Another thing the framing did was evoke strong nostalgia by always including the environment along with the characters. Such beautiful art direction transporting us back in time in such a visceral way showing details of rooms and texture and Color’s of walls and surfaces.
(I know this comment is 2 months old, but I can't help it.) UNDER-RATED ?! HA HA HA ! ITMFL is EVERYTHING but underrated. Have a simple look online and you'll see that it is extremely appreciated.
After two years of living in one, I just had my fantasy become reality and crumble before my eyes. The exact same things happened to me. I missed connections with others subconsciously waiting and leaving room for this other person to return. We met and it started just as I wanted. We kissed, we hugged, we loved, we cried and because of that meeting we can no longer talk, see or be in each others presence. It's like a punch in the balls to realize all of this time waiting for that moment for us to finally come together that in doing so it is the cause of us never being able to be together again.
matthew w It's so weird that you mentioned that. I just finished watching In the Mood For Love, and I plan to watch Repulsion next, what a coincidence.
It would be incredible if you made a video on el topo or the holy mountaim by jodorowski, a phantome de la liberté (any other buñuel film would do fine though) or an antonioni film like zabriski point or le desert rouge (any antonioni film would do aswell) and last but not least if you did a polanski film, I saw people were suggesting Repulsion wich I love but I think that knife in the water , Cul de sac or more recent venus a la fourure would be more interesting.
Dude I love your work, I was inspired by you to start my own stuff. Your ideas are always very in-depth, so well thought out and really fresh. Please don't stop doing videos your one of the best and most interesting channels on TH-cam!
Great analysis. I love this film. However, I disagree with you on one thing. I do believe Tony and Maggie's characters consummated their love at the end. It is left open to interpretation. I haven't the time to go into my theory now, but I do believe they made love.
You are right! During the taxi scene around 1:13:00, Maggie said she didn't want to go home, something she wouldn't say while role playing to see how their spouses got their affair started. That would be a hint that they themselves had started theirs. Even more intriguing, there were many closeup shots with Maggie wearing a wedding band at the beginning of the movie, and in one closeup shot while walking down the steps in Singapore the wedding band was missing, hinting that her marriage was over. Meanwhile at the end of the movie she was known to be living in that apartment with a child. You can fantasize whose child it was.
+cyber monkey In the director's cut, there is a deleted scene in which Maggie's character says that line while she is standing in a hotel room with Tony and they DO end up having sex. I believe that deleted scene is right before the taxi scene you described so in that permutation of the film, the taxi scene is actually them going home after having already consummated their affair. Compare that to the final cut of the film in which Wong Kar-Wai has actually inserted that line as a voiceover in the taxi instead, which leaves you wondering if she followed through with her comment and didn't go home. I personally prefer the final cut because the deleted hotel scene almost doesn't fit in with the pace and feel of the film...it's a bit too "easy" of a route to take and you end up feeling kind of differently about the characters.
I watched it this weekend. It's finally available on a streaming service. It thought it was on of the best films I've ever seen. Heartbreakingly beautiful. I got a a lot of the subtext and mise en scene but I missed a great deal too. I need to see it again but I don't know if I can handle it
Absolutely brilliant! ARGH! So spot on. You might even consider what the eyelines in the film mean, when they cross, when the look directly into each other's eyes, and when the eyelines are utterly nonsensical. There is much more to be said about this film, but framing this around the ahem framing was a perfect entry point. Thank you for this!
Michael Aronson Oh my god there are so many things to say about this movie. I had a few more sections in here that I took out because they were just too tangential, and I wanted the piece to cohere around the framing point (which I think the is the key thing). Thanks for the comment.
Nerdwriter1 My pleasure. I occasionally write for Cinefix. Filmschool'd, What's the Difference, and I'm always looking to push my critical analyses as far as possible despite the sardonic tone of the channel. Keep up the good work, I for one am a huge fan.
This is such a brilliant analysis! I watched this film for the first time the other day after wanting to for years, and I was enthralled by it, but when it ended I couldn't help like I'd missed something, or a lot of things. This video helped explain that feeling and made me appreciate the film more. Thank you! :)
Excellent analysis! I think there are only few films that require so much maturity to watch. And that is so full of symbolism and details. You can watch it 10 times, each time with the focus on some other thing, like her cheongsams, the colour scheme, the slow-mo, the music, the rain, the food, the rooms etc.. What do you make of the omnipresent clocks?
'Time' is THE constant theme of all Wong's films. 1960s for Days of Being Wild, In the Mood for Love, 2046 (which fictionally jumping to the future), 1990s for Chungking Express and Fallen Angels, 'out of time' in Ashes of Time... There's always an omnipresent clock in his films signifying the concept of time how it changes the environment and characters.
I really enjoyed this essay, and it even inspired me to watch this movie sooner than I intended. It is amazing piece of art, with its slow pace, mood, and the theme of desire, longing and unfulfilled dreams it resonates so much. I want to thank you for your effort on this one, good work.
