In the Mood for Love

In his masterpiece In the Mood for Love, Wong Kar-wai weaves together image, music, gesture, costume design, and colour into a unique blend of platonic love and nostalgia. The film's impact has only deepened over time - and the chance to see it in a restored print more than 20 years after its premiere is a rare opportunity.

Working with three cinematographers, Wong crafted a romantic melodrama about a couple brought together by a pitiful circumstance: their partners are cheating on each other. Hong Kong stars Maggie Cheung and Tony Leung play Mrs. Chan and Mr. Chow, whose lives intertwine from the moment they move into neighbouring apartments on the same day. When they discover their partners' infidelity, they refuse to become like them - and we witness their solitude, repeated gestures and musical motifs, and the secret of a love that is real yet unfulfilled.

The film unfolds in 1960s Hong Kong, in strikingly stylized interiors and cramped alleyways that speak to both closeness and distance - not only between the main characters. Wong clearly references Hong Kong's political situation and its transitional status: in 2046, fifty years after Britain handed the island to China, everything could change. Wong would develop this theme four years later in a film titled simply 2046. Given Hong Kong's recent history, the melancholy song about love and finitude feels perhaps even more urgent than before.