In the Mood for Love
Short description
In 1962 Hong Kong, two married couples move into neighbouring apartments on the same day. Chow Mo-wan and Su Li-zhen, whose spouses are frequently away, gradually become friends, and then discover that their respective partners are having an affair with each other. The pair begin to spend more time together, sharing meals, conversation and the effort to understand what happened, while the attention of their neighbours and the bounds of propriety keep their own feelings unspoken.
Wong Kar-wai directed and wrote the screenplay, and also produced the film. Released in 2000, it is the seventh of the eighteen features he has directed in chronological order, following Happy Together (1997) and preceding his next film (2001). Maggie Cheung plays Su Li-zhen and Tony Leung Chiu-wai plays Chow Mo-wan, with Siu Ping-lam, Rebecca Pan, Kelly Lai Chen and Joe Cheung Tung-cho in supporting roles. The production had a budget of 3 million USD and took 13 million USD worldwide.
Audience response has been strong and consistent: on IMDb it holds 8 out of 10 from 187,000 votes, and on TMDB 8.1 out of 10 from 3,380 votes. A critics' rating of 8.4 out of 10 from 192 reviews places it slightly above those audience scores, indicating that professional assessment is at least as favourable as the general public's.
What's left behind the scenes
- Director Wong Kar-wai finished shooting the ending and editing the film just a week before its screening at Cannes.
- It took 5 hours each day to create Maggie Cheung’s hairstyle and apply her makeup.
- Filming took 15 months.
- Wong Kar-wai improvised and changed the overall tone of the film during shooting. Initially, it was intended to be a romantic film with the main characters exchanging witty banter and engaging in lovemaking several times. However, the director and the actors involved eventually concluded that it would be better to create something more refined than a typical romantic comedy.
- Originally, the film was titled "Summer in Beijing" (Beijing zhi xia) and was supposed to be filmed in China. However, the rules required submitting the script for approval to censors, who ultimately banned the filming. After that, the main setting of the film and the work on it were moved to Hong Kong, and the script itself was significantly reworked to adapt to the changed circumstances.
- While filming "In the Mood for Love" in Bangkok, Wong Kar-wai was simultaneously shooting "2046". Kar-wai himself later admitted that at a certain point it became very difficult to combine work on the two films, as the events described in them were separated by a considerable period of time.
- Director Wong Kar-wai was still filming and editing the movie a week before its screening in Cannes.
- Maggie Cheung is shown in different qipaos (Shanghai dresses) in every scene. Forty-six qipaos were used during filming, but not all of them made it into the final cut.
- Wong Kar-wai improvised and changed the overall mood of the film during production. Initially, it was intended to be a romantic movie where the main characters would exchange witty banter and have sex several times.
Auditions in India
Casting calls in USA
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