Sweet, painfully sad

Film review: In the Mood for Love

A poet once said there are no words sadder than "it might have been." It is this pain that comes from missed opportunities that the famous writer and director Wong Kar Wai, of Chungking Express and Happy Together, explores with rapturous elegance in the Chinese language movie In the Mood for Love. The film was released to international acclaim two years ago but was finally shown in local theaters only last week.

A warm applause for the distributors is in order. They dared to go against the common belief that movies rich in atmosphere but seemingly lacking in action have no audience in this country. Truth to tell, they might have already discovered that there is indeed some truth in this, but what the heck. Admittedly, In the Mood for Love is a one-sentence story and a very short one at that. But it is also so lovingly told. Now that it is finally showing here, it might do you well to bask in its exquisite portrayal of the quiet, throbbing ache of passion repressed in exchange for a lifetime of convention.

Set in Hong Kong during the early ’60s, In the Mood for Love is about Mr. Chow played by actor and singing idol Tony Leung, who won the Best Actor Award in Cannes for this picture, and Mrs. Chan, played by the lovely Maggie Cheung, Hong Kong’s most awarded actress. They are neighbors in a downtown walk-up whose mates are involved in an illicit affair. Mrs. Chow is always away "taking care of a sick mother." Mr. Chan is always "off on a business trip." As they live their lives alone in the claustrophobic confines of their apartment building Mr. Chow and Mrs. Chan often come across each other while passing through the narrow halls and stairs.

But as every man and woman with an unfaithful spouse has known since time began, a little voice inside has already told them that his wife and her husband are up to something behind their backs. So each glance, each casual greeting and their many nights alone are also filled with curiosity about what the man or the woman next door could be feeling. As their friendship grows, the secret of humiliating betrayal that they share also gets more and more real. Soon they are caught up in an incendiary situation that can explode anytime.

But remember, this is Hong Kong in 1962. While their volatile mates are in constant movement and are never seen in the movie, they are imprisoned by their way of life – she in her perfect hairdos and fitted cheongsams, he in his unvarying gray suits. And for both of them, noodle dinners and the belief that they are the better persons who are doing the right thing.

Unlike Harrison Ford and Kristin Scott Thomas who jump into bed the first chance they get in Random Hearts, Mr. Chow and Mrs. Chan share confidences and moments together but not once is love or any manifestation of affection demonstrated. The sad thing about all this is that they are madly in love and would continue to wonder about what might have happened had they given in to their feelings years into the future.

In the Mood for Love is a gem polished in all the right places. Wong Kar Wai treats his story like a beloved treasure from the past. The well-tempered performances of his actors are pregnant with so much emotions. The visuals are ravishingly beautiful for their period charm, clever composition and adroit use of color. His pacing is slow and can be exasperating at times but it is fluid and every scene plays out like a dream. Like the unrealized yearnings in unhappy relationships though, this embarrassment of beauty is marked with so much sadness. The story unfolds before a furtive camera that peers through doorways and gratings or keeps to itself in a corner. A plaintive melody keeps repeating itself in the background interrupted once in a while by Nat "King" Cole’s Spanish recordings from the ’50s, which intones Quizas, Quizas, Quizas or Perhaps, Perhaps, Perhaps.

Some years later while on assignment in Cambodia, Chow finally decides it is now time to set his feelings free but it is too late. "That era has passed. Nothing belongs to it anymore," he says. Nothing remains the same in this world but In the Mood for Love vividly recaptures the spirit of breathtaking romance. It is timeless in its sentiments and magical in its effect on the viewer. Watching it is like remembering a secret you held so tightly inside your heart that you actually felt you were going to burst. Like the picture, the memory is sweet and pretty but also painfully sad.