In The Mood For Love: A Movie for Lonely Souls
A fate came to me to watch “In The Mood For Love” from a scene in the fashion documentary “The First Monday in May”. They mentioned the fashion style of Hong Kong in the 60s when cheongsam took the throne to honor the beauty of women. At first, I thought In The Mood For Love is just simply a movie about fashion. But after I saw it, it is a sonata of love for lonely souls and Wong Kar-Wai did an excellent job when he satisfied the audience not only with the story but also with the cinematography.
Source: IMDb
An Incomplete Love Story.
It is a beautiful and sad picture of an incomplete love where two main characters could not come together in the end. Chow Mo-wan is an editor of a newspaper. Su Li-zhen is an office secretary. They are neighbors and have feeling for each other after they suspected their real-life partners are in outside relationships. But because of the moral standards and the prejudice of society against cheating, Mo-wan and Li-zhen have to keep their love relationship no-intimacy to stay away from wrongdoing. And because they have to do it, two hearts can not mix into one. They can share anything in life, they can have dinner together, Li-zhen can read and make suggestions on Mo-wan’s work, or they are just simply together. There is a French saying that can talk about their relationship. “Si loin de nous, si pres par la pensee”. (So far from us, so close in thought). Yes, they love each other but the irony of fate cannot bring them together and in the end, they are far away. If you notice carefully, there is one detail that proved the existence of a barrier between Mo-wan and Li-zhen. They never kiss. It has shown the brilliance of Wong Kar-wai in telling a story of the sadness and loneliness of two souls who are too close, with just one more push, they are together. When I watched the movie, I wanted Mo-wan and Li-zhen can come together in the end, and let them have true love. But then, I thought it must be the brightest point of this movie. The director wants to lift up the ultimate of pain and heart-broken. How cruel it is! They only can embrace the love they have for each other and let it gnaw their lives.
Li-zhen.
Two characters have left inside me so many emotions. But Li-zhen is the most outstanding one that I somehow can see myself inside her. There are two reasons why Li-zhen represents for all the lonely souls in the world.
First, it is her dress. Cheongsam. According to “Cheongsam: Then and Now” from Transpacific Popular Culture, cheongsam focuses on the Chinese identity with the collar and the buttons, and throughout many variations, the top part of the cheongsam still keep the tradition because it preserves the cultural identity of the garment. In every scene, Li-zhen wears different cheongsam dresses. Each dress talks about her mood at a certain time. When she is sad, she wears dark color. When she is with Mo-wan, she wears lighter color. But it is not only showing the mood of Li-zhen, it also tells that in every moment of life, up or down, she must also always show that she is stylish, beautiful, and absolutely fine in her life without any sadness or trouble. So that when people around (except Mo-wan) look at her, they only keep in mind the image of an elegant woman with a happy marriage. The dresses have helped her to hide away her problems.
Second, it is Li-zhen’s eyes. I must say that Maggie Cheung, who played Li-zhen, is one of the greatest actresses in the Hong Kong movie industry. She has brought to this character a spirit of a broken heart. Looking into the eyes of Li-zhen, there is something sad, something desperate, something indescribable, and something lonely. She smiles, she shows everything that is fine, and she tries to be normal in front of everyone else. But through her eyes, she is begging for help. She needs someone to be with her at the moment. Her husband is not there for her. A woman lives in an apartment. Oh my God, that is the depth of the pain. Her eyes have told everything.
Other elements.
About cinematography, In The Mood For Love is very detailed in creating Hong Kong in the 60s with the lifestyle, people, streets, and dim lights from every pole when the night comes. Oh my God, it is like you are seeing a drawing from a very famous artist. The night is the main set of this movie. When the night comes, it is the time we can live with our true selves that no one knows, it is the time for loneliness attacking us.
The most beautiful scene of “In The Mood For Love” is the scene where Mo-wan tells Li-zhen that he will go to Singapore for his new job. It makes me cry because how comes life is so cruel to them like that. It jeopardizes them. But there is a brilliant detail in that scene that makes me admiring director Wong Kar-wai even more. In the image below, you can see the shadow of grids reflects on Mo-wan and Li-zhen. It represents they are trapped inside the prison of life. They cannot be together after all. They are trapped inside the loneliness with no way out. It is like we are reading a tragedy.
The color tone of the movie also reflects the mood of the two main characters. There are light colors, dark colors, and red colors in order to tell the stories at different times to make sure the audience can have the same feeling with the characters. Finally, it is the music. To anyone who loves jazz like me, this movie will not fail you. “Yumeji’s theme, written by Shigeru Umebayashi, is the original score of “In The Mood For Love”. Wong Kar-wai ingeniously added this song into a certain scene to lift up the mood.
Woah, “In The Mood For Love” is such an extraordinary movie that there is no word that can tell enough.