In the Mood for Love (Wong Kar Wai) (Special Edition)

This film fills your aural and visual senses and then puts sledgehammer to your heart. A masterpiece of betrayal, longing and unrequited love, the film is also nostalgic, taking place in the Hong Kong of the early sixties and which might as well have been the middle ages given how fast that city changes. The love story is true and hits anyone who has loved and lost in the gut.The cinematography is breathtaking and is Christopher Doyle's crowning achievement, enhancing the relationship between the two leads with colour and imagery that adds to the story. The performance by the two leads is excellent and all of the other departments such as set design, costumes and music only add to the cocktail.I urge one and all to see this timeless film and to give oneself to it unreservedly. You will not regret it. I watch this film once every year and it feels just right that I do.As a companion to this film also try 'Monsoon Wedding' which, in my opinion, is a counterpart and a joyous slice of life in modern India despite one element within that is anything but. In fact, watch both in one long evening of cinema at home with your closest this summer!If you like this film, get a copy of both the 2 disc UK edition as well as the Criterion Region 1 edition from the USA as both have different extras which all make the experience even more satisfying. The Criterion is more expensive but ultimately worth it as the extras are substantial, and the UK edition is inexpensive and great value for money.

Amazon and Sundance Now have really done this film and me an injustice.I stopped watching it 30 mins in as I realised it was out of sync and not to mention a few scenes in the picture was so dark. So I (allegedly) ended watching it on a legal site that had far better quality than this.The film itself is a piece of art and should have more praise because many films mostly in the west just get praised because of the actors, the franchise or just because the director is "iconic". Even though most western directors steal concepts from the East and African folk stories and don't even credit them or say it was "inspired by." However Wong Kar Wai is not one of them he, as you will see when you watch his films, is a genius and I don't say that lightly.So I recommend watching the film and his other films: Happy Together, Fallen Angels, Chungking Express.Just use a different site.

Wong Kar-Wai`s achingly beautiful love story is a subtle, intense and utterly haunting experience; it surely rates as one of the best romances ever made – it may well be the director's masterpiece.It is a slow film with a decidedly art-house style, but it's a multi-layered piece – the more one knows of the period and culture of Hong Kong the more one will appreciate it.This 2-disc edition has some slightly confusing menu options but provides a choice of audio language options and subtitles (including English).The second disc has a raft of fairly good extras, though many of the items are text-based; several behind the scenes featurettes and interviews, plus deleted scenes and an alternative ending all add up to a decent supporting disc to the feature film.Please ignore the negative reviews (which mostly seem to be about poor streaming service and fake items).

You cannot be anything but in awe of the directing in this film. The story is complex yet straight forward. You follow the lives of two couples renting rooms in apartments next door to each other. Angles obscure faces. Posts, windows and corners reveal little of the scene nor the speaker. I watch this film regularly as I never tire of the style, the ambiance, the emotion. Its not the only film I've been of Tony Chiu Wai Leung, "Lust., Caution", The Infernal Affairs trilogy. However, Maggie Cheung steals the show with beauty and grace.The sequel 2046 is worth of being a story in its own right, but for the references to In The Mood...If you're looking for a story which makes you sit up and pay attention, as you will miss the sometimes cryptic clues they give the other as to their suspicions..Check out Windstruck if you want a bit of comedy thrown in with romance.

I'm with the vast majority of reviewers here. In the Mood for Love combines the most beautiful visual elements with a narrative of little action but much intensity.Every shot, many framed by a doorway, stairs or foreground geometric pattern of some sort, has been carefully planned and colour co-ordinated, and taken with the sparing but repetitive use of the musical soundtrack, part of which is the matchless Nat 'King' Cole in Spanish, the result is a ravishing visual and aural expereince.But this is no film that gives the impression of being a collection of great stills as, say, are Memoirs of a Geisha and Max Ophul's Madame De. There's a drive behind the love story between the two principals that works itself out in real time and in flashback; one of the intriguing features is the way that the possibilities of future emotional change are rehearsed by the principals' role playing.Maggie Cheung takes the acting honours; she's able to switch from hesitant humour to deep poignancy in a flash. Terrific!

