Rating: 
Summary: Love in the Absence of Fate
Review: Perfection in cinema is an almost impossible goal to achieve. Mostly because spectators have varying taste and perspectives. But you can't help but feel that Wong Kar-Wai's "In the Mood for Love" is anything short of perfection. The imagery with its lush colors and breathtaking movements is enough to elevate this film. The simple, yet somewhat complicated tale is both heartfelt and authentic. And the performances by Tony Leung and Maggie Cheung are a marvel. But it's none of these that really makes this film, it's rather the manner that Kar-Wai so magically molds all these factors to set a mood that I have never felt before while watching a movie. In all honesty, I'm really not too fond of "forbidden love" movies, but this film really startled me.Ironically, "In the Mood for Love" feels nothing like a Wong Kar-Wai film. It's a very slow moving film which uses lots of fades and dissolves. The Criterion edition of this film is probably the best dvd package I've seen to date. There are just so many extras on it, it's hard to believe. Deleted scenes, interviews, and promotional material, are just a few of the extras. The way Kar-Wai shoots his films (without a script) also adds to the suprise of picture. You see in the extras how much different the original concept was for "In the Mood for Love." There is also an alternate ending that seems very plain, but at the same time very heartbreaking.
Rating:
Summary: Committed artistic vision
Review: "In The Mood For Love" shows how two people's lives intersect through the infidelities of their spouses. Wong Kar-Wai creates a wonderful rich world with vibrant brooding colors perfectly matched to early 1960s Hong Kong. The restrained vibe of the film also is a match, adding to the claustrophobic empathy I felt watching these two neighbors (gorgeously played by Maggie Cheung and Tony Leung) navigate their lives and their marriages around the close knit small town qualities of their apartment building. If you're looking for graphic sensuality (also if you're looking for quick answers or aren't patient with a film paced on the indefinite aspects of real life), you have the wrong movie. Watching this film is like being inside the head of someone trying to remember a distant memory. Some details are sharp and richly colored, others are elliptical and elusive. This movie gives and asks of the viewer more than your typical Hollywood fare. The attention to detail is impressive (I want Maggie Cheung's wardrobe from this film!) A definite recommend.
Rating:
Summary: A Masterpiece, flawless, perfect, beautiful!
Review: Simply put, it is one of the more ravishingly beautiful films ever made! Every now and then, a director and his collaborators are so in-tune with each other, so opperating at the height of their powers, that as a viewer watching it, you are aware of watching greatness yet an air of disbelief pervades. Such feelings you get with (to name a few flawless masterpieces) Tarkovsky's ANDREI RUBLEV, Bergman's CRIES & WHISPERS, Fellini's LA DOLCE VITA, Lee's DO THE RIGHT THING, Scorsese's TAXI DRIVER, and Hitchcock's VERTIGO. All of the aforementioned films are flawless works which use everything the cinema can do...such films are perfect; IN THE MOOD FOR LOVE is such a film. It is a masterpiece and a must own!
Rating:
Summary: DVD's Don't Get Better Than This
Review: This is a love story set in China in the early 1960's. A man and woman are neighbours and discover that their spouses are having an affair. They meet to discuss, to commiserate, to comfort but finally fall in love. They don't want to be like their partners though. The movie is about passion, but also about restraint - how love can make us not act, rather than act. The scenes are beautifully shot, the costumes stunning and with the wet streets, the slow pacing and Nat King Cole singing Spanish in the background you are transported to another time. Often it felt more like an Italian film of the early 60's than a Chinese film made just last year. It is layered and rich in content and style.I have watched the DVD five or six times already and still discover more nuances with each viewing. The Criterion Collection two-disc DVD is what DVD's are really meant to be. The making of featurette and the deleted scenes allow even deeper insights into an already intriguing film. I especially enjoyed the interviews with Maggie Cheung and Tony Leung at the Toronto Film Festival - you can really appreciate the charm of these two very talented actors. This is a DVD to be enjoyed again and again. It is the gem in my DVD library.
