In the Mood for Analyzing

Paper by Drake Zimmerman.

In the Mood for Love is a dramatic romance released in 2000 by Wong Kar-wai, a Hong Kong film director and screenwriter. It tells the melancholic story of Mr. Chow (Tony Leung Chiu-Wai) and Mrs. Chan’s (Maggie Cheung) relationship with one another following the realization that their wife and husband respectively had an affair with each other. The film was captured entirely between Bangkok, Thailand for its exterior shots, including street scenes, taxi scenes, and Singapore scenes, and Hong Kong for its interior shots, like apartment scenes and Mr. Chow’s office space (Filmed in Ether, 2020). In the Mood for Love features a fictional narrative and was plagued by a troubled, 15-month production due to financing issues, his cinematographer backing out, and a lack of a coherent script (Filmed in Ether, 2020). While originally screened at Cannes Film Festival in 2000, it soon reached international audiences to much audience and critical acclaim and landed Wong & co. awards (Filmed in Ether, 2020).

This paper analyzes the scene in the film (5236 – 5735) largely between Mr. Chow and Mrs. Chan in which they spend time with one another in the rented hotel room. Importantly, this scene is critical as it aids in developing the film’s central themes of forbidden love, longing desire, the unspoken, and missed opportunities through utilizing a thoughtful setting, deliberate framing, motifs, and characterization, and symbolic music, speed of motion, and color. More specifically, the film effectively features many of the impactful, recurring stylistic choices from the film’s total runtime in just five minutes, and ultimately serves the purpose of (1.) placing the viewer as a silent, voyeuristic observer, (2.) acting as a reflection of the nature of their not-meant-to-be relationship, and (3.) indicating to the viewer that Mrs. Chan will inevitably decline pursuing a relationship with Mr. Chow, among many others.

The scene opens with Mr. Chow’s coworker receiving a phone call from Mrs. Chan asking for Mr. Chow. However, given his multi-day absence, she is forced to leave a message and subsequently grows worried. Eventually, Mrs. Chan receives a return call from Mr. Chow where he invites her to visit his rented writing space. After arriving via taxi, she feels evidently conflicted on whether or not to see Mr. Chow, but ultimately does and spends time with him off-screen. Before parting, she promises to visit the next day in an exchange of words; while Mr. Chow admits that he originally thought she wouldn’t visit, Mrs. Chan claims that they will not end up like their cheating spouses. While walking down the hallway from his room, she eventually pauses as if she were frozen in time as Yumeji’s Theme begins to play. We’re given, like the many times the track plays throughout the film, a slow-motion montage of growing attraction and affection between the two. The montage entirely takes place in Mr. Chow’s room, which ultimately ends in a light-hearted opera performance by Mrs. Chan while Mr. Chow claps.

Importantly, this scene utilizes varied cinematographic techniques that reflect In the Mood for Love’s aforementioned themes related to love, desire, and the unfulfilled. These techniques include a thoughtful setting intended to echo their own cheating spouses, layered framing to paint the viewer as a voyeuristic observer and reflect Mr. Chow and Mrs. Chan personal feelings & psychological states, motifs and color symbolism that represent shared intimacy and repressed, unspoken feelings toward each other, expressive characterization and camera angles to reflect Mr. Chow and Mrs. Chan’s internal feelings relative to one another’s, editing through using long takes, slow motion, and non diegetic music to depict montages as ‘dream-like’ and offer a more emotional viewership experience, and further editing through jump cuts and silence to subvert viewer expectations and reflect the viewer’s uncertainty of their relationship. In tandem, these techniques aid in depicting Mr. Chow and Mrs. Chan as star-crossed lovers experiencing a fundamentally tragic and haunting relationship. Despite being fictitious, the cinematographic techniques enable viewers of In the Mood for Love to experience their relationship vicariously and with melancholic sympathy and heartbreaking dissatisfaction.

Through depicting a majority of the scene and their budding romance in a separate physical space, Mr. Chow and Mrs. Chan inadvertently parallel their spouses. Shots #7 – 34 entirely take place within Mr. Chow’s rented room, acting as a physical separation from the apartment complex filled with the nosiness of neighbors and prying eyes of the mahjong players. Similarly, their cheating spouses sought time away from the confines of the apartment by scheduling extended business trips, sending deceptive gifts, and writing letters. There exists a fundamental irony; despite being brought together by their cheating spouses and Mrs. Chan claiming in Shot #25 that they won’t “…be like them”, their masochistic roleplaying to understand how their spouses’ cheating started goes beyond rationalization. They are effectively inviting their own adulterous feelings to occur when the rented room mirrors where their spouses’ forbidden love, that broke both of their hearts in the first place, most likely started.