I watched the movie today in a small cinema, and it is truly as beautiful as everyone said. As you said, it feels like a memory, and it also looks as the Mai characters must feel. The cinematography is claustrophobic, and for me creates a mood of dissociation. They're also only rarely together in frame, often when they look at each other it seems like its only trough mirrors, and when there together they're obscured by the foreground, it makes everything feel so fragile and dangerous. The whole movie feels like the poem at its end, like a memory through dusty glass. It just so perfectly captures exactly that feeling. I don't know if I'm making sense, I just have to gush about this beautiful sensual poem of a movie. And your video gave some details and interpretations I haven't thought about.
thank you so much for this!! in the mood for love has always been one of my favourite films i grew up watching, and every time i go back to it, its magic spells a different reason for why I'm so intrigued by its beauty and complexity. your fantastic video wants me to put myself through this addictive cycle all over again! i was interested if you have watched tampopo or wings of desire; would love to know what you think of them!!
Wings of Desire! Saw it in a privately-owned cinema which are now, sadly, almost all gone. $2.50 for a double bill of second-run films on Monday night; the old skool theatre had red velvet drapes, NO commercials(!), an electric clock above each of the two-side-screen incandescent exit signs, and a 1930s tiled lobby selling small boxes of popcorn rather than tubs :D Blade Runner and Wings of Desire bookmarked my 1980s influential cinematographic life...till INMfL swept me off my feet. lianrose88, I am so thrilled you watched WofD. As an original 80s goth - I still adore Nick Cave
It was crushing last week to hear The Dissolve was finished. But thankfully we have ,along with Tony Zhou, you sir! Thanks for the wonderful film analysis.
I thinks it’s about the 8th time I am rewatching your video. I have been a fan of the movie since it came out, but I am fascinated how deeply and truly you have managed to explain the cinematography and aesthetics of the film. So delicate, so respectful. Thank you very much for doing what you are doing! Kate
For my philosophy teacher, the "trap" they were in was that they had fallen in love with each other because they were the faithful ones, but to act on it would make them unfaithful, thus breaking the grounds of what brought them together. I like this theory, it gives their choices a more deep meaning instead of just being social pressure or fantasy.
Interesting
That's how I interpreted it too. I even think they say in one scene, "we're not like them".
yes
Then it comes down to the real question. There is no happiness with either choices. Humans created so much religious rules against basic human desires, in terms create frustration, anger and fear.
What does religion have to do with their choices? Infact, religion would have facilitated their union. SInce both of their spouses had cheated, it would totally be reasonable for them to leave their partners and marry each other.@@youbyoubalancedliving9700
Tony Leung knows how to smoke with total class and style.
Also how to wear the shit out of a suit.
Like damn. He even looks gorgeous in wifebeater.
Im so proud of him being in 10 ringsss 🤧
Helps if you're good looking😂
@@jajahhaha9878 the villain that carries the whole movie
The blocking in this movie was brilliant. The particular scene where Mrs. Chan confronts his husband but it turns actually was Mr. Chow. Director was literally manipulating into believing that it was her husband. That was the best scene for me in the movie, how it unfolded.
Indeed. It was so powerful because the movie had already established the spouses being filmed in the back without showing their faces, so when the scene starts that way we are easily manipulated. Such a brilliant moment.
@@andre99249 is that scene available in youtube?
is that scene available in youtube?
that scene really got me for a couple of seconds. I can't tell how confused I was
You can go to 5:38 😁 Not really a full scene of that though. 😅
For me the frames within frames created atmosphere of tension. It somehow felt that characters were "stuck" in these frames: between walls, between neighbors, between social norms, between their spouses' phantoms as you called. The pain they suffered was intensified with these walls. They don't let you breathe.
This movie is painfully great.
p.s. and the music is just brilliant!
yeah
Between infidelity, between their inaction once the infidelity is revealed, between their fear to confront their spouses etc
we often see them through bars and it looks like they're in a cage
You could look at it as a double-closed frame: providing two-times the entrapment for the character as a regular closed frame.
The frames also need to be seen in conjunction with the rigid social norms of Chinese society, where family, face and reputation is paramount, even over ones' own suffering. Family is forever, whilst you are only one short stage in the timeline. The framing would have intensified that social aspect even further for a Chinese audience.
Not a single kiss scene and the impact it has is just amazing
YES
Its dope because we want to see them kiss so throughout the whole movie we are all waiting for it.
The yearning is OFF THE CHARTS lol!
This is why after watching this movie I watch right after 2046.
Check out my rescore of In The Mood For Love th-cam.com/video/hVeEzfy_cyo/w-d-xo.htmlsi=1ov1BbtQWprs5DUp
this movie is like an ultimate case of edging and then never really getting a release. So brutal yet beautiful
not beautiful for the protagonist
I'm not putting myself through that kind of pain....
Bruh
Unless you watch the deleted scenes
Similar to the mathematical game of half distance of a half distance. It's always closer and closer but never reaching the destination.
"The mere possibility of a connection, not the connection itself, is what sustains them now" .... wow, that is so sad.
And it's actually more common in real life than one would like to admit. Gorgeous storytelling.