Rating:
Summary: Tertiary Love Film at its Highest Form
Review: 98 minutes of excellence. I am never a big fan for romantic films. Especially with the current scene filled with countless teen-or-chick flicks, I have become very picky on this category. I watched it with skepticism. 98 mins later, I switch off the TV in great relief, and also with understanding of why a few people do not enjoy it. Generally, people who dislike this film have the following reasons:
1. Simple plot and no plot twist
2. Repetitive scenes
3. Few and confusing dialogues
4. No significant signs of intimacy or eroticism. Can it even be categorized into "Romance"? One thing I have learnt from "In the Mood for Love" is also the same thing I wish romantic film directors would learn for a long time: Character Study and Development are often more important than unnecessary plot twist. There are pretty much only two characters in the movie, but by middle the audience could feel as if we know them for real. Thus we do feel the characters' happiness, pain and suffering. Yes, even if the time is set in 1962, Hong Kong. The repetitive scenes do not represent lack of creativity. In fact it is one of the hardest tricks in my opinion. Although some actions are very similar, each scene has a subtle change in intimacy and impact for future relationship. Not one of the scenes can be taken away because they're all crucial links. As for the dialogue, it is few but every line is to the point. Each word is polished to sharpest and kept to minimum. Every word is a keyword. Intimacy and eroticism are indications and eye-candy. Audience would understand immediately two people are in love. In my opinion this is director's point of view to choose it or not. Wong Kar Wai deliberately wanted to create a longing relationship without obvious physical contact to add up the sadness. In fact, the film has at least once "Implied Intimacy". ***SPOILER*** When Su told Chow she did not want to go back home in the cab, that "Implies"they would probably spend the night together ***SPOILER*** It could be artistic whether sex scenes are included or not. It just happens that WKW wants to present us a unique experience. I highly appreciate this effot. In the Mood for Love is a ten-level-upped romantic film and I definitely recommend it to every viewer, tertiary or not.
Rating:
Summary: Best Love FIlm I've Ever Seen
Review: God, this movie devastated me. I had no idea what I was in for, as I'm not familiar with Kar-wai's work at all, nor the film's two leads, both of which are astounding. Everything about the film is claustrophobic and beautiful, formal, mysterious. The shots are meticulous yet simple. Apparently Kar-wai shortened the film down from about three hours to about 90 minutes, and after watching the deleted scenes on the DVD, I must say he used exemplary judgment in the editing process, creating the perfect melancholic mood, a mood that would have been seriously altered had some of the abandoned footage been included. You'll definitely have to watch the film twice to get all of the nuances shown at the onset that don't really seem significant until the plot unfolds. By far my favorite scenes are the three where the lovers are "practicing", or "preparing" themselves, by acting out small scenes with one another. I won't say more. And don't watch any of the deleted scenes before you watch the film because it would definitely change and influence your perceptions.God, this movie devastated me. I had no idea what I was in for, as I'm not familiar with Kar-wai's work at all, nor the film's two leads, both of which are astounding. Everything about the film is claustrophobic and beautiful, formal, mysterious. The shots are meticulous yet simple. Apparently Kar-wai shortened the film down from about three hours to about 90 minutes, and after watching the deleted scenes on the DVD, I must say he used exemplary judgment in the editing process, creating the perfect melancholic mood, a mood that would have been seriously altered had some of the abandoned footage been included. You'll definitely have to watch the film twice to get all of the nuances shown at the onset that don't really seem significant until the plot unfolds. By far my favorite scenes are the three where the lovers are "practicing", or "preparing" themselves, by acting out small scenes with one another. I won't say more. And don't watch any of the deleted scenes before you watch the film because it would definitely change and influence your perceptions.
Rating: 
Summary: Moody Film Greatness from Far East
Review: How can a simple story make for a wonderful movie experience? Watch this and you'll see. The year 2000 -- as far as Asian films were concerned -- was all about the "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon". But it's this film that deserved at least that much praise. The Hong Kong director Wong Kar-Wai shot a delicate, highly artful picture about two people whose spouses are having a love-affair and about the way the deceived partners are coping with it -- together. Cinematographed in subtly beautiful colours (helped also by stunning outfits sported by the luminous Maggie Cheung) and characteristically accompanied by lush, waltz dance music, the film creates a unique atmosphere in which you see the couple falling slowly in love. The 1960's Hong Kong is full of conventions and the love such as theirs is not destined to thrive. The lead male character, played by Tony Leung Chiu Wai (his face speaks volumes without actual words), dictates the relationship and also at the end finds himself with a key to it. Among other excellent feature of this extraordinary movie are naturalness of characters, a certain feeling of familiarity with them in a viewer despite a possible cultural gap, and also some historical glimpses putting the plot in the wider perspective of time (e.g. visit of General Charles de Gaulle to Cambodia and the country's monumental Angkor Vat having also a place in the story). The south-east Asia is really a treasure trove to discover for us westerners, all the better through such a good film. And good it really is. It won a Cesar for the best non-French movie of the year, Los Angeles and New York critics prizes, among others. For some, as the popular song says, "unrequited love's a bore", and this film can be a bore for action-seeking spectators (for them we'd recommend "Crouching Tiger" instead). By and large, though, it's a wonderfully innocent romance with sad undertones.