Similar to Mr. Chow and Mrs. Chan’s gossip-related worries about those living in the apartment complex, the viewer witnesses shots that are framed voyeuristically and to compliment Mr. Chow and Mrs. Chan’s feelings. Rather than using an open frame, the viewer experiences shots using frames within frames where Mr. Chow and Mrs. Chan are viewed through framing devices that provide an added layer to the viewer’s perception of them. For example, in Shot #20, we receive a long take in which Mr. Chow unblinkingly stares out the window and contemplates, framed by an open, red laced curtain and thick metal bar. Mr. Chow is shown delegated to the leftmost of the frame, the red lace curtain bleeding past the boundary of the metal bar as if to communicate that Mr. Chow is struggling to prevent his growing love for Mrs. Chan. Additionally, the framing makes it appear as if the viewer is peering around the corner of the blinds to witness a moment of introspective isolation; we are an outsider looking in, much like the prying residents of the apartment complex. Similarly in Shot #30, the camera begins at Mr. Chow standing in the same open window before panning leftward and looking through the closed, red laced curtains of other windows in the room. As they converse over the martial arts serial and smile at one another, this moment of intimacy is bolstered by the curtains being made of a material often associated with sexual activities and lust; additionally, the curtains are drawn as if we, similar to Shot #20, were peeping on a moment that we ought not to.

Further focusing on the apartment, In the Mood for Love places much emphasis on its themes of the unspoken, the repressed, and the unfulfilled by utilizing recurring motifs and color symbolism. For example, Shot #31 depicts Mr. Chow sitting at the room’s desk and working on the martial arts serial while Mrs. Chan carefully watches from behind him to his right. The tripartite design of the mirror allows the camera to capture their facial expressions despite the camera filming from behind both of their backs. While Mr. Chow is distracted with writing, Mrs. Chan gives an innocently endearing smile to encourage him; conversely, when Mrs. Chan is shown to be reading a magazine, Mr. Chow looks at her longingly and with desire. The mirror provides an ‘open window’ of sorts into Mr. Chow and Mrs. Chan’s feelings beyond the gossip-induced silence, cheating spouse make-believe, and cyclical interactions in which Mrs. Chan keeps a distance from Mr. Chow. Even beyond acting as an unfiltered projection of their emotions, it simultaneously reflects and foreshadows the confession of love later in the film in which Mr. Chow opens up about his romantic feelings toward Mrs. Chan, yet acknowledges that she ultimately will not leave her husband.

For color, red is heavily present throughout the hotel itself. Whether it’s the burgundy painted walls and floor-to-ceiling red curtains of the hallway in Shot #12 or the red fitted sheets, burgundy wallpaper, and (aforementioned) red curtains of the room in Shots #20, 29, and 30 respectively, it’s everywhere. Traditionally and in In the Mood for Love, red symbolizes love, lust, and desire, making up for the distinctive lack of physical intimacy by painting the screen in varying hues of the color. Even if their desire for one another was largely outwardly unspoken about until this point, the prominent presence of red indicates to the viewer that the room is something that stretches beyond a space to write martial arts stories. Similarly, when Mrs. Chan is present in Shots #5 – 28, she sports a bright red coat that provides heavy contrast to the Earth tones of the hotel’s lobby in Shots #7 – 11 and her white and black cheongsam in the close up from Shot #23. Though the purpose of the room was to avoid gossip and exist more freely, Mrs. Chan’s jacket seemingly non-verbally communicates to Mr. Chow that, despite her at times distant temperament, she has a growing attraction to him.

Similar to Mrs. Chan’s coat, Mr. Chow and Mrs. Chan’s use of body language and non-verbal communication, as well as camera angles, characterize them heavily and aids in illuminating their internal conflictions. In Shot #22, Mr. Chow’s direct admittance is accompanied by soft eye contact and a front-facing close up, while Shot #23 shows Mrs. Chan from a 3⁄4-view close up, her silence deafening and eyes darting around on the floor until she decides to respond. Similarly, in Shot #5, Mrs. Chan is claustrophobically framed by the taxi’s rubber divider as her eyes dart around the taxi, before we jump cut to Shot #6 in which she nervously plays with her lips. The viewer, through these depictions, is better enabled to understand Mr. Chow and Mrs. Chan as characters; Mr. Chow is a sincere individual tormented by his love for Mrs. Chan and (later) awareness of Mrs. Chan’s inability to leave her husband, while Mrs. Chan vehemently questions her own actions and situation while displaying behavior (e.g. offering to bring Mr. Chow food in Shot #21) that contradicts her unwillingness to pursue Mr. Chow.

