Well for this movie, I admit it was quite boring to me at the beginning. In the mood for love is a Hong Kong dramatic movie in 2000. Before that, its original Chinese title named “花样年华” which derived from a song by Zhou Xuan. This movie was directed, produced and written by Wong Kar Wai. He is a famous director and he has produced many famous films such as Days of Being Wild (1990) and Chungking Express (1994). In this film, it has used the concept of French Impressionist Cinema and Surrealism.
French Impressionist Cinema is popular during 1919-1928. It reveals the play of the character's consciousness, concerns mental states, dreams or fantasies. It was mainly focused on what the character is thinking, feeling and experiencing. It also manipulates time and subjectivity by showing the flashbacks. The visual depiction of the mental state is from cinematography and editing. It includes point of view editing where shows the character's experience and visuals are vertiginous to show dizzy effects. For Surrealism, it was a theory where shows contents of sexual desire, violence, blasphemy and bizarre humor. Mise-en-scene is involved in this theory by Surrealist paintings, meaning that it was the things that we take for granted and we will not care about it.
This movie is talking about a bitter love story between Mrs. Chan (Su Li-zhen) and Mr. Chow (Chow Mo-wan) who are next-door neighbors just right they rent a room in a department building at the same day. Both of their spouses often leave them alone and they never show faced in the movie. who discover that their spouses are cheating on them with each other. This is the main reason caused Mrs. Chan and Mr.Chow become friends. After been a while, they knew that their spouses were having an affair behind them and they been together to find out the truth. They fall in love with each other unconsciously. Because of some reason, they did not start their relationship then ended unwillingly with missing.
In this movie, the soundtracks can be addicted and it keeps repeating especially when Mrs. Chan and Mr.Chow pass over each other. As an example, the theme song "Yumeji's Theme" by Shigeru Umebayashi has been played many times. The song can be heard when Mrs. Chen went out to buy noodles. She walked down the stairs and met Mr. Chow. The song makes it feels desolated sort of like two lovely people met each other but they cannot be together. Secondly, one of the scenes is Mr.Chow was having a rehearsal separation practice with Mrs. Chan how does she should react in the real moment. She cries sadly and Mr. Chow hugged her. This shows their intimate relationship that they are loving each other. This song involved jazz, blue styles and it gives people a kind of sad and lonely feeling. This scene has shows the plot time and subjectivity and it had been greatly used in this movie.
There are many beautiful costumes that we can see from the main characters. Mrs. Chan had worn various types of Cheongsam in the movie. It shows her different daily life and Cheongsam gives people feel that she is a tender and graceful woman. We can see her wearing is more in the traditional way. She ties up her hair neatly in a bun with a pair of nice earing. For Mr. Chow, his wearing has revealed he's working as a businessman. He wears the same consumes everyday which a suit with a tie. One of the scenes that we can see clearly is he runs out to meet Mrs. Chan after receiving her call. He has got wet in the rain and his costume all wet yet he still took the umbrella for Mrs. Chan. This shows Mr. Chow had felled in love with Mrs. Chan.
Besides, this movie is disseminating with love emotion and romance. The motion it has used is mainly at a slow pace especially its rhythmic and the ways of editing. There are many scenes apply different kinds of editing and the point of view editing are smartly connected in the movie. As an example, Mr. Chow was sitting in front of the makeup mirror while Mrs. Chan was sitting on the bed. Both of them are writing a script for the material art novel. When the camera closed up to them, it actually reflects they enjoyed spending time together despite they did not have any conversation. They feel relieved staying by each other's side. Moreover, the iris shot had been used when Mrs. Chan and Mr. Chow having dinner together, they know their spouses are having an affair behind them. They even found out they have using the same things which gave by other's spouses. In this shot, we can see that their facial expressions were very sad and heart-broken.
Other than that, chiaroscuro lighting can be seen in the film. Mrs. Chan was lying on Mr. Chow's shoulder in the taxi after crying sadly in a rehearsal of separation. It uses low-key lighting and high contrast visuals at the street lights and both of their faces. Mrs. Chan's face shows that she was tired and grieved. She loved Mr. Chow but she knew they cannot start the relationship.
In a nutshell, In The Mood For Love is a romance film with French Impressionist Cinema which filmed in a traditional way. The soundtracks and editing ways are well used in this film. I think it might not suitable for me to watch many times as I feel it was a bit boring. I will recommend this movie for the older generation
REFERENCE :
South China Morning Post. (2019). 10 films, 30 years – Wong Kar-wai movies ranked from good to great, from As Tears Go By to The Grandmaster
Retrieved from https://www.scmp.com/culture/film-tv/article/2154813/10-films-30-years-wong-kar-wai-movies-ranked-worst-best-tears-go
THE SOUL OF THE PLOT. (March 8, 2017). In The Mood For Love
Retrieved from https://thesouloftheplot.wordpress.com/2017/03/08/in-the-mood-for-love/
Mp3-PM. (2019). Yumeji's Theme (In the mood for love/Любовное настроение)
Retrieved from https://tvoxy.net/song/1015130/Shigeru_Umebayashi_-_Yumeji_s_Theme_In_the_mood_for_love_Lyubovnoe_nastroenie/
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