Wong Kar Wai's films have always really inspired me, some of which have really pushed my interest in cinematography and photography. Especially keeping my love for the film photography side of things. I've even continued to watch films by one of the cinematographers (Christopher Doyle) of the films out of curiosity for what he continued to do as the years passed by. These films, to me, are some of the best cinema has to offer. The beauty of their colours, the human connection and themes that are portrayed, and of course the eras that were captured wonderfully. Wai and Doyle have both said it is the space that creates the films, alongside the time. And that as a space changes, a film such as those can never be repeated. I believe that fully. And In the Mood for Love is clear in that.
I watched this film a few weeks back and it has remained within my mind since. A film that felt incredibly tragic in its narrative but deeply human and visually stunning. The film is set in the 1960s in which a man and a woman cross paths, with each believing that their partners are cheating on them during the work travels. Both of them are lonely with being left alone for such long periods of time, and their assumptions seem more and more factual as they discuss it. The two begin to spend more time with each other, and even begin to enact a series of interactions to piece together how those affairs may have begun. Though, in the process, the two slowly begin to form their own connection; but the two maintain a distance to ensure they don't end up doing the same as their partners.
This is where the tragedy is within the film, the connection that forms between the two but their distance kept, the relationships they're in but clearly wanting to end due to their discoveries. It has a theme of lost love, lost time, and regret. And it's heavily portrayed as the film continues, especially with its dialogue that refers to whispering something into a hole in a tree and covering it up with dirt, something the film returns to with its ending, though we never hear what is whispered, instead we are given a screen of text that speaks on how the character sees the past, like looking through a dusty window, though he cannot return to the past, the memories remain faint though still active in his mind.
This is definitely my favourite Wong Kar Wai film. The story is incredibly beautiful and fragile. The performances are so good, with the ways in which the characters interact and show their emotions without really saying anything. Their shared space and the atmosphere displayed being what really shows the feeling of love. The cinematography also really shows that longing for love and the loneliness that is felt within the characters, the slow motion scenes, the dim lighting, and the returning spaces in which the film takes place within. It's incredibly fragile, just like that feeling of love.