Wong Kar-wai’s In The Mood For Love is about a man and a woman who discover their spouses are having an affair together.  A unique relationship forms as they utilize each other to process the betrayal and hurt while assuaging their loneliness.  With innocence and a naive curiosity they proclaim, “We won’t be like them.”  In their exploration, they fall in love—within pain, within confusion, an unnerving emotional juxtaposition that creates the tense mood of the visually beautiful film.  Their love is just as painful as the betrayal in its restraint.  It’s a secret they cannot express. 

In this final scene, he whispers his secret to the walls of the great Angor Wat ruins in Cambodia, expelling it.  We watch as his secret embodies the massive structure.  And as he walks away.  

The languid film is rich with interpretation. While every frame is stunning, it is the absence of  Su Li-zhen and Chow Mo-wan’s consummation that is most haunting.  The separateness.  This blog post from a fan has some great insight into the film’s paradoxes.  [He even went to Angor Wat and sacrificed a secret to the holy grounds.]

Wong Kar-wai’s In The Mood For Love is one of my top 5 favorite films.  And its loose sequel, 2046, is also high up there on my list.  Tony Leung Chiu-wai is the common denominator here.  His first American film, Ang Lee’s Lust, Caution is also one of my favorites.  He’s just great.

P.S.A.: What you look at is important. It makes you feel and think. So look at stuff that makes you feel and think deeply. These things are everything.