On September 29, 2000, the movie "In the Mood for Love" directed by Wong Kar Wai and starring Tony Leung and Maggie Cheung was released in Hong Kong, China.
By virtue of their performance in the film, Tony Leung and Maggie Cheung won the laurels of actor and actress respectively in the 20th Hong Kong Film Awards.
In the 53rd Cannes International Film Festival, "In the Mood for Love" was nominated for the Palme d'Or, and Tony Leung won the Cannes Best Actor Award that year.
By 2020, 20 years have passed since the release of "In the Mood for Love". This movie is still an eternal classic in the minds of many fans.
ranked 5th among the "100 Best Films of the 21st Century" selected by the "Guardian", one of the three major British newspapers. The Douban score of
is as high as 8.6, and many fans think that "In the Mood for Love" is Wong Kar-wai's pinnacle work.
To commemorate the 20th anniversary of the film’s release, "In the Mood for Love" will be released in 4K and will have its world premiere in the "Cannes Classics" section of the 73rd Cannes International Film Festival.
Subsequently, the film will open a number of commemorative events around the world, and will be shown in multiple countries and regions.
can see this classic film again on the big screen. It can be said that it is the dream of many Wong Kar-wai film fans. Taking advantage of the 20th anniversary of the film’s release, this article will take everyone back to-
"In the Mood for Love" "
In fact, the plot of "In the Mood for Love" is not complicated, it can be summed up in a simple sentence:
This is a story about extramarital affairs.
In Hong Kong, China in the 1960s, Su Lizhen (played by Maggie Cheung) and Zhou Muyun (played by Tony Leung) became neighbors. At that time, the neighbourhoods were frequented by
. Everyone lived in the same building. They cooked something and sent them to share with each other. All they needed to do was to shout for Mahjong.
Su Lizhen’s husband works in a Japanese company and often travels to Japan. Zhou Muyun has also asked her family to help bring home appliances from Japan.
However, the exchanges are only warm and polite, and Su Lizhen and Zhou Muyun do not have a deep intersection.
Unexpectedly, Su Lizhen's husband and Zhou Muyun's wife got together behind their backs and had an extramarital affair.
Su Lizhen and Zhou Muyun became the people left behind at the same time. When did the extramarital affairs happen? How did it happen?
To find out the truth, Su Lizhen and Zhou Muyun played a role-playing game.
Su Lizhen pretends to be Zhou Muyun's wife, and Zhou Muyun pretends to be Su Lizhen's husband, simulating the situation when they are together.
As the game progressed, they also had a different kind of affection.
Some netizens think that the story of "In the Mood for Love" is too thin and not exciting enough.
But it is not. The reason why the audience has this illusion is related to the way the movie is handled.
Wang Jiawei has been doing subtraction throughout the film. There is no extra shot from the beginning to the end of the story. All the pictures and editing are clean and tidy, trying to tell the most content with the least shots. This processing method of
results in a lot of information being hidden behind the minimalist lens.
Take an example, such as the scene where Su Lizhen and Zhou Muyun have a meal. The shots of
are coherent throughout the whole scene, with Su Lizhen close-up for a while, and Zhou Muyun sitting across from Su Lizhen after shaking it up again. In the
screen, the two are still playing role-playing games, chatting, and the background music is always the same song.
But just between the shaking of the camera, the flow of time is fast-forward. If you look closely, you will find that Su Lizhen actually changed three cheongsams in this scene. The change of
's clothes implies that this seemingly continuous meal did not happen on the same day. Every time the cheongsam is changedIn between, time has passed quietly.
During this time, the relationship between Su Lizhen and Zhou Muyun has been getting closer, and their moods have changed. The
film uses a lot of similar processing methods of "turning three meals into one meal" to compress the screen shots to the most concise, and many information is hidden behind the minimalist shots.
This has caused many viewers to watch "In the Mood for Love" for the first time, and they always feel that they cannot understand it, but as long as you scan the movie a few times, you will find that the phrase "the devil is in the details" is really not bluffing you. of.
At the same time, there are not many dialogues in "In the Mood for Love". In an interview, Wong Kar-wai said: "This is not a film that expresses feelings through dialogue." Wait, these emotions are expressed through body language. Every movement, posture, and look of
hides information.
This is a big challenge for the actors' acting skills, but you can see that Tony Leung and Maggie Cheung have interpreted the roles very well.
Actually, Su Lizhen and Zhou Muyun's mood is not similar. Zhou Muyun's approach to Su Lizhen is more of a vengeance.
Su Lizhen’s husband snatched his woman, so he seduced Su Lizhen and made Su Lizhen fall in love with herself, thereby completing his revenge. In the last role-playing game of
, he asked Su Lizhen to simulate the scene where the two are forced to separate after her husband returns.
Su Lizhen obviously moved sincerely in the process of contact with Zhou Muyun, so when they finished the scene, Su Lizhen lay on Zhou Muyun's shoulder and cried.
She found that she had fallen in love with Zhou Muyun and could not accept the separate ending.
Looking at the expression on Zhou Muyun's face at this time, it is not distressed for Su Lizhen, nor is it the same sadness.
is indifferent, even fierce to complete the plan of revenge.
Zhou Muyun's character is very scheming in the film. In his one-man show, he often shows some creepy expressions.
But from his expression, we can also find that his feelings for Su Lizhen are also changing.
When he was convinced that Su Lizhen fell in love with herself, Zhou Muyun showed a sullen smile in the room alone, seeming to be proud of her plan to succeed.
But then, the smile slowly disappeared, Zhou Muyun's face became gloomy, silent, and bitter.
He also gradually fell in love with Su Lizhen in this role-playing game, even if it was not his intention.
Tony Leung uses these subtle expressions to interpret Zhou Muyun's inner emotions. Each expression is very intriguing, and the movie king is worthy of the name.
Su Lizhen repeatedly emphasized in the film: "We will not be like them."
means that she and Zhou Muyun will not do immoral things like the husband and wife who engage in extramarital affairs.
But in fact, the arrival of love is unpredictable and unstoppable. She and Zhou Muyun have long been in love with each other.
Su Lizhen and Zhou Muyun often take a walk at night, and the dim yellow street lamps reflect black shadows on the mottled wall.
Su Lizhen and Zhou Muyun in the center of the screen, as if they were in a cage created by light and shadow.
This seems to imply that the two are trapped in a moral prison, and their hearts are suffering.
is impressive that Su Lizhen and Zhou Muyun have met many times, all on rainy days.
The rainy day is hazy, blurred, and lingering, just like the emotion between Su Lizhen and Zhou Muyun. The unbroken throbbing and longing of
linger between the two of them, which also gives the audience more imagination.
Orientals express their love in a subtle way, approaching each other in constant temptation and ambiguity.
So the short three words "I love you" have different expressions.
from the Japanese writer Natsume Soseki: "NowThe late moonlight is so beautiful. "
" In Wong Kar-wai's "In the Mood for Love", it was Zhou Muyun's sentence before leaving Hong Kong:
"If there is one more ferry ticket, will you go with me?" "
never expresses it positively, but it has more romance, and it has become an eternal pain in the hearts of movie fans.
Bluestone film editorial department丨Leslie
