In the Mood for Love is another masterpiece from the famous Hong Kong director Wong Kar Wai. It is a story of two married people who try to decipher and accept the boundary in loving given a strict circumstance and the freedom there is after surrendering. It is told in a manner where longing and repression battle for the final resolve of fate and destiny.
It started out in 1962 when Mr. Chow (Tony Leung) and Mrs. Chan (Maggie Cheung) mixed the ingredients of a potential love affair in one confined setting prone to frequent encounters, chit chats, and mah-jong sessions when they rented respective apartments situated next to each other and moving in on the same day.
Despite their friendly neighbours, they always find themselves alone in their own rooms while living up to their responsibilities as husband and wife to their due spouses who were often found nowhere because of overtime shifts or out of the country work meetings.
Coincidences happened and gut feelings aroused after they found out the similarities of presents their spouses gave to them – same neck ties for the husband of Mrs. Chan and Mr. Chow and same handbags for the wife of Mr. Chow and Mrs. Chan, concurrent flights, same travel destinations and same periods of absence. It was then over a cup of tea that they decided to admit their shared suspicion of their spouses cheating on them. Then the two decided to strike a formal friendship that included re-enactments of possible rendezvous of their spouses, ringing the phone thrice, going out to dinner or serving dinner, and the lady must head home first to evade gossips in their bustling apartment – but with everything to the promise of “we will not be like them”.
However, Chow was more than willing of getting their casual trysts into something deeper and serious. In his obstinacy, he convinced Mrs. Chan to pursue their “friendship” as he believed they were not doing anything wrong and so he rented a distant hotel where he could write a kung fu story, which she could serve to help as she was fond of reading such stories, after informing him of a growing suspicion in their place.
Mrs. Chan tried to resist deep inside as she knew for herself that she could not leave her husband but only to realize that everything would turn sour and bitter after knowing Chow’s departure for Singapore to correct mistakes and not to prolong their agony in keeping their feelings to themselves. It was then they learned that they have already fallen in love with each other. Their love continued for years even without communication and meeting. It even took Mr. Chow a desperate move to unburden his pain by whispering his secret in a temple in Cambodia as he believed it might lessen the load in his heart for all the years that he was still counting.
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The story was told in Wong Kar Wai’s famous craft – sublime, visually poetic, and hauntingly beautiful. For anyone who would watch the film, it might only seem as an eye candy with all the melodramatic backdrop of colors, slow pace movement of camera to bring out the sentiments of particular scenes, and artistic cinematography to add a touch of elegance and beauty into a story that actually crumbles a hopeful spirit. But definitely there are lots of read between the lines and emotional provocations awaiting to offer.
What I like about the film is that it captures reality and truth in an unpretentious manner. Theatrical music was not even incorporated in most of the crucial scenes where heavy emotions and thoughts are central. The delivery of message like in every revelation of the painful facts of cheating is played in a natural and realistic way where tears and feelings are best kept and falling blind and lenient is the perfect option in front of people to save respect for the involved.
In this manner, I believe that In the Mood exploited the force of silence in whatever form it took to liberate pain, suffering, loneliness, and other negativities in dealing with the longing for love but suppressing it in the end. The approach successfully grips you with the reality that in silence you can always hear and see; feel and understand; and finally accept and recover.
Last but not the least, the ironic sympathy of viewers build up towards the protagonists is set on a narration that is cleverly constructed. With the unfolding of truths and lies, we tend to hope the best for the chemistry-laden although detestable love affair of Mr. Chow and Mrs. Chan. But in the end, we are hurled back to satisfy ourselves over the righteous resolution of them parting ways, leaving us the death of a true love but replacing it with the comfort of freedom.
