In the Mood for Love (Hua Yang Nian Hua)
April 2002 Reviewed by: Wes Marshall Format: DVD	(all ratings out of 5): Overall Enjoyment Picture Quality Packaged Extras Sound Quality

We haven’t reviewed many DVDs released by Criterion. A shame because they have been around for so long, doing everything so perfectly, that sometimes we forget to give them the kudos they so deeply deserve. Can you think of any other company in the audio or video field that so dominates its competitors when it comes to quality? They were the first to get the director’s assistance in the mastering of their discs. When laserdiscs allowed it, they were the first to put directors and actors on a second track to discuss their work, giving us an in-home master class. No company puts more care into the visual features of a film. Their releases carry the satisfaction of ownership that comes from knowing it is simply the best. Lucky for us, someone up there in "Criterionland" also has terrific taste in movies.

Case in point: In the Mood For Love. Renowned around the world as one of the most beautiful and touching films of the year 2000, it won a startling number of awards, including a special award in Cannes. Unfortunately, unless you live in a great movie town, the chances are this flick passed you by. In my city (Austin), we have 16 screens devoted to art films along with an avid group of Chinese film fanatics and an active university film program. But we didn’t get In the Mood For Love. So my first experience with its quiet magic was from this Criterion release.

Su Li-zhen (Maggie Cheung Man-yuk) and Chow Mo-wan (Tony Leung Chiu-wai) meet as they are moving into neighboring apartments. The setting is Hong Kong in 1962. They treat each other courteously and properly. Both are married to spouses that travel regularly. He works at a newspaper and she is an executive assistant. Early on they discover that each of their spouses are unfaithful, and then, in a moment of cruel irony, they find out that it is her husband and his wife that are having the affair. There is some attraction between the two, but they are each loyal to their sense of honor. The tension becomes unbearable for both.

In the Mood For Love is an anomaly in contemporary film. It is complex, multi-dimensional, and real-to-life. But it is about people that are moral; characters that react to pain with honor. Nowhere will you see the sacrifice of principles for momentary fervor. But if the passion isn’t obvious in the actions, it is apparent in the faces. The leads make an art of underplay. Tony Leung Chiu-wai (Hard Boiled, Chungking Express) tells entire stories with his eyes. You can see why he won the Best Actor award at Cannes for this film. Maggie Cheung Man-yuk (Chinese Box, Irma Vep) has won the Hong Kong Film Award for Best Actress six times in the last ten years. And she retired for three of those years! The economy of her acting should be a model for anyone trying to learn the trade. Watch the scene where they are rehearsing the final confrontation with their spouses (chapter 17) for a lesson in the art of subtlety. Yet through her subtlety, the story gains enormous, heartbreaking power. One of the people that watched with us was a former fashion designer from New York. Every time Cheung appears dressed in one of William Chang Suk-ping’s unbelievably gorgeous cheongsams, that person nearly swooned. Between the beautiful clothes and photographers Doyle and Li Ping-bin’s obvious attraction to her dazzling physical beauty, Ms. Cheung comes off as one of the most stunning women in film today.

Nearly every frame of In the Mood For Love could stand alone as a gorgeous photograph. Co-Directors of Photography Christopher Doyle and Mark Li Ping-bin find ways to deliver colors that are at once brilliant and gentle, with a look that speaks of reality, but in a subdued Technicolor. Their use of close shots and obtuse angles lends the film a sense of heated congestion that adds to the ardor. William Chang Suk-ping’s editing should be studied by anyone interested in that art. In a movie mostly about two people, with virtually no action and no tasteless "we’re 2/3 of the way through, lets have a steamy sex scene" mentality, he still manages to deliver the goods. You spend much of the movie on the edge of your seat, riveted by the human drama and the seductive undercurrent, all the while feeling that we are catching the action as a casual passerby instead of a gawking voyeur.

Wong Kar-wai (Happy Together, Chungking Express, Days of Being Wild) is an odd man. A scriptwriter before he was a director, he had to move filming of In the Mood for Love from Bejing to Macau because the authorities demanded to read the script before they would approve filming. He couldn’t comply. The reason: he never uses a script! Never mind. His work on In the Mood For Love is masterful at every level.

Which also describes Criterion’s release. A beautiful picture. Deleted scenes with Wong telling why they were deleted. Documentaries, interviews, trailers, photos, biographies. Finally, there is a lovely 48-page book that includes the short story that inspired the movie. All of the extras are worth the time. None of it feels like schlock added to give the false impression of added value.

The Criterion Collection is the Gold Standard in the world of DVD. For fans of bittersweet love stories that require some intelligent consideration and time, In the Mood For Love is a must-have.

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