broad run street

In The Mood For Love is beautiful, elegant and restrained, a simply love story shot poetically, the emotions simply straining and crackling with tension. Itapos;s quite an experimental film, the same music looping over similar scenes, showing how slowly Chow and Li-zhen grow closer and closer - in the enclosed dark corridors of their flats, up and down the stairs to the noodle stall, etc. Nothing is ever explained explicitly, we are instead given hints that Chowapos;s wife and Li-zhenapos;s husband (whose faces we never see) are having an affair together, and how this shared feelings of hurt and betrayal unite them in a sizzling but platonic relationship.

For the most part of the film I was kept hanging, waiting for their relationship to develop, or for them to confront their partners. Chow and Li-zhen may grow more intimate as the film carried on, but there is always a degree of self-conscious restrain, the two repeating the mantra apos;We are not like themapos;, using their deprivation from each other as some sort of vengeful self-inflicted punishment. Itapos;s painful to watch them falling so desperately for one another, but never admitting it, keeping feelings to themselves even as they suffered needlessly in silence.

The cinematography is stunning. Shot mostly in claustrophobic darkened corridors and alleyways, with peeling plaster and stained wallpaper, it represents the lidded passion of the characters and the secrets they keep. It rains a lot as well, and cigarette smoke is used predominantly, perhaps to show their confusion or the mixed feelings of guilt and love. (I may be talking out of my ass here, but thatapos;s what it felt like to me)

Iapos;m not a fan of Tony Leung, but here he captures Chowapos;s reserved character perfectly. Maggie Cheungapos;s Li-zhen is emotional but equally brave, a woman who wishes for intimacy but dare not ask it, or rather cannot. In the end nothing came out of the encounter, but the brief relationship left a lasting impact on them, and on us the audience.

Overall rating: 5/5

aventures wild, broad run street, broad run va, broad run vineyards.