- One thing I've come to appreciate about Wong Kar-Wai's films is that nobody ever flinches away from their own craziness. As a result, the audience comes to expect and even appreciate characters who collect expired pineapple and those who occupy the same apartment at mutually exclusive times. With In the Mood For Love, the oddness centers around Mrs. Chan (Maggie Cheung) and Mr. Chow (Tony Leung), two lonely neighbors whose spouses are having an affair with one another. That may not sound terribly wacky until we witness the lengths to which Chan and Chow go in order to remain faithful to their partners despite the fact that they have obviously fallen in love with each other.
- Early on, we learn that Mrs. Chan's husband spends a lot of time working abroad in Japan while Mr. Chow's wife works a lot of late nights. We never actually meet the spouses — they characteristically have their backs to the camera and speak from offscreen — but gradually a pattern emerges. Mrs. Chan notices that her husband has the same type of tie as Mr. Chow, presumably having gotten it as a gift from the same woman. Likewise, Mr. Chow observes that his wife's handbag can only be purchased in Japan, much like Mrs. Chan's. At this point, normal people would confront their unfaithful spouses or maybe even permit themselves to have honest interactions with one another, but Mrs. Chan and Mr. Chow instead elect to roleplay various confrontations with their spouses that never actually come to pass.
- Due to their joint experience of infidelity or shared interests in noodles and martial arts serials, Mrs. Chan and Mr. Chow begin seeing each other on a regular basis. Rather than following the normal progression of such friendships, however, Chan and Chow are so dedicated to being better than their spouses that their relationship is never consummated. Instead, they exit cabs at different times so that the landlady (Rebecca Pan) doesn't draw the wrong conclusions. In the film's best scene, the two find themselves stuck in Chow's apartment waiting out a seemingly interminal game of mahjong just outside. (It should go without saying that they take turns sleeping in the single bed.) A lesser work might have given the audience a surprise reunion by the film's end, but this one boldly prefers to have its characters pass like the proverbial ships in the night.
- Although In the Mood For Love is generally regarded as Wong's best film — and indeed the second-best film of the century according to a 2016 BBC poll of film critics — I personally found it to be less engaging than Chungking Express or even Happy Together. One ingredient that was missing for me was Wong's usual proficiency with interesting locations, relatively few of which were on display in this film until a last-minute trip to the stunning ruins at Ankor Wat. Instead, the film's most interesting patterns and colors are contained primarily within Maggie Cheung's endless wardrobe of 60s-era dresses. In the Mood For Love also would have benefitted from even a fraction of the whimsy contained within Chungking Express, although Chow's irresponsible friend Ping (Siu Ping Lam) admittedly contributes a few moments of levity. Nat King Cole's versions of Spanish language standards match the film's tone well, for better and worse.