Furthermore, the scene’s usage of Yumeji’s Theme and extensive editing from Shots #28 – 34 (e.g. non diegetic music, slow motion, and long takes) invites the viewer to take their time in understanding the nonverbal, potentially ambiguous shots and analyze many of the aforementioned elements that have been previously mentioned. For example, Mrs. Chan’s slowed opera singing appears dominated by the backing, rhythmic waltz in Shot #34, and Mr. Chow’s similarly slowed rambling to Mrs. Chan in Shot #32 appears in much the same way. It ultimately places emphasis on the superficiality of words and stresses the importance of what is expressed “…through [the] body, your small gestures, your glances…” (Kar-wai, 2001), which serves a dual purpose; beyond giving the viewers a more deliberate and emotional experience by inviting them to connect with what’s on screen, it allows the montage to appear dreamlike and almost fantastical. Similarly, the film utilizes green color grading which gives the impression that the viewer is observing an old photograph; a relic of the past that, much like the title card from the film, are long past “…vanished years… [that appear] blurred and indistinct”. This, notably, reflects the central theme of missed opportunities and parallels Mr. Chow’s visit to Angkor years later where he seals his secrets.

Expanding on editing, jump cuts aid in building suspense and ambiguity, subverting the viewers expectations of what they may believe to be happening. In Shots #7 – 19, Mrs. Chan is shown frantically speed-walking up and down a stairwell, hallway, and landing in various shots which utilize jump cuts and are of varying length. Beyond Mrs. Chan’s body language on the landing in Shot #11, it makes it difficult for the viewer to discern what exactly Mrs. Chan may be experiencing; is the editing indicative of a deep-seated guilt for her actions, is she anxious about being spotted by somebody that she may know, or is she simply lost and trying to locate Room 2046 among the many other rooms in the hotel? Similarly, the scene plays with the viewer’s expectations by showing Mrs. Chan quickly descending the stairs and entering the lobby as if she were leaving (Shot #19) before promptly jump cutting to Mr. Chow contemplatively staring out the window (Shot #20). Until she eventually knocks on the door and we’re shown her exiting his room in Shot #21, the viewer is wracked with anxiety and sadness for Mr. Chow; we’re left to imagine that, much like he admits to in Shot #24, she never showed up and had a change of heart.

Similarly, silence induces many of the same effects. Following Mrs. Chan’s knock in Shot #20, we’re left with an uncomfortably long close-up of Mr. Chow that may appear to the viewer that (1.) Mr. Chow will decline opening the door for Mrs. Chan, or (2.) the person at the door is not even Mrs. Chan as she appeared to be leaving in Shot #19. Additionally, Mr. Chow and Mrs. Chan’s short exchange from Shot #21 is immediately followed by tense periods of uncertain silence in Shots #22 – 25, leaving the viewer to wonder if Mr. Chow intends to confess his love, invite Mrs. Chan to spend the night, and ultimately how she will respond regardless of what Mr. Chow inevitably decides to say. Through the utilization of jump cuts and periods of intense silence, the viewer experiences an unknowingness of what is happening or may happen next, reflecting the inherent uncertainty of what their relationship is fated to become. The scene keeps the viewer actively engaged and causes their mind to race at the possibilities of what may happen, a feeling that may be all too familiar to Mr. Chow and Mrs. Chan as (evidently) star-crossed lovers who are destined to grow apart.

In the Mood for Love follows a 4 Act Structure, with the selected scene being identified as the “Change in Action” in “Act 2 Complicating Action” (Maestu, n.d., p. 29). The Introduction in Act 1 primarily focuses on Mr. Chow and Mrs. Chan becoming next door neighbors and experiencing minor interactions with each other. During this, the viewer is given subtle hints indicating that their spouses are potentially cheating, i.e. the behavior of Mrs. Chan’s adulterous boss reflecting her husband’s and Mrs. Chow being at Mr. Chow’s apartment during an unexpected time. This culminates into the 1st Turning Point in which Mr. Chow and Mrs. Chan both realize their spouses are cheating with one another during dinner. Comparatively, the Complicating Action in Act 2 focuses on the increasing amount of time that Mr. Chow and Mrs. Chan spend with one another, primarily roleplaying as their cheating spouses and trying to understand how their relationship may have started. The selected scene represents the Change in Action in Act 2 as Mr. Chow and Mrs. Chan’s decision to rent a room represents a turning point in which they move their once public (restaurants, streets) / semi-public (apartment complex) relationship to one that is intimate and private. It ultimately introduces the possibility that their relationship is growing beyond that of a friendship. Act 3 focuses on Mr. Chow’s confession of love to Mrs. Chan and invitation to travel to Singapore for his work, culminating in them spending one emotional, single night together before inevitably splitting up. Upon separation, we experience the 2nd Turning Point in which Mrs. Chan fails to make it to Mr. Chow’s hotel room in time before his departure. Act 4 revolves around Mrs. Chan’s internal conflictions and inability to reach Mr. Chow, Mrs. Chan and Mr. Chow failing to see one another at the apartment complex years later, and the final resolution of Mr. Chow whispering his secret into a hole in Angkor.

