Director: Wong Kar Wai
I was excited to see In The Mood For Love - I didn't know very much about it, but I did know that it sometimes tops people's best film of the decade list. It's a tale of two young couples from Hong Kong who move into rented rooms in apartments next door to one another. While it's clearly a well-crafted film, I have to admit I didn't get it. It strikes me as the kind of film that requires two viewings to understand, yet is not compelling enough to demand that treatment.
Note: Spoilers below
The characters are ciphers, probably intentionally so. We never see their spouses, who are supposedly cheating on them - do they even exist? Are they fictions? The constant play-acting by the woman, acting out scenes with the man, as though the man were her husband - is he actually her husband? The choice to keep their spouses out of the film entirely (besides audio) is an interesting one. However, it also makes the supposed pain of their spouses' adultery that much dimmer, and their passion for one another that much more muted. Maybe I just needed Al Pacino shouting about something in here, I don't know. Now, time to read a bunch of glowing reviews to explain what I missed.
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