Its seldom that we encounter a great movie from Asia, Us
being the American audience, the filmmakers of this country usually strict to a
traditional formula of drama, suspense and romance pictures, but ever wonder
what film are like in other countries? I do, I often fancy foreign films, and
one that broke the barrier and made it to in USA got a feature in entertainment
weekly over 10 years, a film called ''In the mood for love'' by director Wong
kar wai. I myself am not too particular on films about romance, but I don't
think I ever been moved by a film like I have this one.
In the mood for love is a movie that takes place in the
summer 1962 of Hong Kong, China. Two
complete strangers are the main characters, a man by the name of Mr. Chow
(played by tony Leung) and a woman named
Su Li Zhen aka. Mrs. Chan (Played by Maggie Cheung). They both are married and
recently relatively at the sometime moved into an apartment, and subtle glance
at each other and polite gesture. Mrs. Chan whose husband is often gone from home
due to work, looks for friends to chat with in nearby apartment rooms, she
stumbles upon Mr. Chow’s wife, who is having an affair with her husband. this
devastates Chan as she cries in the shower and the next day at work is cold to
her boss throughout the day.
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Again Mr. Chow runs into Mrs. Chan, he has asks her to
dinner in a complete platonic way. They both eat and notice something off, Mr.
Chow had bought a purse for his wife just like Mrs. Chan’s, and in turn Mrs.
Chan notices that Mr. Chow’s tie is just like the one she bought her husband.
Its then Mrs. Chan realizes she wasn't the only one that knows both of their
spouses are cheating on each other.
Slowly but surely they try to piece together what went
wrong, and act out how and why their spouses betrayed them. As there role-play
of the two gets more intense, they form a close friendship with each other, but
try to be as cautious as possible from renting hotel rooms for the night, to
quiet dinners off away from the gossip of the apartment building which
eventually takes the turn into love.
Without giving the ending away too much, it all comes down to a scene in the
city of Angkor Wat where Mr. Chow confesses his secret he has held so dearly
after meeting Su Li Zhen.
It was later that i found out that this movie was a sequel
to a film called ''days of being wild'' and the final installment was a film
called ''2046'' both great works of art.
There’s so much to admire about the film, kar-wai made
completely violence free a PG rated movie for all audiences to see and enjoy.
from the vivid coloring of the rooms and style dresses Mrs. Chan wore to the
glances that had to each that spoke more than the script the body language of
the actors was the most impressive I had seen. Not even mentioning the fact that
the movie soundtrack is the most unique, a soundtrack by the great Nat King
Cole, all his music in Spanish in his own voice, were most of his fans were
unaware of such a work he created.
Overall the plot is complete original, not sleazy comparable
to movie like ‘’Pretty Woman’’, and now overdrawn and boring like ‘’Titanic’’.
If you never seen a foreign film before, especially a romance film, prepare to
be captivated. I have my scale on how I grade movies, 5 critical sections of
the story. The plot, flow of movie (did it take too long to get to the point?)
the acting, soundtrack, and the ending.
The plot: 9.6/10 never been done before, great write up by
kar-wai
The acting -9.7/10: Maggie Cheung (su li Zhen) expressed her
difficulty with them and did many shoots over, but came away with the best
performance of the movie, with tony leung not far behind.
Soundtrack – 9.3/10: can’t get more original then a Nat king
Cole album in Spanish, dare you to find better.
Flow of movie -8.7/10 only about a 97 minute film with
kar-wai taking quite a few scenes out, it would’ve been nice he left in, but
these 97 minutes will certainly move you.
Ending- 7.9/10: maybe I’m a bit bias here sense I know Wong
kar wai filmography very well but the ending left a little to be desired, still
it demonstrated restraint Mr. Chow and Mrs. Chan had for their situations with their
cheating spouses.
