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| In the Mood for Love - Criterion Collection |
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List Price: $39.95
Buy New: $27.96
You Save: $11.99 (30%)
Buy New/Used/Collectible from $27.91
Avg. Customer Rating:  (based on 111 reviews)
Sales Rank: 4093
Category: DVD
Publisher: Criterion
Studio: Criterion
Manufacturer: Criterion
Label: Criterion
Format: Color, Subtitled, Widescreen, Ntsc
Languages: Cantonese Chinese (Original Language), English (Subtitled)
Rating: NR (Not Rated)
Media: DVD
Running Time: 98 minutes
Number Of Items: 2
Aspect Ratio: 1.66:1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.5
Dimensions (in): 7.4 x 5.3 x 0.9
ISBN: 1559409274
UPC: 715515012928
EAN: 0715515012928
ASIN: B00003CXUM
Release Date: March 5, 2002
Theatrical Release Date: November 30, 1999
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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Editorial Reviews:
Amazon.com
Winner of numerous awards including Best Actor at the 2000 Cannes Film Festival, In the Mood for Love confirmed that Hong Kong director Wong Kar-wai is a major figure in world cinema. As passionate as it is politely discreet, his film takes place in 1962 Hong Kong, where neighboring apartment dwellers Mr. Chow (Tony Leung) and Mrs. Chan (Maggie Cheung) discover that their oft-absent spouses are having an affair. This realization parallels their own mutual attraction, but fidelity and decency ensure that their intimate bond remains unspoken though deeply understood. With a stealthy, eavesdropping camera style and a screenplay created through spontaneous on-set inspiration, Wong Kar-wai crafts an intricate, finely tuned platonic romance, enhancing its ambience with a kaleidoscope of color (most notably in Cheung's dazzling wardrobe of cheongsam dresses) and careful attention to character detail. Deservedly placed on many critics' top 10 lists, this elegant film should not be missed. --Jeff Shannon
Description
Hong Kong, 1962: Chow Mo-wan and Su Li-zhen move into neighboring apartments on the same day. Their encounters are polite and formal-until a discovery about their respective spouses sparks an intimate bond. At once delicately mannered and visually stunning, Wong Kar-wai's In the Mood for Love is a masterful evocation of romantic longing and fleeting moments in time.
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Customer Reviews: Read 106 more reviews...
 Unmissable March 4, 2006
3 out of 3 found this review helpful
There's nothing I can add in my review about the plot or story of "In the Mood for Love" that hasn't already been covered, so I will keep this brief.
Wong Kar-Wai's "In the Mood for Love" is a remarkable piece of work - sensuous but not showy, restrained but highly intriguing, and satisfyingly unresolved. I dare anyone who considers themselves a film connoisseur to watch this and not be impressed. Every shot is expertly framed, every color and costume choice agonized over, every piece of music is nothing short of appropriate. The performances by Tony Leung and Maggie Cheung and are superb and often, more is said with a lingering expression than dialogue could ever convey. Their chemistry isn't just realistic; it's electric.
Now to be perfectly clear, not everyone will like this movie. It simply lacks the comforting elements that make the usual Hollywood tripe palatable to the masses. But, for those who would rather savor Hangar One than down Smirnoff, this one's for you. This is no mere film - it is art. It is what lesser movies aspire to be when they grow up.
 Remembrance of things past February 24, 2006
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
Kar Wai Wong's lyrical 2002 nostalgia piece is almost tailor-made for this beautiful Criterion Collection edition because of its complex historical and cultural allusions, which are perhaps not readily understood by many Western viewers, that its very simple narrative structure belies. In 1962 Hong Kong, the Chans, a couple from Shanghai, move into an apartment withother Shaghai emigris where they live down the hall from Chow Mo Wan, a newspaper editor, and his wife. The film is told almost entirely from the eprspective of Mr. Chow (Tony Leung) and Mrs. Chan (Maggie Leung), who slowly come to realize (as the viewer does) that their spouses are having an affair. The two main characters come together first to commiserate, but they slowly come to fall in love with one another... yet their refusal to be "like" their faithless spouses prohibits them from committing to one another fully. The film is constructed like a puzzle, with many scenes scene from just around a corner, or down a hall, or through a nook or alcove. The deliberately slow pacing (underlined by the score's use of a beautiful but maddeningly repetitive waltz theme on the cello) can be a bit soporific, and you can find yourself after a while fixating on the showstopping series of spectacular cheongsam Maggie Cheung wears. ("She can't possibly top this one," you'll think after each scene, and then she will.) But like Resnais's LAST YEAR AT MARIENBAD (which this film seems at times to evoke quite consciously) or Akerman's JEANNE DIEHLMAN, part of the point of IN THE MOOD FOR LOVE is to change your perception of temporal understanding, and to stay with this film and accept its tempo is to enter its world where the passage of time changes because of the story it depicts. The film's ending has been controversial because of its abruptness and dissimilafrity, but this too is part of Kar Wei Wong's point, and the alternate endings this Criterion edition appends greatly helps a confused viewer understand what's going on. So too do the fine essays by Chinese film scholars which helps clarify the rich historical framework of Hong Kong and Shanghai in the mid 20th century, and also the melodramas of the 30s Shanghai cinema to which Kar Wei Wong pays homage.
