2 neighbors in 1962 Hong Kong find out that their spouses are having an affair with each other. They are pulled into a close friendship, and the social rules of the time won't let it become more. This is Wong Kar-wai's most restrained film and his most aching. It is a love story told entirely through what is held back.
In the Mood for Love is a 2000 drama and romance film directed by Wong Kar-wai. This breakdown covers 5 techniques (1 narrative, 2 cinematography, 1 sound and 1 editing), each with the scene where you can see it. If you like how it is made, Her uses several of the same techniques.
Building a love story around 3 people, where each pair has its own relationship and the third person always gets in the way. Your sympathy shifts because each of them has a fair claim.
How this film uses it
The love triangle here has an unusual shape. Its 3rd and 4th corners are the cheating spouses, and they never appear on screen. Mrs. Chan and Mr. Chow are defined entirely by what their absent partners have taken from them. As a matter of fact, you feel those missing people more strongly than any character you do see.
Where to see it
The stairwell encounters. The 2 neighbors pass each other in a narrow space. Being physically close is the only intimacy the film allows them.
Limiting the film to a tightly chosen set of colors, or giving each place or state its own set. The colors tell you about the world and its mood without dialogue.
How this film uses it
Wong Kar-wai and his cinematographers Christopher Doyle and Mark Lee Ping-bing fill the cramped Hong Kong apartments with deep reds, amber and gold. Those colors make desire feel like something you could touch. They are emotionally exact, even though they are not accurate to the period. The world is soaked in the feeling the characters can't express.
Where to see it
Mrs. Chan's cheongsam dresses against the red wallpaper of the corridor. The colors let you see the desire the 2 of them hold back, since nobody acts on it.
Repeating a short piece of music or a sound every time a certain character, idea or feeling comes up. You learn to connect the 2.
How this film uses it
Shigeru Umebayashi's 'Yumeji's Theme' is a slow, sad waltz. It plays over slow-motion shots of Mrs. Chan walking down stairs or through corridors. A leitmotif is a piece of music tied to one thing in the story. Each time this one returns, it brings back the feeling of every earlier time, until you can't separate the music from the weight of the relationship.
Where to see it
The slow-motion stairwell sequences. Mrs. Chan moves through amber light while the theme plays. The repeated image and music add up to the film's emotional case.
Keeping a character or threat outside the frame on purpose. You sense it through sounds and other characters' reactions, and your imagination fills in the rest.
How this film uses it
The cheating spouses exist only in off-screen space, the part of a scene the camera doesn't show. You hear them but never see them. They have their backs to the camera, or the edge of the frame crops their faces. Their absence is the strongest presence in the film. They decide everything about Mrs. Chan and Mr. Chow's relationship without ever seeming to.
Where to see it
The mahjong scenes with the landlady and the neighbours. People mention the spouses, hint at them and feel them, but the film keeps them entirely out of the frame. Their unseen presence shapes the whole film.
Holding on quiet shots of characters watching and taking in the world around them, without cutting away. Glances, gestures and shared silence carry as much as any action.
How this film uses it
Wong Kar-wai builds the relationship between Mrs. Chan and Mr. Chow out of silence and closeness. Nobody confesses or declares anything. They rehearse what they might say to their spouses, but they never rehearse what they feel themselves. All the emotion in the film sits in the gaps between the words they don't say.
Where to see it
The late-night rice noodle runs. 2 people meet in a corridor with an errand as their excuse. The silence between them carries everything the film won't let them say.
Questions
In the Mood for Love: quick answers
What filmmaking techniques does In the Mood for Love use?
CineCode breaks down 5 techniques in In the Mood for Love (2000): Romantic Triangle Geometry, Color Palette as Worldbuilding, Leitmotif, Off-Screen Space and Silent Observation Pacing.
Who directed In the Mood for Love?
Wong Kar-wai directed In the Mood for Love, released in 2000. CineCode also covers Chungking Express (1994).
What films are similar to In the Mood for Love?
Films that share techniques with In the Mood for Love include Her (2013), Le Samourai (1967), Doctor Zhivago (1965), Army of Shadows (1969).