This is a very special film - one of my desert island films - which I never tire of watching. Beautifully shot and lit so that every scene is like a painting. The performances are understated and nuanced so that watching again brings new meaning. The music adds poignancy to a tale of unrequited love. No “action”, no car chases and not a gun in sight. The dramatic tension comes from the frisson between the characters, the angst and self-denial. Achingly beautiful film!

An amazing wardrobe and unforgettable characters.

Très bon film

J'avais déjà vu ce film il y a longtemps et j ai voulu acheter le blu-ray pour le revoir et le garder. Je le trouve délicat, élégant, fin et subtil. Il aborde l'adultère, sans les scènes crues de sexe (il n y'a pas besoin pour la compréhension du film). Il est poétique, l'actrice est belle et ses robes superbes.

Für die Filmkritiker ist "In the Mood for Love" aus dem Jahr 2000 wahrscheinlich Wong Kar Weis bester Film. In der 2012 durchgeführten Umfrage über die besten Filme aller Zeiten von "Sight and Sound" schaffte es der melancholische Liebesfilm auf Platz 24 der Besten Filme und ist somit der beste Filme des noch jungen 21. Jahrhunderts. Auch bei der Umfrage der BBC über die besten Filme seit 2000 wurde "In the Mood for Love" auf Platz 2 - hinter David Lynchs "Mullholland Drive" - gewählt. Man darf aber auch nicht unerwähnt lassen, dass der Regisseur aus Hongkong mit Filmen wie "Chungking Express", "Fallen Angels", "Ashes in Time" oder "Grandmaster" noch weitere gleichwertige Meisterwerke gedreht hat.Der Film erzählt die Begegnung von zwei einsamen Menschen, die sich eigentlich finden könnten, aber...die potentiellen Liebenden kreisen zwar umeinander wie Satelliten, aber sie werden niemals die gleiche Umlaufbahn miteinader teilen können. Die Geschichte beginnt im Jahr 1962 in einem engen Sozialbau in Hongkong. Dort hat Frau Suen (Rebecca Pan) eine Wohnung an die schöne und elegante Chan Li-zhen (Maggie Cheung) und deren Mann vermietet. Am gleichen Tag zieht dort auch Chow Mo-wan (Tony Leung Chiu Wai) mit seiner Frau in der Nachbarswohnung dort ein. Die junge Frau und der junge gutaussehende Mann treffen sich meistens im beengten Treppenhaus und grüßen einander. Beide haben das gleiche Problem; Der Ehepartner ist nur selten zu Hause. Nicht lange und beide Stellen fest, dass ihre Ehepartner eine Affäre miteinander haben. Sie sprechen darüber und treffen sich ebenfalls öfters. Beide zögern aber mit dem möglichen Seitensprung, denn sie wollen mit ihren untreuen Partnern nicht gleichziehen. Sie treffen sich aber ständig und immer öfters zu dezenten Mahlzeiten oder schüchternen Gesprächen. Keine Frage: Die beiden empfinden tief füreinander, aber das Tabu hält. Wenn auch zuweilen sehr wacklig. Der Ehebruch bleibt in der Schwebe und aus dem möglichen Glück wird leider eine grausam schöne Tristesse...Vor allem sichtbar in den letzten Sequenzen des Films, wo beide erkennen, dass ihre Liebe keine Zukunft haben kann. Das schlechte Gewissen macht der Liebe unmöglich. Deprimiert reist Chow nach Singapur. Noch einmal versucht Li-Zhen einen Ausbruch. Sie reist ihrer Liebe nach und wartet in seinem Zimmer, aber sie geht wieder bevor Chow von der Arbeit zurückkehrt. Im Jahr 1966 besucht Chow die bekannte Tempelanlage Angkor Wat in Kambotscha. Dort begräbt er seine große Liebe symbolisch in einem Loch in einer Mauer, dass er dann mit Erde und Gras verstopft. Er besucht aber später noch einmal seine alte Wohnung, ohne zu wissen, dass Li-zhen wieder in diesem Haus wohnt. Er geht wieder, ohne ihr zu begegnen. Tragisch...und tragisch schön. Diese zarte Lovestory hat Wong KarWai mit einer genialen Musik unterlegt. Der japanische Komponist Shigeru Umebayshi steuerte das hypnotische musikstück "Yumeji's Theme" bei, dass sich die Dramaturgie der Geschichte untermalt. Auch drei Songs von Nat King Cole verstärken den perfekten Retrostyle des Films. Wie immer lieferte auch Kameramann Christopher Doyle (gemeinsam mit Pin Bing Lee) total raffinierte Bilder von licht- und schattendurchflutenden Szenen. Die Liebenden begegnen sich auf engen Fluren, auf regennassen Straßen am Abend. Das Schicksal will es aber, dass der erotische Knoten nicht platzen kann. Man wünscht natürlich, dass sie sich bekommen, aber das Schicksal nimmt einen anderen Weg. Traurig...

