In the Mood for Love (2000)
“Faa yeung nin wa”
Drama, Romance.
In the Mood for Love is a Hong Kong romantic drama film written, produced, and directed by Wong Kar-wai. It tells the story of a man (played by Tony Leung) and a woman (Maggie Cheung) whose spouses have an affair together and who slowly develop feelings for each other.
In the Mood for Love premiered at the 2000 Cannes Film Festival on 20 May, where it was nominated for the Palme d’Or and Tony Leung was awarded Best Actor (the first Hong Kong actor to win this award at Cannes). It is frequently listed as one of the greatest films of all time and one of the major works of Asian cinema. In a 2016 survey by the BBC, it was voted the second-best film of the 21st century by 177 film critics from around the world.
The story opens in an exiled Shanghainese community in British Hong Kong in 1962. Chow Mo-wan, a journalist, rents a room in an apartment of a building on the same day as Su Li-zhen, a secretary from a shipping company. They become next-door neighbours. Each has a spouse who works and often leaves them alone on overtime shifts. Due to the friendly but overbearing presence of a Shanghainese landlady, Mrs. Suen, and their bustling, mahjong-playing neighbours, Chow and Su often find themselves alone in their rooms. Their lives continue to intersect in everyday situations: a recurring motif is the loneliness of eating alone. The film documents the leads’ chance encounters, each making his and her individual trek to the street noodle stall, sometimes intersecting without connecting.
Director: Kar-Wai Wong
Writer: Kar-Wai Wong
Stars: Tony Chiu-Wai Leung, Maggie Cheung, Ping Lam Siu, Tung Cho ‘Joe’ Cheung, Rebecca Pan, Kelly Lai Chen
Cast:
| Maggie Cheung | … | Su Li-zhen – Mrs. Chan |
| Tony Chiu-Wai Leung | … | Chow Mo-wan |
| Ping Lam Siu | … | Ah Ping |
| Tung Cho ‘Joe’ Cheung | … | Man living in Mr. Koo’s apartment |
| Rebecca Pan | … | Mrs. Suen |
| Kelly Lai Chen | … | Mr. Ho |
| Man-Lei Chan | … | Mr. Koo |
| Kam-Wah Koo | ||
| Szu-Ying Chien | … | Amah |
| Paulyn Sun | … | Mrs. Chow (voice) |
| Roy Cheung | … | Mr. Chan (voice) |
| Po-chun Chow | ||
| Hsien Yu | ||
| Julien Carbon | … | French tourist |
| Laurent Courtiaud | … | French reporter |
| Charles de Gaulle | … | Self (1966 visit to Cambodia) (archive footage) |
Sources: imdb & wikipedia
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