Analysis Of Wong Kar-Wai's Film In The Mood For Love

In Wong Kar-Wai’s film In the Mood for Love (2000) he comments on the nature of love and the secrecy and doubt that come with it. In the scene where Mrs. Chan meets Mr. Chow in his new apartment for the first time, it reveals how the two characters genuinely feel about each other and how they themselves feel about it as well. Through the use of editing, sound, and framing; the audience is able to decipher the deeper feeling and meaning behind this scene. The scene begins with Mrs. Chan in a taxi; a hand-held camera is focus on a close-up of her face. The movements are jittery, and her face shows immense uncertainty. This is followed by a series of jump cut shots in which she paces up and down, left and right, looking as if she is going nowhere. The only thing heard is the sound of her heels. They are …show more content…
Chan leaving Mr. Chow’s room. The camera is pulled back and the audience is far from the conversation taking place. Mrs. Chan is in the hallway and is not centered on frame. Instead, the left half of the frame are red curtains. The curtains emphasize Mrs. Chan’s red jacket of almost the same color. This implies that the space they are in is full of love and temptation. The love and temptation they feel for each other and what the room will come to mean for the both of them later in the film. Once Mr. Chow asks for Mrs. Chan it cuts to close-ups of their faces. Their faces speak more than they do, for it seems they are sad that the other must go. It comes to light that Mr. Chow thought that Mrs. Chan wouldn’t come, and she proclaims that they “won’t be like them.” Even though they both want to believe it their faces imply that it is upsetting to think they cannot be together. When Mrs. Chan says this, she tries to become happier and put a mask of whom she thinks she should be before she leaves. Whatever emotion expressed in that room must never leave the privacy of it and as she returns to the outside world, she must act