{Todd}’s review published on Letterboxd:
"I didn't expect it to hurt so much" - Su Li-Zhen,
AND
"Feelings can creep up just like that" -Chow Mo Wan,
This movie makes smoking cigarettes and standing in the rain look so damn cool... don't smoke kids!
Loneliness is the worst. I feel lonely all the time despite having a good family and people that I associate with regularly. It's lacking that feeling that you have someone who is meeting you where you are at that exact moment and feeling like it is 100% your own fault. That's why meeting new friends or starting new relationships feels so good. Everyone gets lonely at times and find their own ways out of it... hopefully. In the Mood for Love is about people that are emotionally lonely and need support... it's brutal.
In The Mood For Love is a wonderfullly subtle story about people finding each other in a hopeless place (cue Rihanna) and I found the film to be sweet, and relatable, and pretty. Only Wong Kar-wai makes films that look this messy but beautiful at the same time. There are so many different colors, but all muted for the tone of the film to work. Every cinematic choice is perfection when it comes to the look of the movie and general artistic direction. Every set feels lived in and every piece of costuming is beautiful. Maggie Cheung's dress collection in this film might be the best set of costumes I've enjoyed in a film with each day's dress representing a new look and mood.
What makes this a masterpiece, as opposed to just a great film, is how everything comes together to create a vicarious viewer experience... you feel their longing and pain in ways you don't feel with normal films. This is accomplished through lingering shots of the central characters staring at each other and staring off into the distance thinking about the other. After about 40 minutes into the film you find yourself wanting to see more of them together and you're not even sure way. The character's are blank enough slates that you can project yourself onto their longing and identify with their experiences.
Yes indeed-Y you should this.