Understated melancholy romance from Wong Kar-Wai, named the second best film of the 21st century by the BBC.
Set in...
Understated melancholy romance from Wong Kar-Wai, named the second best film of the 21st century by the BBC.
Set in Hong Kong in 1962, the film centers on two young couples who rent adjacent rooms in a crowded tenement. Li-zhen (Maggie Cheung) works as a secretary in an export company while her husband's job at a Japanese multinational keeps him away on extended business trips. Across the hall, Chow (Tony Leung Chiu-wai) works as a newspaper editor and is married to a woman who is also frequently out of town. Li-zhen and Chow strike up a friendship and after suspecting their spouses are having an affair, are drawn together by shame and anger. While working through their guilt by imagining how their adulterous spouses first hooked up and rehearsing interrogations, the pair slowly fall in love in spite of their determination to uphold their end of their marital vows. (Rovi)
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Where to watch In the Mood for Love
92 %190 reviewsRotten Tomatoes® rating
94 %54,295 reviewsAudience score rating
"Dazzles with a heady atmosphere of romantic melancholy and ravishing visuals ... but neglects to construct the kind of dramatic complexity to provide any lasting emotional resonance."
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Variety
Variety"Heat rises from the film like steam from its noodle bars. It's enough to make you giddy."
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Total Film
Total Film"Every charged frame of the film pulses with the central contradiction between repression and emotional abandon; the formalism and sensuality are inextricable."
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Time Out
Time Out"Probably the most breathtakingly gorgeous film of the year, dizzy with a nose-against-the-glass romantic spirit that has been missing from the cinema forever."
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The New York Times
The New York Times"Instead of asking us to identify with this couple, as an American film would, Wong asks us to empathize with them; that is a higher and more complex assignment, with greater rewards."
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Roger Ebert
Roger Ebert"The performances are masterly, and the photography beautiful. A genuinely romantic romance."
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Empire Magazine
Empire MagazineIn the Mood for Love | Details
Award winner- Best Actor winner (Tony Chiu Wai Leung) and Technical Grand Prize winner at Cannes Film Festival 2000
- Rating
- PG, Contains mild sex references and language
- Runtime
- 98
- Genre
- Drama, Romance
- Country of origin
- Hong Kong, China
