Hong Kong, 1962: Chow Mo-wan (Tony Leung) and Su Li-zhen (Maggie Cheung) move into neighbouring apartments on the same day. Their encounters are formal and polite – until a discovery about their spouses creates an intimate bond between them. At once delicately mannered and visually extravagant, Wong Kar Wai’s In the Mood for Love is a masterful evocation of romantic longing and fleeting moments. With its aching soundtrack and exquisitely abstract cinematography by Christopher Doyle and Mark Lee, this film has been a major stylistic influence on the past two decades of cinema, and is a milestone in Wong’s redoubtable career.  

Notes by David O’Mahony

Screening as part of The World of Wong Kar Wai season.