Additionally, the selected scene largely conforms to a repetitive pattern present within the film which involves a montage accompanied by Yumeji’s Theme, slow motion, and lack of diegetic sounds. Importantly, Yumeji’s Theme is a haunting waltz of emotional strings that is often played almost in its entirety and mirrors the development of Mr. Chow and Mrs. Chan’s relationship with one another. For example, one usage shows Mr. Chow and Mrs. Chan casually passing each other at the underground noodle stand, another usage shows Mr. Chow and Mrs. Chan spending time with one another on the martial arts serial outside of work, the selected scene evidently uses it, and importantly, it’s simultaneously used and subverted when Mrs. Chan holds Mr. Chow and audibly wails during the rehearsal in the alleyway. Yumeji’s Theme effectively acts as a relationship-advancement marker to the viewer, playing during times featuring subtle desire and harrowing sadness; it does not discriminate and instead emphasizes importance. Beyond a previous scene in which Mr. Chow and Mrs. Chan are seen working on the martial arts serial, the selected scene functions as the first time the viewer ever witnesses Mr. Chow and Mrs. Chan spending real time with one another. It takes place in a sacred space, starkly contrasting the inevitable fate of their relationship and giving the viewer a glimpse of what an officially established, concrete relationship between the two may have looked like. The usage of Yumeji’s Theme during the heartfelt compilation is almost taunting, as it simultaneously parallels Mr. Chow’s nostalgic reminiscence and internal pain before he leaves for Singapore and conditions the viewer to associate Mr. Chow and Mrs. Chan’s relationship with the dramatic cries of the violin. Importantly, come the rolling credits in which it plays, we’re invited to reflect on their relationship, the experiences they shared, and the times we heard Yumeji’s Theme. This, effectively, enables the viewer to embody Mr. Chow and Mrs. Chan; we are haunted by the memories of their relationship, their forbidden love, and ultimately what never came to fruition.

The culmination of cinematographic techniques from the selected scene enable the viewer to witness what are effectively misleading exchanges between Mr. Chow and Mrs. Chan that, while affirming and reflecting their repressed love and care for one another, ultimately contrast the inevitable fate of their relationship and parallel the central themes of forbidden love, longing desire, the unspoken, and missed opportunities. Importantly, the selected scene is the answer to Mr. Chow and Mrs. Chan’s central question of how their spouses’ relationship started; just as Mr. Chow admitted under the pouring rain, his feelings for Mrs. Chan simply crept up among the time they spent together. The time Mr. Chow and Mrs. Chan spent with one another blurred the line between what are genuine acts of intimacy versus their attempts to better understand why their spouses are cheating for both themselves and the viewer. This selected scene, despite being ultimately bittersweet upon reflection, embodies the essence of In the Mood for Love in its use of a thoughtful setting, deliberate framing, motifs, and characterization, and symbolic music, speed of motion, and color; it lends the viewer an emotional,transcending viewing experience. Ultimately, in our process of witnessing Mr. Chow and Mrs. Chan’s relationship through this scene, we learned more than how their spouses came to love one another; the harrowing reality of being attracted toward another is that it can arise from a seemingly innocent relationship and a place of shared trauma, effectively placing two right people in the wrong time.

Work Cited
Filmed in Ether. (2020). The Troubled Production of In the Mood for Love. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gTA0_auKMB8
Kar-wai, W., Niogret, H., & Ciment, M. (2001). WONG KAR-WAI on “‘In the Mood for Love’” (2001) Interview at the CANNES Film Festival .

Maestu, N. (n.d.). Unit 4 Parts of the Narrative / Classical Hollywood Cinema
/ Film Theory. Canvas. Retrieved August 7, 2024, from https://canvas.sbcc.edu/courses/61810/pages/unit-4-objectives-lect ure-reading-clips-links?module_item_id=2775957