IN THE MOOD FOR LOVE centers around Chow Mo-Wan (Tony Leung) and Su Li-Zhen (Maggie Cheung), neighbors living in a crowded apartment building in 1962 Hong Kong. Both married to people who are always away, they spend many nights home alone. The two make each other's acquaintance and soon find that they have a lot in common: Both enjoy martial arts, frequent the same noodle stand--and eventually discover that their spouses are cheating on them. (Mo-Wan's wife is having an affair with Li-Zhen's husband.) Hurt and angry, they find comfort in their growing friendship even as they resolve not to be like their unfaithful mates.
Wong Kar-Wai's seventh film reunites him with Leung and Cheung, who provide perfectly evocative performances as the two hesitant would-be lovers. A slight departure from his more recent films (in which he used hyperkinetic camera movements to reflect the frenetic pace of modern Hong Kong life), here Wong uses fixed shots and stages static tableaus to capture a lost historical moment. Yet the film is filled with Wong's unique style, with its lush pageantry of colors, sounds, and images. A thoughtful and provocative exploration of memory, tradition, historical change, inevitability, and love, this vivid period piece offers a rich cinematic experience.
Rating: PG (MPAA) Rating Reason: For thematic elements and brief language. Runtime: 98 minutes DVD Code: Region 1 US, CA Genre: Foreign Films Color: Color Criterion Collection; Widescreen Rating: DVD Features:
Region 1
Keep Case
Anamorphic Widescreen - 1.66
Single Side - Dual Layer
Additional Release Material:
Alternate Ending
Deleted Scenes
Interview - 1. Wong Kar-wai - Director
Press Confereence
Traliers - 1. Orignial U.S. Theatrical Trailer
TV Spots
Essay
Galleiies/Text:
Photo Gallery
Biographies
Essay on Setting
Interactve Features:
Interactive Music Essay Siu Ping-Lam, Maggie Cheung, Maggie Cheung Man-Yuk, Lai Chen, Rebecca Pan, Tony Leung Chiu-Wai, Tony Leung Chiu-Wai, Tony Leung
Kar-Wai Wong, Wong Kar-Wei, Wong Kar-Wai
IN THE MOOD FOR LOVE centers around Chow Mo-Wan (Tony Leung) and Su Li-Zhen (Maggie Cheung), neighbors living in a crowded apartment building in 1962 Hong Kong. Both married to people who are always away, they spend many nights home alone. The two make each other's acquaintance and soon find that they have a lot in common: Both enjoy martial arts, frequent the same noodle stand--and eventually discover that their spouses are cheating on them. (Mo-Wan's wife is having an affair with Li-Zhen's husband.) Hurt and angry, they find comfort in their growing friendship even as they resolve not to be like their unfaithful mates. Wong Kar-Wai's seventh film reunites him with Leung and Cheung, who provide perfectly evocative performances as the two hesitant would-be lovers. A slight departure from his more recent films (in which he used hyperkinetic camera movements to reflect the frenetic pace of modern Hong Kong life), here Wong uses fixed shots and stages static tableaus to capture a lost historical moment. Yet the film is filled with Wong's unique style, with its lush pageantry of colors, sounds, and images. A thoughtful and provocative exploration of memory, tradition, historical change, inevitability, and love, this vivid period piece offers a rich cinematic experience. () "...This is an astonishingly rich and multi-layered film that is possibly the director's finest to date..." -- 4 out of 5 stars
Box Office (11/01/2000) "...Haunting....[The stars] generate potent sexual chemistry..."
Movieline's Hollywood Life (02/01/2001) Theatrical Release: February 2, 2001 (NY).
February 9, 2001 (LA).
February 16, 2001 (NATIONAL).
The film was shot on location in Hong Kong, Bangkok, and Angkor Wat.
The year in which the story begins, 1962, is the year Wong Kar-Wai and his family first moved to Hong Kong from Shanghai.
Shooting for the film was contracted to last three months yet extended to a year and a half, partly because of the Asian economic crisis and partly as a result of Wong Kar-Wai's improvisational style. The cast and crew had four different wrap parties.
Both stars of the film managed to shoot other films during the year and a half it took to shoot IN THE MOOD FOR LOVE. Tony Leung Chiu-Wai acted in the caper film TOKYO RAIDERS, and Maggie Cheung appeared in the San Francisco-set romantic comedy SAUSALITO.
Wong Kar-Wai first wanted to call his film SECRETS but was told there were too many films with the word "secrets" in the title. He came upon the eventual title while listening to Bryan Ferry's cover of the song "I'm in the Mood for Love."
Siu Ping-Lam was a propmaster in the Hong Kong industry for years and worked on several of Wong Kar-Wai's films. He was serving as propmaster on IN THE MOOD FOR LOVE when Wong decided that Siu had the perfect 1960s look. He wrote in the Ah-Ping character halfway through the shooting and gave Siu his first acting job.
The room that Chow Mo-Wan rents to write in is room 2046; 2046 is the title of Wong Kar-Wai's follow-up project.
Wong Kar-Wai had Tony Leung Chiu-Wai and Maggie Cheung in mind as the leads from the start. Wong worked with both stars for his DAYS OF BEING WILD and ASHES OF TIME, in AS TEARS GO BY with Cheung, and in CHUNGKING EXPRESS and HAPPY TOGETHER with Leung.
To help Cheung with her characterization, Wong Kar-Wai instructed her to imagine her role in IN THE MOOD FOR LOVE as the same character she played in DAYS OF BEING WILD, only 10 years older. Although not stated explicitly (she answers, "My husband's name is Chan" whenever someone asks her name), Cheung's character is officially listed as Su Li-Zhen, which is the same name as her character in DAYS OF BEING WILD.
The film was initially to follow the characters through 1977 but, because of time constraints and length restrictions, ends in 1966.
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