這問題很難,.那個年代..道德和別人的審視,讓他們無法跳出..
living hell, it's very suffocating to be there
Consider that there are much more romantic movies about 'get the guy/girl' than maintaining relationships.
We ask questions in a way to listen to the answers we want.
If only people were more aware of this n_n
by your logic our destiny is then predetermined by us subconsciously ?
I personally wouldn't say our destiny par se, but the possibility of an outcome is predetermined by our subconscious mind.
Noah Baumbach bro
finback2005 I mean that's assuming we are omnipotent which we aren't lol you're going down an interesting path with that comment though, interesting.
I feel like these frames were meant to symbolize intimacy as well as oppression. It's oppressive because Mrs Chan is afraid of what people will say if they see her together with Mr Chow so these two always stay within the frames but they can't ever break free (from their marriages or from social prejudices).
And it's about intimacy too because when I see Mrs Chan and Mr Chow alone within another frame, I feel like what I'm doing is voyeurism. I'm intruding their intimacy. The viewer is basically an outsider but is also part of the movie.
Yes and in the building you can often hear through the walls as well! You're constantly reminded of the ears behind the walls.
it’s exactly what i think
It's like mystic choice-lessly witnessing , object & subject , both jus simply without identify with self , that's true meaning of authentic life without any conditioning or prejudices or belief system as well , as well , their you are not part of happiness & pain or good & bad, right & wrong, friend & foe or birth & death either , their only possibly one can be eternally at peace with self & around in all it's naturalness & existential reality of true consciousness. Where their is eternal Ananda & Bliss & Divinity at its peak without death of self as well for ever...
It's master piece to trigger to explore , Express & experience the mystic alchemy of each one's life , through certain mystical magical processes , Who all are feel reslly ready & ripe are welcome at no monetary cost at all but it's of highest value for sure.
also Mrs. Chan beeing portrayed as retired/restrained (almost insistently from the beginning: through many scenes, like when Mrs Koo invited her many times to join them to dinner and she always refuses: Mrs Koo described Mrs Chan as very reserved); both of the 2 characters are very reserved... It could seem like "obvious" all the movie through, as we observe them, and even (quickly) understood their personnalities from the beginning on (and kind of easily admit it that asians are often reserved in their mindset/behaviour)... But their whole gesture, expressions/glances seem slow/sad/"insipid"... not to mention that they do not speak a lot. The (same) music speaks a lot...
Nothing is opulent here: neither the characters, or even the decor (the hotel, work environment).
All of it enhances the constrast between their first question "how did it begin/happen" (the relationship between their respective spouses) and the "void" (the silence/loneliness, their reserved mind, and the fact that they do not have a real obvious answer...). I love how paradoxically the silence let the characters "speak" or how Wong Kar Wai expresses the creation of their relatioship/love, adding some mysterious and romantic aspects to their "relationship".
At the end, it is no more a question about how their relative spouses began a relationship, or how they (Mrs Chan and Mr Chow) connected and also beeing alduterous (so no repentance or clemency to any infidelity), but the mystic thing of how love begins... through little things, through details, and even silence. Not even in control, in languages and in propitious contexts.
I do in a way, see it as kind of an ode for love. But this was not the whole/major meaning of the movie I think... Maybe the same element (silence) is also the ground for their lack of relationship. Unfortunately, the sad aspect of their separation does cover the beautiful side of the creation of love.
Maybe someone sees something about the meaning of the movie? This whole song comes over and over in my head and this last scene, when Mr. Chow speaks in a tree hole does speak something that goes beyond my understanding...
Such an intelligent and innovative film, also one of the most beautiful color films I've ever seen.
asderc1 Agreed.
@@Nerdwriter1 May I know the background music name? Please...
@@tomatotalkies950 it's 'yumeji's theme' by shigeru umebayashi
@@maihuyen8224 thank you so much!❤️
« He remembers those vanished years. As though looking through a dusty window pane. The past is someting he could see but not touch. And everything he sees is blurred and indistinct. » In the mood for love
For me, the fact that the director and actors themselves made up the script on the fly is the most incredible part. Would have been intriguing to have been a fly on the wall in the making of this masterpiece
In the Spanish translation (and I'm guessing on the original version, as well) the characters would speak to each other by using pronouns in formal/respectful form; while switching to the familiar form during the re-enactment portions.
This subtle touch frames the duality of the relationship between them even further by maintaining the proper social distance while being their "real" personas.
+NotYourBiggestFan In Cantonese speech, there is no difference between the formal and familiar form of _you_. In Chinese written form, there is a difference.
你 = tú = you (familiar)
您 = usted = you (formal)
But when spoken in Cantonese, they are both pronounced as "nei". In Mandarin, they are both pronounced as "ni".
+RaymondHng Good to know, thanks!
Interesting choice on the translator's part, then.
RaymondHng nope in mandarin it is pronounced nin in the second tone 您 not ni 你 in the third tone
The Chinese language do not have formal or familiar forms other than a few nouns, the way we express our emotions and tonality of the speech dictate the levels of familiarity
@k ken 您 (Formal you) is relatively new word and came from Beijin version of 恁 (Plural You) around Yuan dynasty (元朝). So older language like Cantonese (粵) and Ming (閩) doesn't have it. As matter in fact early version of Kangxi Dictionary (康熙字典) also do not have the word 您. Also since Ming is less influenced by the other major languages when we speak we still use 汝 and only use 你 in writing.
