Sunday, December 01, 2013

Wong Kar-wai: In the Mood for Love (2000)

With Wong Kar-wai's In the Mood for Love / 花樣年華 (2000), one is bestowed a vision of a way of life in 1962-1963 Hong Kong -- sort of like a miniature Hong Kong Mad Men. Luxuriate in excellent attire, slow-moving scenes, morsels of food, smoking and social mores played out in mostly tight spaces. It's a gorgeous film.  And it's a sort of homage in the use of color and camera to a Jean-Luc Godard film of the actual 1962-1963 time frame -- such as Godard's Le Mépris (1963). The marriage of music, camera movement and scene approaches perfection.   
In the Mood for Love focuses on the strange friendship and understated romance of Mr. Chow (Tony Leung) and Mrs. Chan (Maggie Cheung). We hear but never see in full Mrs. Chow or Mr. Chan -- they in turn are too busy "seeing" each other offscreen. We do see, partly for comic relief, co-workers and fellow apartment dwellers ranging from Mrs. Suen (Rebecca Pan) and Mr. Koo (Chan Man-Lei), who is often drunk, to Mr. Ho (Lai Chen), who has a wife and a girlfriend competing for his time away from work.  

Today's Rune: Journey. 

5 comments:

the walking man said...

Mr. HO seems to be appropriately named but I think in the 60's I personally would have easier been a Koo of the Saki clan.

Luma Rosa said...

Hi, Erik!
Looks pretty good ... Too bad it online and not found here, will be tricky!
Good week!
Beijus,

Charles Gramlich said...

Hong Kong Mad Men. Great description.

Erik Donald France said...

Hey, y'all ~ thanks for the comments! I appreciate them, cheers ~ Saki clan, indeed :->

jodi said...

Erik-I would not have hear of Jean-Luc Godard without you. Not sure if I will catch this one, tho!