You never see the partners face.

Theyre either shot from the back, or

you simply just hear their voice.
Clothes, make-up and interior design are elegant, stylish, and
sophisticated, and all the characters (apart from Ping) are courteous.
Many things hint at cheating:
Moving in by themselves
Ping (about Mrs Chan hot, Your wife worried woman if not so attractive, saw
your wife with other man)
Chan covering boss
Mirrors. For instance in the scene where Chan cries in the shower, after she
goes to Mrs Chow to find comfort, not knowing her husband is there
too, the mirror shots render everything more intense. Or when Chow goes to
pick up his wife from work.
The movie is composed by a myriad of small scenes, each one advancing
the tale slowly, thus helping the plot to develop subtly, yet keeping the
momentum always high, plunging the viewer a step deeper each time. The
scenes are interspersed with a large number of slow-mo interludes,
accompanied by the perfectly apt main music theme, and the effect they
have on the film brings to my mind, by free-associating, a sentence spoken
by Chow: Feelings can creep up just like that. In fact, the slow-mo helps the
story to advance discreetly but relentlessly; it helps it to creep up on the
audience, just like the feelings creep up the on-screen couple (and maybe
their respective partners, too).
Symbols, predictions, prophecies, sentences said by either a character,
giving clues as to what will actually happen in the story. This is similar
somehow to what Freud calls Displacement, because the words are spoken in
a completely different contest than the one they will actually refer to later
--Chow tells Ping Im not like you, talking about extra-marital relations; this
recalls a moment much later in the film, when Chan says We wont be like
them, talking about their outrageous respective partners. Additionally, there is
a later mention of this concept when Chow, by now feeling the defeat hover
near, admits I thought we wouldnt be like them. But I was wrong.
--Youre too polite said by Mrs Shuen to Chow, when he goes to see the room
he will later rent, and to Chan, when she refuses her umpteenth invitation to
dine, as if to mean they will be too polite, later in the story, to give in to their
feelings, and enjoy their mutual love. They are so overtly polite and bent on
social requirements that they do not realize that the fact that their spouses have
gotten together, and they themselves have fallen in love, is a special happening,
a way the Universe has employed to adjust their lives for the better. They fail to

catch the sign the universe is giving them, they fail to let themselves go (Chan
especially).
--You notice things if you pay attention
--Secret in a tree and cover with mud. Cambodia 1968. Monk observing him. A
plant sprouts from the hole

RE-enactment = meta-theatrical psychoanalytical treatment, with multiple

sessions, or an exorcism, a way of learning to deal with their situation by
acting it out (once I know how it all happened, I can maybe learn how to
deal with it), or even maybe an expression of masochism (elaborate on
this).
During this re-enactment, the actors even repeat the scenes they are not
happy with, in an emotional trial-and-error process. Their involvement is so
deep that many times we are not sure whether what we see is real life or just
acting and, so it would seem, neither are they. We notice this, for instance,
when they meet for dinner for the first time, she is having a hot dish, he asks
Like it hot?, and she says Your wife likes hot dishes; but mainly we see
this when they are re-enacting the moment her husband would finally return,
and they would have to stop seeing each other. She starts to sob
uncontrollably, because she says she is not ready for that.
The adoption of this narrative method recalls to the memory the working
method Wonk Kar-Wai employs himself to realize his movies (no script, on-set
improvisation with the actors, etc. (READ ON THIS AGAIN and quote?)
FINAL
This fantastic movie, released in 2000, is Wong Kar-Wai's most successful work to date.
Elegant, subtle, beautiful, a poetic tale of suppressed feelings, forced to bow down to peerpressure. Masterful storytelling, accompanied by a vivid and inspired photography, expressive
costumes and poignant acting, contribute to place this movie amongst my modern favourites.
The movie is composed by a myriad of small scenes, each one advancing the tale slowly, thus
helping the plot to develop subtly, yet keeping the momentum always high, plunging the viewer
a step deeper each time. The scenes are interspersed with a large number of slow-mo interludes,
accompanied by the perfectly apt main music theme, and the effect they have on the film brings
to my mind, by free-associating, a sentence spoken by Chow: Feelings can creep up just like
that. In fact, the slow-mo helps the story to advance discreetly but relentlessly; it helps it to
creep up on the audience, just like the feelings creep up the on-screen couple (and maybe their
respective partners, too).

These two even re-enact the betrayal of their partners, and those scenes are rich with emotions
and feelings bottled up till then, almost like an exorcism, or a successful psychoanalytic
treatment; a chance, for the characters, to come to terms with their sorrowful past, and their
present. During this re-enactment, the actors even repeat the scenes they are not happy with, in
an emotional trial-and-error process. Their involvement is so deep that many times we are not
sure whether what we see is real life or just acting and, so it would seem, neither are they. We
notice this, for instance, when they meet for dinner for the first time, she is having a hot dish, he
asks Like it hot?, and she says Your wife likes hot dishes.
In the Mood for Love is full of symbols, predictions, prophecies, sentences said by each of the
main characters, giving subtle clues as to what will actually happen later in the story. A lyrical,
poetic, Art-house feature, something all too rare these days.