In the Mood for Love: Wong Kar-Wai

Having missed 2046 when it was showing in Boston, I grabbed "In the mood for love" when I spotted it in the local library.

First things first: yes, the movie has been described as haunting, sensuous and even enigmatic...but all those descriptives, to me, appear to be applied to Maggie Cheung! Now of course, if you take someone as comely and lissom as Ms. Cheung, with her swan-like slenderness and grace, and drape her in a different, flower-patterned, figure-hugging dress in every shot, the effect can be mesmerising in itself...but she is a splendid actress too, her face pulsing with emotions, her lovely eyes and her lovely lashes fluttering, flickering with furtiveness, with repressed feelings, with hurt, with mild acknowledgements...and a thin smile playing on her lips...oh, how radiant, how sad!



Tony Cheung, in contrast, is almost noirish with his
cigarette and white-shirt and tie combination, not to mention the slicked-back hair...

I just thought making a movie out of such ordinary settings, minimal supporting cast and the few locations -- and a storyline established quite early-on -- was quite a feat. And the title of the movie almost as dreamy and languorus as the movie itself captures the essence very well. Talk about Almodovar's movies within movies...this has Wong Kar-Wai make his actors role play in the movie again, apart from the characters they assume...he blends reality and make-believe only too well...there is a sense of being led on even when you are made to think that Maggie and Tony are only playing rehearsing roles they would play with their spouses....

After they first meet, Tony says he wants to know "how it all started," and later, he says, he knows..."Feelings just creep up"...oh, how loaded, what subtle implications...