Frames within frames (scrutiny by others), but also the extensive use of mirrors, reflections, and shadows. We often see the characters not as they are, but images of who they are. Which is what fantasy is: not the real thing, but a twist on the real thing. Also, mirrors are about examining the self, which is what these characters do. They are endless examining themselves, their relationship with themselves, and their relationships with their spouses.
I never really noted the complex significance of them portraying each other spouses, I thought it was just a way for them to cope. Thank you
matthew w Thank YOU.
"The mere possibility of a connection, not the connection itself." One of the greatest quotes I've heard. I love your essays man. Keep doing it
I'm always impressed by your insightful analyses, but I also want to say your use of language really amplifies the weight of your points. good work!
Great analysis on this brilliant movie. Every few months, I come back to this movie and I am in awe of the movie for few hours before I am distracted by something else.
TheRoomNumber Awe is certainly the emotion I feel too.
+TheRoomNumber Melancholia is the only remedy for distraction, exaltation the only way towards passion, the journey the creation of art, the downfall the replenishing of all.
I have seen this movie close to 20 times now. It's my one of fav movies. What makes it aesthetically beautiful is that there are fewer dialogues yet you get immersed in the story. Every frame of the movie looks like a painting. Such painstakingly beautiful movie.
I badly wanted both the characters to hook up and get revenge on their respective cheating partners. But they did not and guess that's the beauty . 10/10 would watch again.❤️
I’ve read that Wong War Kwai began shooting the film without a complete script and kinda went along with the flow he said he had the rough idea I think that’s exactly what makes his films so “real” and yet so artistic it feels real because it doesn’t feel rehearsed because actors probably didn’t get a script to memorize as the story unfolds and depending on the chemistry of actors and the artistic direction I feel a dialogue that’s written before in an isolated room will feel forced or fake but his films has this flow it’s so beautiful if I were to direct a film this is how I’d do it I see it as a top notch work
i think the most interesting part of this is how their surveillance is mostly self-imposed. mrs chan even says it when she’s talking to mr chow, that they are probably being too cautious. and it’s true in a way. we never hear from any of the gossipers in question about mr chan and mrs chow. we just hear from mr chow and mrs chan that there is potential gossip. maybe they didnt need to be so careful, and if they werent, maybe they could have evolved past their simple ideation into real, genuine love.
totally agree with you
great point, it shows though how Eastern society is
I know this analysis is years old, but I still wanna post this comment on the most relevant video about this masterpiece of a movie:
This movie effected me very deeply emotionally because it displayed my greatest fear: settling. Not settling *down...* just settling.
I watched my parents do it, I watched my friends do it, I watched my relatives do it. They settled into marriages in which they're unhappy; they're abused, or cheated on, or just miserable, and my greatest fear is that I'll settle for a miserable love life just so that I can have any love life at all, and that I might realize that i *DID* settle far too late.
I might feel real love after already being married to someone I'm indifferent to.
And that's what happened to these characters. She's being cheated on, and she stays with her husband.
It's doomed.
It shattered me.
I can't watch this movie more than once or twice in my life because it terrifies me.
Years later I came to the OST after a 10 year breakup, most people didnt watch or understood the film and found the melody calming...Im petrified, haunted, trapped by it, its masochistic, its perverse, its terrifying.
It helps to let go of this idea that there's one true love out there.
This at first sounds bitter but it's not. You can choose who you want to spend your life with and not wait for verification by some symbol. True unconditional love exists between sisters or a mother with her children.
But don't feel trapped by finding someone wasn't meant to be your one ans you're stuck with them, some relationships break apart and you can look back and beautiful memories and the idea that it could also have been nothing, but it was something, a dream, for some time.
you are too afraid, this fear mind set will not help you, you need to change how you think
@@camilocarrillo2132 Sorry to hear about that man. That must be a horrible thing to go through.
Good news for you if you're a straight woman - statistically, women are happier when they're single than when they're in heterosexual relationships
"'In the mood for love' is a gorgeous, quiet and painful exploration of what happens when the fantasy you create for yourself is a perverse one, when it only serves to keep you from confronting the pain that it was created to avoid". Indeed, such a relatable case.
I dream of rewatching with someone who could appreciate this film as I do.
Me too
Same
Same
This film probably had the biggest impact on my life as a amateur photographer in HK, inspiring me to love the city and the art in equal measures and in an interconnected manner. For me, each still is a lesson in composition. The framing, the reflections, the silhouettes and shadowplay, the vivid colours (red in particular), the low angles, the soft lighting, the blurred foregrounds (to name a few) - all adding to the magic of storytelling and evoking emotions so powerful and poignant that you can’t help but be in the mood for love (…for good cinema!)
This movie was awesome. It changed me. im not the one to like love stories either.
It's not just about the love, thats what I, well, love. Its a common human connection seen in a way not graced by cinema often!
