In the mood for

love
Film case study
Index

Box Office
01 Film Synopsis 02 Performance

Film More
03 Legacy 04 Achievments
 2XXX

Synopsis
In 1962, journalist Chow Mo-wan (Tony Leung
Chiu Wai) and his wife move into a Hong Kong
apartment, but Chow's spouse is often away on
business. Before long, the lonely Chow makes the
acquaintance of the alluring Su Li-zhen (Maggie
Cheung Man-yuk), whose own significant other also
seems preoccupied with work. As the two friends
realize their respective partners are cheating on
them, they begin to fall for one another; however,
neither wants to stoop to the level of the unfaithful
spouses.
Box Office
Performance
In the Mood for Love made HK$8,663,227 during its
Hong Kong run.
On 2 February 2001, the film opened in six North
American theatres, earning $113,280 ($18,880 per
screen) in its first weekend. It finished its North
American run with a gross of $2,738,980.
The total worldwide box office gross was
US$12,854,953.
Film Legacy
On Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds an approval rating
of 91% based on 144 reviews, with an average rating of
8.0/10.
The website's critical consensus reads "This understated
romance, featuring good performances by its leads, is
both visually beautiful and emotionally moving."
On Metacritic, the film has a weighted average score of
85 out of 100 based on 28 critic reviews, indicating
"universal acclaim".
Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times gave the film
three stars out of four, calling it "a lush story of
unrequited love".
Elvis Mitchell, writing for The New York Times,
referred to it as "probably the most breathtakingly
gorgeous film of the year".
More Achievments
The film premiered at the Cannes Film
Festival on 20 May 2000,to critical acclaim
and a nomination for the Palme d'Or; Leung
won Best Actor (the first Hong Kong actor to
win the award).
It is often listed as one of the greatest films of
all time and one of the major works of Asian
cinema.
In a 2016 survey by the BBC, it was voted the
second greatest film of the 21st century by
177 film critics from around the world, saying
"never before has a film spoken so fluently in
the universal language of loss and desire".
In 2022, the film placed 5th in Sight &
Sound's "Greatest Films of All Time" critics'
poll, rising from its previous position of 24th
in 2012. It is the highest-ranked film between
1975 and 2022.
This is how forbidden love performs in film