Tuesday, April 13, 2010

What I See: In the Mood for Love (2000).

After Wong Kar-wai endured an expensive shoot for his 1997 film Happy Together, he intended to make his next feature on a low budget, short shoot similar to his 1994 crossover, art house hit Chungking Express. The two year production that ensued was physically and economically straining for the Hong Kong based filmmaker, but his efforts were not in vain – In the Mood for Love was warmly received at the Cannes Film Festival, being nominated for the prestigious Palme d’Or and winning Best Actor for Tony Leung Chiu-wai’s performance and the Technical Grand Prize for the work of Christopher Doyle, Lee Ping-bing and William Chang. The film essentially tells the story of a doomed love between a man, Chow Mo-wan, and a woman, So Lai-zhen, who believe that their spouses are cheating on them with each other. Tony Leung and Maggie Cheung previously starred in Wong’s Days of Being Wild (1990), while 2046 (2004) is considered a slight follow up to both Days of Being Wild and In the Mood for Love, with Tony Leung’s Chow Mo-wan returning as a womanizer and Maggie Cheung appearing in a flashback.

The mise en scène is densely packed; the colors, lighting, costumes, and art direction all equally contribute to the atmosphere Wong intends to create and on what the film is founded. Plot is of little importance, as the film exists and succeeds solely as a nostalgic mood and character piece.

Aside from the role playing scene and the finale (which was shot at Angkor Wat in Cambodia and makes the film more universally grounded and also provides a specific historical time in which the action takes place), there is a scene near the beginning that emphasizes the visual poetry of Wong Kar Wai’s craft.

So Lai-zhen enters a medium, eye level shot in a hallway in the apartment complex. She brings her fingers up to the doorbell with downcast eyes; her black and white dress, earrings and stylish hair adding to her exuberant, downplayed beauty. The doorbell rings; she waits.

She asks if Mr. Koo is in. Chow asks if she forgot to buy the paper again and she admits to this as Chow invites her in claiming that he might be able to find it for her. Maggie Cheung’s acting here is exceptional; she nails the pent-up emotions of So Lai-zhen in a pensive, careful manner. Body language is key, along with the inflections in her face and her eyes. The scene then cuts to a shot of a mirror completely taking up the screen – Mrs. Lai-zhen is seen on the left in the first shot.

The mirror acts as a recurring motif, it operates as a catalyst for the viewer to ponder how So Lai-zhen thinks of herself and her image, how Chow Mo-wan thinks of her and her image, and how society views her and her image (and vice-versa when Chow Mo-wan is seen in the mirror and both of them are seen together in the mirror). The destructive quality of the image in society to the individual prevails throughout the film, with the persistent mirror making So Lai-zhen and Chow Mo-wan’s romance more doomed as time passes. Chow Mo-wan eventually enters the mirror shot, obstructing the viewer from seeing So Lai-zhen completely. He is wearing work clothes. The scene then cuts to an over-the-shoulder shot of Chow smiling at Mrs. Lai-zhen as they speak of their mutual appreciation of serials.

Wong then cuts again to an over-the-shoulder shot of So smiling at Chow. The scene then cuts for a few seconds again to an over-the-shoulder shot of Chow smiling at So. The next shot presents So Lai-zhen and Chow Mo-wan in half the screen, as a wall takes up the right half. The scene ends with a high angle shot of So Lai-zhen leaving and Chow Mo-wan closing the door behind her.

The mise en scène highlights the period costumes, the frame in which the actions takes place (with very little, if any, camera movement) and the acting adding characterization to the protagonists. Normal lenses are used for these shots, while Wong sometimes focuses on the foreground or utilizes selective focus with a deep depth of field.

As Chow Mo-wan closes the door on that scene, So Lai-zhen enters the frame in a similar way as the first shot of the last scene. She is now dressed in a more, sprightly green and white dress. The door is open, so she knocks instead of ringing the doorbell. She encounters a woman who says Chow has had a quarrel with his wife. So gives her the serials to give back to Chow in another mirror shot that seems somewhat more blurry and indistinct than the last. The woman puts the serials on a table and then the scene cuts to a shot of the serials on the table right next to a clock. Wong also accentuates clocks and time, as they act as a motif for the passage of time and the effect it has on the individual. The scene then ends with a dissolve to black.

The next scene presents a back and forth between Chow Mo-wan and his wife, whose face the viewer never sees. The first shot is from behind an oval in a wall, the viewer can see a rack of magazines and a telephone.

Chow Mo-wan’s wife is heard, but not seen. The scene then cuts to a shot of her, again through an oval in a wall, and the viewer sees her hair and head from behind.

Wong cuts again to Chow at his wife’s workplace, same as the first shot but he is actually in it (in the oval). His wife’s co-worker says she has left already (he is also not seen on screen). The scene then cuts again to Chow standing against a wall in a suit on the left in the foreground in a medium, eye level shot. There is an empty alley in the background on the right where light plays with dark, which is used to great effect as Chow just stares blankly at nothing. The focus is on the foreground and there is a shallow depth of field in this shot.

The next scene is probably the scene in which the film is most famous – So Lai-zhen shot in slow motion, bringing her canteen to the Noodle Bar.

The scene begins with a shot of So’s bottom half and hand carrying her light blue noodle canteen. Michael Galasso’s non-diegetic, string-heavy score begins to add to the mood of the scene. The camera pans to the left and tilts downward to show So Lai-zhen walking down a dark staircase. The sequence then cuts to her in the midground in a medium, eye level shot of her waiting for her noodles and patting her hear dry. The score really begins to pick up and capture the numbness of So Lai-zhen as she pays for her noodles and the camera tilts upward to show her walking up the staircase to leave. Maggie Cheung perfectly captures the blank look and feel of So Lai-zhen’s character as the shot switches to her coming up the staircase and walking away under a white light and a gray wall. The camera stays static on the gray wall and bright, white light as Chow Mo-wan enters the frame from the left and goes down the stairs to the noodle bar.

Unlike So Lai-zhen, Chow actually eats at the noodle bar instead of bringing his food home and eating it alone – although this doesn’t make it any less lonely for him. Tony Leung understands the essence of Chow’s character, and channels it through emotive, blank stares.

The next shot is of So Lai-zhen walking up the staircase (in a sultry, green dress) with her canteen as Chow Mo-wan is coming down.

They exchange reserved glances and Chow utters a “Hello!” The camera then cuts to a high angle shot of So Lai-zhen coming up the stairs and the scene ends with her passing under a bright white light.

Wong Kar Wai is considered one of contemporary cinema’s most hip international filmmakers. Consistently enlisting Christopher Doyle as his Cinematographer and frequently teaming up with Tony Leung, he has covered a spectrum of genres from the martial arts epic to the romantic melodrama to the science fiction romance. In the Mood for Love is a crowning achievement of mood and style that shows more than plot could ever tell.


[all screenshots taken on VLC media player from privately owned Criterion disc]