He remembers those vanished years.
As though looking through a dusty pane,
The past is something he could see, but not touch.
And everything he sees is blurred and indistinct.
Why does “he”make lose his blossoming years? Why can’t he seize his happiness? In the Mood for Love portraits the story between Mr. Chow and Mrs. Chan. Both of their other half have an affair. They begin to fall in love with each other when they try to search for the evidence of the affair of their other half. Suppression of desrire leads to depression, isolation, and lonliness. Directed by world-known Hong Kong director Wong Kar Wai, this movie brings beautiful imagery, but suppressive atmosphere. In this essay, I am going to discuss how this movie shows suppression of emotion.
As the basic structure of a movie, the plot of In the Mood for Love is about suppression. Mr. Chow and Mrs. Chan are neighbours. Mr. Chow’s wife and Mrs. Chan’s husband are always not at home, leaving two lonely hearts. Gradually, they begin to find that Mrs. Chow and Mr. Chan are having an affair. Being hurt, Mr. Chow and Mrs. Chan become very close friends. They take each other as their other half so that they can understand how the affair begins. They think that they are not like their other half, but later they find that they love each other. However, in the sixties Chinese society, they cannot show their love in order to protect their own reputation. They have to hide their emotion in front of others and suppress their feeling. They cannot bear gossips, and Mr. Chow leaves for Singapore, leaving Mrs. Chan in Hong Kong. After having moved, Mrs. Chan visits her old home again few years later. She finds that all her old neighbours have left. On the other hand, Mr. Chow reveals all his secrets to a hole of a tree in Cambodia. Both of them cannot get love from each other, except regret and loss. From the story and the theme of the movie, suppression is obviously portrayed.
The story sets the basis of the movie, and the director Wong Kar Wai pushes suppression to its forefront. With the help of production designer and photographer, the feeling of suppression makes our hearts cry. The camera, very often, focuses on the hands and legs of the characters, or on the ground, but not the faces of Mr. Chow and Mrs. Chan. This is already a kind of suppression. This shows that the characters have to hide their feeling. The whole movie is full of suppressive atmosphere. The love affair between Mr. Chow and Mrs. Chan blossoms in a very crowded environment. Rooms are small. There is no broad horizon shot within the movie. The director takes this as a sign of suppression again. Living in a small room, I feel that the two leading characters are being suppressed by the outside world. Of course, the use of colour in this movie is effective in expressing suppression. Most of the time, the movie is in dark colour like brown or dark yellow. From the use of colours, we can also feel the pessimistic atmosphere. Overall, the whole movie transmits a heavy feeling to the audiences. It is beautiful, but depressing. The atmosphere successfully supports the story about suppression, giving an unforgettable imagery to us.
Apart from the story and the atmosphere, the performers are also, maybe most importantly, the contributionds to the success of the movie. Tony Leung, acts as Mr. Chow, and Maggie Cheung, acts as Mrs. Chan, give excellent performances. The best actress winner of The International Berlin Film Festival, Maggie Cheung successfully shows her depression and suppression emotion. She has no choice to choose for her happy life. Having a wonderful feeling with Mr. Chow, she cannot dare to seize it. When Mr. Chow and Mrs. Chan are having a rehearsal that Mrs. Chan is ready to ask her husband about his affair, she asks, “Do you have another woman outside?” to Mr. Chow, who pretends to be Mr. Chan. It is a rehearsal only. But what Maggie tells us is that, Mrs. Chan is asking for her status from Mr. Chow’s heart. When she asks, her voice as well as her eyes tell us she is trying her best to hide her feeling. Another unforgettable scene by Maggie is near the ending. When she visits her old neighbours after years, she finds that all of her friends have left. Everything has changed. She misses the past which she cannot catch. But she misses Mr. Chow whom she can never capture. She cannot say out her secret, she can only tell us with her eyes which have gone red. Maggie’s brilliant performance brings us to the journey of what Mrs. Chan undergoes. Suppression is clearly shown.
Maggie has given one of her best performance in her career, so has Tony Leung. The shining performance of Tony in this movie supports the reliability of The Cannes Film Festival. As the winner of best actor for this movie, like Maggie, Tony shows his suppressed sensation. He is the one who declares love to Mrs. Chan, shyly. His love to her forces him to care, to touch her, but not to treasure her. He can never love her. Actually he does not need to tell us he loves her, his eyes show the feeling. Every eye contact from Tony to Maggie is full of care. When he is ready to leave for Singapore, the camera, unusually, focuses on Tony’s eyes. Tony’s face does not move a bit, so do his eyes. But that face shows his suppressed feeling. It is unspeakable. The same emotion is raised when Mr. Chow comes back Hong Kong and visits his old home where Mrs. Chan used to live next door. At last, Tony can only share his secret with a hole of a tree in Cambodia. Tony’s eyes are still heartbreaking. He does not cry, or weep. He even does not drop a tear. But from his dry eyes, we can easily understand the heart of Mr. Chow, who suppresses his own feeling.
All in all, In the Mood for Love is a simple love story between a married man and a married woman. But what makes this movie great is its suppressive atmosphere. The movie can bring us a long lasting memory. It will not make us cry. But I am sure we will always think about it. We will sympathize with the two characters, and we will realize that because of convention, we have lost much.