Hunter Isaac so true! The conclusion was unreal too. it was so sad but you get this sense of closure. such raw emotion.
Matt H Love is the container of excessive beauty of Maggie Cheung (Mrs Chan).
+Yuen Leung she's too skinny 😄
It changes me too
"...painful exploration of what happens when the fantasy you create for yourself is a perverse one, which only serves to keep you from confronting the pain it was created to avoid." -- Nicely put, Nerdwriter. For more meta-cinematic "frames within frames" cf Sirk & Fassbinder
What we want is never what we can have for what we have is the reality. This film perfectly captures that feeling and the coming to realization of it all. It’s deeply personal to us all.
The realisation that they cannot be together even though they are perfect because that ultimately makes them their spouses breaks our hearts
Those last words, really touch me, it's frightening to see how we hide ourselves from truths, delay inevitable pain. Thank you so much for this video
I don’t know how long it’s been… I have tears in my eyes. Wong Kar-Wai, Christopher Doyle, Tony Leung, Maggie Cheung…. Perfection.
I have never seen this film, yet at 6:00-6:35 the way you describe what happens in the film brings me to tears. it must be beautiful. I'm now set on watching it.
The soundtrack brought me here.
Have you watched it???
I asked because I wanted to know have you stuck in the movie..
Did you ever watch the film ?
@@justintheowlman Why do you care...?
Clocks, counters, rain, smoking cigarettes, cigarette smoke (without cigarette), leaning, stairways, streetlight, frames, mirrors, stoicism, loneliness, silence, slow motion, nostalgia and unconsummated everything...Wong Kar Wai.
“Everybody lives within fantasy within frames, sometimes the frames are made by us sometimes by others, sometimes we need to believe that those made by others are made by us. whatever the case there is no way out of the frame” couldn’t agree more.
Can you do Chungking Express?
Fallen Angels is my fave.
Ahhh it may be a year later now, but I'd still love to see a video on Chungking Express!!
kuku88 me too!!!!
same xD
AND Happy Together!
Wow great recommend
Lance Lovecraft Cheers!
+Nerdwriter1 Hey man, where are the subtitles? English isn't the native language of many people that watch this. At least, put the english subtitles. Greetings.
Nerdwriter1 have you ever thought of reviewing pen ek ratanarouang he's worked with Chris Doyle and he's my favorite director
You can turn on auto-generated English subtitles in the settings in the bottom right menu of the screen. Hope this helps.
What a beautiful film it is. Something about pain feels beautiful when you love someone you can never have. Strange because you embrace that pain and never want to let it go - if it means having that person to yourself even in that way. Beautiful analysis. Thankyou
Videos like this make me wish you were able to put out videos more often, they become like an event, in the same way I eagerly await Every Frame A Painting, I also eagerly await the Nerdwriter. Excellent, thought provoking stuff my friend, well done as always. Any chance you could list a few film recommendations?
me watching the first 4 minutes of your analysis, then pausing it to finish the movie made everything 10x times better. I noticed all the subtle details that I missed in my first watch and I'm so glad you put it all here. thank you.
on my 2nd attempt right now 🫡
Great choice of film! Hong Kong films are so underrated in the West despite it being one of the biggest film industries in the world!
Quantity does not equal quality, but I hear what you're saying. Btw, Wong Kar Wai is definitely not underrated.
ladyjchow Thank you for saying good about hk. WKW is not a popular director for locals. People name him as an "export" director. His themes and scripts are frequently quoted as jokes.
u should check out Sam Hui's movies
classy.stache do you recommend any golden age HK films?
@@shesslucky here is my personal favourite " Made in Hong Kong" en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Made_in_Hong_Kong_(film)
This was a really high-quality film analysis. This is one of my favorite movies and you did a really good job with this video; the best I've seen from this channel so far!
This movie was painfully breathtaking and every scene accompanied with that background score was both beautiful and heartbreaking.
Desires are already memories...
in the mood for love is one of my favorite movies. and it is not just the script but also the cinematography that makes it so eloquent. I took many screenshots when I watch the movie and one of my favorite scenes is the one in which Mrs Chan standing in front of an open window in a floral dress holding a floral glass cup. the colors are so pastel and serene but there are storms breaking out inside of her brain. this video makes me want to watch it again.
I enjoyed it. Both. The film very much. I bought the movie poster as a visual reminder for home but also I enjoyed this narration. The film is bitter sweet. But I would have also added that the male protagonist did show all the signs of trying to turn a lemon into lemonade! But also even though she played along with him it always looked to me a broken hearted Chinese woman who still loved her husband and also had a streak of old-fashioned integrity running through her which prevented her from just copying her husband’s infinitely. It was written all over the males face that all the work he had put into wooing her wasn’t going to succeed and he had failed in a conquest and so been rejected twice! First by his wife and now by her lovers wife. I don’t think any other actors could have made this film work as well as they did. But without the amazing very moving background music the film may have died! It is so evocative and mesmerising it helps make this film so great. Like the narrator I too was shocked to hear how they worked to create such a great film. Expecting such art to have been planned meticulously.
initially it was the music which drew me to watch this film "In The Mood". Then I was impressed by the photographic approach to scene filming. Very clever. We were the 'fly on the wall*, and the events established themselves by silence, mood and visual angles which often only showed part of the 'bigger scene.' Your terminology '"frame within a frame" was a good explanation of what I had also noticed, but which would not have been able to describe so succinctly! I must admit I didn't understand the first half (or third) of the movie, but when the situation became clearer, everything was brilliantly portrayed, i.e. the love that grows from shared time, but which is constrained by circumstances, and how each of the two people behave and attempt to handle the situation.