UPDATE: 2012 BLU-RAY EDITIONThe new BluRay Edition is simply outstanding. Print quality and sound, you could not ask for better. The extra's WOW - lot of 2012 additional material, including a documentary that shows almost an hours worth of production footage that shows the original (largly funny!) original storyline, including a super cool dance number excerpt (deleted as too funny?). Specials on the soundtrack and much more -- I did not realize it was shot twice for instance (with Doyle quitting with the prospect of doing it again). Just amazing. Highly recommended. Let's hope they do it with 2046 next!* * * *I watched this movie late one night about a year ago on a 27 in TV. The pacing seemed slow and I was falling sleep through most of it. I decided to watch it again last night on my 42 inch TV and that alone made a huge difference, and also I was "in the mood" for watch a movie to try to understand the message.First, you need to slow the introduction's written message down so you can read and ponder it a bit so that you are "in the mood" to discover its importance. I found after that I was totally interested in the story as it unfolded.It has a really unusual "clips" feeling of giving us KEY glimpse of these two lonely people's lives. Maggie Cheung's character is witness (and accomplice really) to her boss having an affair on his wife; so she knows the signs and does not know how to react in a culture that has a belief system of "normal" and when the reality is not like that - hypocrisy and denial seem the "norm". Tony Leung's character is also helping his friend in being a womanizer - repeating several times, he is not like his friend. Both characters do it passively, but the world's reality around them - eventually to include their own spouses - makes them increasingly alone in the belief of how loving people treat each other.**SPOILERS**There one big irony .. the betrail of Maggie Cheung's character when the relationship and love shared between these two people - almost a misfit in the "reality" of that culture; Maggie chooses to live the illusion.Another interesting thing is TIMING; introduce in a sequence near the end when Tony and Maggie both visit the apartment building years later - as that love had anchored memories of happiness to it; or the possibility of happiness. He does not realize she is living there as a tenant in his old apartment says the old owner moved out and a "woman and child" live there now. He pauses at her door, as if about to knock, but continues on past. A moment of perfect potential timing - perhaps ignoring intuition (he brought a gift) being missed. Or would the past behaviours of denial and debating reality and illusion be followed?Possible elements: in the out takes they do have sex; I wondered if the child was his? Also they meet years later (again in the out takes)and basically end up going their own ways - past pattern repeated, another opportunity missed.Finally, there is a LOT similar in 2046 - the round openings and the openings and windows in 2046. The hallway with the round lights on the roof, and the hallways on the 2046 train. A lot of the dialogue is repeated, such as "sometimes your emotions catch you unaware" or "sometime feelings can creep up on you ..." I was pleasaantly surprised how well 2046 was an excellent follow up.