Rating:
Summary: *Ambiguities made me adore the movie*
Review: I was born in hongkong in 80's,and this movie portrayed the love between a journalist and his neighbour in 60's.Their love was unconventional when compare to the social taboo at that time.I found it the most fansinating that their attitude towards each other and the tone of their words were ambiguous!!After watching it,I search many pictures of Hong Kong in 1960's.They are wonderful and I love them so much.Nowadays,many hong kong students rare notice the bright side of Hong Kong in the past.They neglect the history and culture of Hong Kong.However,this movie , in fact, provided lots of pretty accessories and furniture in the 60's.They are incredible. Besides,the sharp contrast of colour made by Wong was remarkable.The clothes were extremely beautiful and unique.The angle that Wong tried to shoot from the reflection of mirror was actually carrying out confusing ideas and ambiguities.Some of the scenes were blurred by rain ,shadow and smoke,maybe rendering a sense of escape and moral depravity of Chow. Over all,the ending scene shot in AngKor Wat was excellent!!I love the quote ::: "He remembers those vanished years.
As though looking through a dusty window pane,
the past is something he could see, but not touch.
And everything he sees is blurred and indistinct."
Though they have no future , they had once continued sacrificing,or giving, simply for each other.The background music "Theme" was also a great supplement!!
Rating:
Summary: Time is flying, the world is changing
Review: This Chinese film goes back to the recent past of Hong Kong, China and the Chinese. The love affair is delicate but it is not the essential element in the film, except as a metaphor for change, for the changing world. In those years (circa 1963) the world was changing but within a divided pattern, that of the two blocks and we feel this behind the scenes. The Shanghai community in Hong Kong, a symbol of the change in continental China. The family going to the US to visit their grandchildren, a symbol of the attraction of the US in those days, but also of the desire to go away from continental China and the danger some thought it represented. The visit to Cambodia and its sacred temples, with de Gaulle's visit in the middle of it in 1966, brings up the phantom of the Vietnam War behind this historical period. The spouses working in Japan or Singapore or Thailand shows the development of Asia in those days, led by Japan as the great industrial and commercial power it was becoming. But we have to think of the present. Things have changed so much. Japan is no longer the leading power in Asia. Hong Kong has found its place in continental China. Shanghai is more attractive than San Francisco. Cambodia has rebuilt its unity and independence after the tragedy represented by the intervention of the US on its territory and the subsequent bloody episodes. Today the Chinese are not emigrating abroad any more. They have become the engine of the development of Asia. This vision of Hong Kong in the early 60s emphasizes this change and the film is like archeology. The love affair then is symbolical of this evolution : the spouses emigrating to other Asian countries and having a love affair there ; the young man visiting Cambodia or even further and coming back not to discover, by lack of courage, what happened to the woman, though the film tells us about the son she got from her liaison with him, is a symbol of the complete beaking up of human relations in that world ; the vision of the Temples of Angkor, a Buddhist monk there, and the man burrying his secret in a hole in the wall plugged up with some earth, is a vision of very old traditions, beliefs and even superstitions, a world that has mostly disappeared. Very nostalgic. And the film is systematically invaded with music from Brazil or other distant, non Asian countries and in some foreign language that has nothing to do with Hong Kong. A symbol of the uprooting of this community brought by the divided world, but also announcing the globalization of the world that was to come at the time and is in the process of emerging today. The slowing down of some scenes makes these scenes look like some old dream, or old recollection, look like a mnemonic vision of a past that has disappeared. Dr Jacques COULARDEAU
Rating:
Summary: stunningly beautiful but very restrained
Review: Beautiful people, beautiful places and a great feel for Hong Kong in that era.
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