Thanks for your analysis.
It is a very poetic and romantic movie with unspoken yet intense love they have for each other. Love this film, a definite classic!
i only started to appreciate this movie for what it is,, after watching over and over, on and off, over a few years - I guess I finally too settled in the right frame of mind and maturity to enable that to happen
one of my all time favourite films... more than just a movie.. a story... when you described the frame within a frame, you put into words what i had in mind everytime i watch it..... how beautifully the scenes unfold, the expressions, the mood, the lighting... the weather... it is such an incredible piece of work... the frames creat timing for me... pace... a slow meander i feel...
For me the frame is not only observation but the symbol of unceasing restriction and the need for the characters to lead a picture-perfect existence. I think all these things come together to fuel that claustrophobic feeling
One of my favorite films. A way I know if a movie is great is if the movie lingers with me long after I saw it. This can manifest as me remembering scenes, contemplating the meaning of the film, or just remembering the feelings I experienced watching. In the Mood for Love was one such films.
This video helped me get an A- on my film paper at USC so thank you so much.
Aeime I too wrote a review on this film in creative writing paper during my Masters degree and got appreciation from my teacher.
but did you cite
goliaboi lmao probably not
shigeru umebayashi is the composer
@o o the song is Hua Yang De Nian Hua by Zhou Xuan - th-cam.com/video/N5mjprsm4rM/w-d-xo.html
I love this movie, it's one of my favorites. I love the timing of the movie, how sometimes uses slow motion, to enhance the moments of solitude or company of each other.
I saw this when I was 18 and it messed me up. I didn't know how intense this movie was untill I watched it again and again.
"Sometimes we need to believe that those, made by us, were made by others" - just beautiful
I finished watching the movie recently, I've already seen two wong kar wai movies before, "Fallen angels" and "chungking express" and I have to say that everything he does is excellent and beautiful
ITMFL is such a sumptuous film. I absolutely love the period correct fashion, sets/locations, music, objects... EVERYTHING. Christopher Doyle's cinematography alone is top class.
This is so fantastic! I would love to hear your comments on the seemingly offput ending! To me, it seemed like a play on how though chan and cheung's encounter was a fantasy and has become history, it's about honoring that moment that they had with each other and that even though they moved on with their lives, they can always remember that past like a broken down historical monument. It's definitely an ambiguous one but I think it was perfect in that it really made me go backwards in the movie to find out why it would be there - literally, as a viewer, revisiting the history of the movie itself. Cheers! I had to bump up my patreon support because of this (:
This movie is a masterpiece. Doesn’t miss a beat even after decades, and it will always be that perfect.
wow, I almost cried from this review!
same.
I watched this video about a year ago and have had this movie in the back of my mind ever since. I finally got my hands on it and literally just finished watching it. It's absolutely stunning. Thank you for helping expose people like me to such beautiful art and storytelling!
In 2003 when I was at art school in Istanbul, this film was shown us for cinematography. This film -I don't know why, still- effected me a lot. A lot that changed me. My relationship effected, my education as well. May be that was just a push maybe it was not related to this film...
This film is something else for me. So, special thank you to review this piece. It really helped me to solve its effects.
In The Mood For Love (Hong Kong, 2000) is one of the most beautiful Asian films I have ever seen. After all these years since its release and watching it back then, I'm still so mesmerised and inspired by it. Another beautiful yet utterly simple film is SPRING, SUMMER, FALL, WINTER AND SPRING (South Korea, 2003). Beautiful message too!
This is one of my favourite films, the cinematography is stunning. You should check out 'Ashes of Time.' as well.
I used to watch Wong Kar Wai movies over and over just for cathartic feels. I didn't kno what it all meant but it feels good after you watch it. Thanks for putting words of analysis behind these images.
the last escene was painfully gorgeous
I keep coming back to this video time and again especially for the last part. If you ever take this down, it will be trauma like being in a storm. Thank you for penning this down and making a beautiful video for a beautiful film.
Okay, this is was so fantastic to listen to, Mr Nerwriter sir, that I fear when I actually watch the film, it wouldn't possibly be any more moving. Stunned by these amazing 9 minutes.
Mukesh Kumar Please watch the film!
+Nerdwriter1 That was a really tight 9 minutes. I almost didn't click b/c usually these film analysis vids sound like they were done by bitter film school dropouts. But I stayed all the way through! I have seen the film- twice- I own it in fact. But I'm going to have to give it a 3rd go now. You exegesis is compelling :D
Amazing take on this film. Just watched this a couple weeks ago and then saw this today. Wong’s films need to be seen by a larger number of people, I have seen 4 of them and he has become one of my favorite directors in all of film.