I Absolutely Love This Movie February 19, 2006
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
I know that some reviewers are going to slam this movie calling it a stylish soap drama. But really have you seen the soap dramas imported from China courtesy of PBS? I have and there is no comparsion to be made between the two. The colors of the clothes and scenery are breathtaking. The awkward but shy glances that Mr. Chow and Mrs. Chan share between one another before entering their almost conjoining apartments back to their cheating spouses. Even the strange but delightful way their friendship starts in order to uncover the motives behind way her husband and his wife ever cheated on the both of them in the first place. I especially love the part where Mr. Chow informs Mrs. Chan that he is moving to Singapore to write for their newspaper. The look of shock and disappointment in her eyes and how she tries to discourage him from moving away. I am not going to spoil the end of the movie but I will say it broke my heart.
Truly Satisfying February 14, 2006
4 out of 5 found this review helpful
I would strongly recommend the readers to get the DVD with extra features in it. After watching the "Interview with the Director", then, we would come to appreciate more the subtleties in this movie. To put it simply, the Chinese title for this movie was "Hua Yan Yuan Hua" which implied "the flower at its gloriest moment". For some, it's interpreted as a woman's finest moment but for the Director, it meant two things, Hong Kong's finest hour (Director's nostalgia towards the 60's when he was growing up as part of the Shanghainese community in Hong Kong escaping from Cultural Revolution in mainland China) and the finest hour between Maggie and Tony's characters. To get the "look" in the movie, he scouted for locations in Thailand, Hong Kong, and Cambodia. He also explained the rationale behind "2046" and that some scenes from that movie was shot simultaneously together with "In the Mood for Love". It's more due to logistics rather than creative interest. He was not afraid to admit the argument that he had with Tony and Maggie on how to portray the characters through gestures rather than dialogues, and the necessity of doing this movie with a "point of difference" when there were already many other movies made about affairs. Then, there were clues been left for the viewers to understand that time was moving on with different vegetables and dishes been consumed by the Shanghainese in different seasons of the year in the movie. It's also quite interesting to note that this movie evolved from another movie that he originally wanted to do about food, and involving three different group of people only to be refined into this one particular story subsequently. Obviously, the Director had enormous passion and love for this movie and he specified that if he didn't set a target to show this at the Cannes as a closure, this movie would have gone on forever. Without a doubt, the framing, the intimate angles and close-ups, the lighting, the composition of the movie layered with the "Yumeji" soundtrack (Dreamlike) followed the rhythmic movement of the actor and actress scene were achingly beautiful to watch. Don't be startled when he indicated that he was inspired by Kurosawa who was specific about details and in this instance, he wanted to emulate that through subtleties but the clues were always there. Some friends of mine found this movie daft and boring because of the thin storyline: two persons converged together to cope for the infidelity of the spouses and yet, they found love from one another and was never meant to be. Then again, God is in details. Perhaps, it's a visualist movie and not meant for everybody's liking at the first place. All I know is that I love it and that's enough. I think it's ideal to watch this movie with no expectation in the beginning but soon after, with commentaries given by the Director, then, we would be able to see this movie from a new light. Highly recommended and one of my top pick of the year. An unmissable experience.
Beautiful !!!! February 2, 2006
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
This is one of the most beautiful films I have ever had the pleasure of viewing! The acting is superb! the cinematography is just flawless!It's too bad we can't make a film this touching and poignant in the USA. I tip my hat to War-Kar Wai!
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Copyright Runningonkarma.com 2006
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