I love Wong Kar Wai's work. If you enjoyed ITMFL, you'll definitely enjoy 2046. Thank you so much for your commentary! Jared from Wisecrack/Thug Notes sent me here and I'm glad he did. :)
It also would be interesting to see commentary about interconnectivity in film universes, esp. by the same director. With the exception of the Grandmaster, Wong Kar Wai's characters occupy the same space even if it's "decades" between stories.
Another one you should check out is Happy Together. It feels so organic yet deliberate @ the same time.
Oh, yes - it was very vivid, too. Another amazing movie!
Sille Pille h
+Ash yes, I noticed too, room # 2064. The director's another 《2064》, starring Meggie, Tony, Zhang Ziyi (she's too skinny in dressing Qipao either).
The commentary reminds me of the lover's discourse by Roland Barthes,like how we mourn the loss of the loved being image and not the loss of person itself,as a lover I am always a victim,I am always waiting,this is my destiny.If these stories and images in my mind collapse,I can no longer validate my existence in relation to loved being,I am not real,I cease to exist,I disappear.
Absolutely beautiful. Inspired me to dig thru old hard drives and find the paper i had written exploring the similarities and differences between this and several of Wang Kar Wai's other films.
***** That sounds interesting. You should share it with all of us.
Such a gorgeous movie. Another thing the framing did was evoke strong nostalgia by always including the environment along with the characters. Such beautiful art direction transporting us back in time in such a visceral way showing details of rooms and texture and Color’s of walls and surfaces.
Great movie! Very under-rated. Lots of people just write it off as a beautifully-shot above-average romantic drama.
(I know this comment is 2 months old, but I can't help it.) UNDER-RATED ?! HA HA HA ! ITMFL is EVERYTHING but underrated. Have a simple look online and you'll see that it is extremely appreciated.
After two years of living in one, I just had my fantasy become reality and crumble before my eyes. The exact same things happened to me. I missed connections with others subconsciously waiting and leaving room for this other person to return. We met and it started just as I wanted. We kissed, we hugged, we loved, we cried and because of that meeting we can no longer talk, see or be in each others presence. It's like a punch in the balls to realize all of this time waiting for that moment for us to finally come together that in doing so it is the cause of us never being able to be together again.
I'm so glad you did wong kar wai, great video!! It would be interesting if you did repulsion
matthew w Ooooooh, Repulsion.
Nerdwriter1 I'd love to see you go at something really, really art house. Bergman, Tarkovsky, Ray, Truffaut, Herzog, Malick, etc.
matthew w It's so weird that you mentioned that. I just finished watching In the Mood For Love, and I plan to watch Repulsion next, what a coincidence.
CrystalJupiter strange, indeed
It would be incredible if you made a video on el topo or the holy mountaim by jodorowski, a phantome de la liberté (any other buñuel film would do fine though) or an antonioni film like zabriski point or le desert rouge (any antonioni film would do aswell) and last but not least if you did a polanski film, I saw people were suggesting Repulsion wich I love but I think that knife in the water , Cul de sac or more recent venus a la fourure would be more interesting.
I love the honesty of your video and how articulate it is.
ugh. This movie broke my heart. In the best way. It was the most opulent yet restained movie I've ever seen.
Bravo. Wonderful, compassionate analysis. Of course, having the world's most gorgeous cinematic images behind your words does help.
Dude I love your work, I was inspired by you to start my own stuff. Your ideas are always very in-depth, so well thought out and really fresh. Please don't stop doing videos your one of the best and most interesting channels on TH-cam!
Nicholas Dobbie I will not stop. Support if you can!
Nerdwriter1 I'll see if I can, you deserve it!
I got 30 seconds into this video, paused, and watched the entire film, then came back to this. Thank you so much.
Great analysis. I love this film. However, I disagree with you on one thing. I do believe Tony and Maggie's characters consummated their love at the end. It is left open to interpretation. I haven't the time to go into my theory now, but I do believe they made love.
You are right! During the taxi scene around 1:13:00, Maggie said she didn't want to go home, something she wouldn't say while role playing to see how their spouses got their affair started. That would be a hint that they themselves had started theirs. Even more intriguing, there were many closeup shots with Maggie wearing a wedding band at the beginning of the movie, and in one closeup shot while walking down the steps in Singapore the wedding band was missing, hinting that her marriage was over. Meanwhile at the end of the movie she was known to be living in that apartment with a child. You can fantasize whose child it was.
+cyber monkey Yes! They definitely became intimate. I am surprised the narrator of this video didn't catch that.
+cyber monkey In the director's cut, there is a deleted scene in which Maggie's character says that line while she is standing in a hotel room with Tony and they DO end up having sex. I believe that deleted scene is right before the taxi scene you described so in that permutation of the film, the taxi scene is actually them going home after having already consummated their affair. Compare that to the final cut of the film in which Wong Kar-Wai has actually inserted that line as a voiceover in the taxi instead, which leaves you wondering if she followed through with her comment and didn't go home. I personally prefer the final cut because the deleted hotel scene almost doesn't fit in with the pace and feel of the film...it's a bit too "easy" of a route to take and you end up feeling kind of differently about the characters.
I just finished the film like 10 minutes ago and wow. Knife straight to the heart at the end.
It’s one of the most memorable melancholic films ever made! You’re under it’s shadow afterwards _
I watched it this weekend. It's finally available on a streaming service.
It thought it was on of the best films I've ever seen. Heartbreakingly beautiful. I got a a lot of the subtext and mise en scene but I missed a great deal too. I need to see it again but I don't know if I can handle it
One of my favourite films. Best film review ever.
Absolutely brilliant! ARGH! So spot on. You might even consider what the eyelines in the film mean, when they cross, when the look directly into each other's eyes, and when the eyelines are utterly nonsensical. There is much more to be said about this film, but framing this around the ahem framing was a perfect entry point. Thank you for this!
Michael Aronson Oh my god there are so many things to say about this movie. I had a few more sections in here that I took out because they were just too tangential, and I wanted the piece to cohere around the framing point (which I think the is the key thing). Thanks for the comment.
Nerdwriter1 My pleasure. I occasionally write for Cinefix. Filmschool'd, What's the Difference, and I'm always looking to push my critical analyses as far as possible despite the sardonic tone of the channel. Keep up the good work, I for one am a huge fan.
Your wonderful resumé gave me similar creeps to watching the movie ( which I did half a dozen times )...Bravo !
This is such a brilliant analysis! I watched this film for the first time the other day after wanting to for years, and I was enthralled by it, but when it ended I couldn't help like I'd missed something, or a lot of things. This video helped explain that feeling and made me appreciate the film more. Thank you! :)
My all time favorite, definitely a masterpiece!
The whole movie is beautiful. But your explanation is so beautiful too. ❤️
Excellent analysis! I think there are only few films that require so much maturity to watch. And that is so full of symbolism and details. You can watch it 10 times, each time with the focus on some other thing, like her cheongsams, the colour scheme, the slow-mo, the music, the rain, the food, the rooms etc.. What do you make of the omnipresent clocks?
'Time' is THE constant theme of all Wong's films. 1960s for Days of Being Wild, In the Mood for Love, 2046 (which fictionally jumping to the future), 1990s for Chungking Express and Fallen Angels, 'out of time' in Ashes of Time... There's always an omnipresent clock in his films signifying the concept of time how it changes the environment and characters.
I really enjoyed this essay, and it even inspired me to watch this movie sooner than I intended. It is amazing piece of art, with its slow pace, mood, and the theme of desire, longing and unfulfilled dreams it resonates so much. I want to thank you for your effort on this one, good work.
honestly my favorite film and i usually don’t enjoy the romance genre
Gorgeous movie. Tension, frustration, emotional undercurrent. Maggie's hairdo and costumes are fantastic, beautiful fabric and impeccable cut.
You are an incredible reviewer
I watched the movie today in a small cinema, and it is truly as beautiful as everyone said. As you said, it feels like a memory, and it also looks as the Mai characters must feel. The cinematography is claustrophobic, and for me creates a mood of dissociation. They're also only rarely together in frame, often when they look at each other it seems like its only trough mirrors, and when there together they're obscured by the foreground, it makes everything feel so fragile and dangerous. The whole movie feels like the poem at its end, like a memory through dusty glass. It just so perfectly captures exactly that feeling. I don't know if I'm making sense, I just have to gush about this beautiful sensual poem of a movie. And your video gave some details and interpretations I haven't thought about.
thank you so much for this!! in the mood for love has always been one of my favourite films i grew up watching, and every time i go back to it, its magic spells a different reason for why I'm so intrigued by its beauty and complexity. your fantastic video wants me to put myself through this addictive cycle all over again! i was interested if you have watched tampopo or wings of desire; would love to know what you think of them!!
lianrose88 Haven't seen either, but I'll check them out.
i think you'll really enjoy them! both great films!!
Wings of Desire! Saw it in a privately-owned cinema which are now, sadly, almost all gone. $2.50 for a double bill of second-run films on Monday night; the old skool theatre had red velvet drapes, NO commercials(!), an electric clock above each of the two-side-screen incandescent exit signs, and a 1930s tiled lobby selling small boxes of popcorn rather than tubs :D Blade Runner and Wings of Desire bookmarked my 1980s influential cinematographic life...till INMfL swept me off my feet. lianrose88, I am so thrilled you watched WofD. As an original 80s goth - I still adore Nick Cave
It was crushing last week to hear The Dissolve was finished. But thankfully we have ,along with Tony Zhou, you sir! Thanks for the wonderful film analysis.
Gregory Day Yea, gutted by the Dissolve's dissolution.
please do one for starry starry night (2012) and chungking express!
I thinks it’s about the 8th time I am rewatching your video. I have been a fan of the movie since it came out, but I am fascinated how deeply and truly you have managed to explain the cinematography and aesthetics of the film. So delicate, so respectful. Thank you very much for doing what you are doing! Kate