In The Mood For Love Wong Summary

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Wong setting the story background in the sixties, uses close form to implicitly reveal that even though Hong Kong people’s living conditions were preserve the characteristics of Shanghai people; however, living in the complex historical movement, Su as a representation of younger generation are struggling to close to Hong Kong’s independent culture. In “Love in Ruins: Spectral Bodies in Wong Kar-wai’s In the Mood for Love,” Olivia Khoo writes, “Although Hong Kong’s status as a Special Administrative Region means that it is now officially considered part of China, it is in many respects culturally and economically closer to a Chinese diaspora than it is a part of the mainland” (237). After the liberation of the mainland, a large number …show more content…
First, from the point of view of spectators in the sixties, Su and Chow’s relationship did not fit the moral standard. Khoo states, “In this model, the spectator would reside not merely as a ghostly figure within a disappearing mass, but as a localized subject within a diasporic community bound by a shared ethics of viewing” (237). The spectator acts as a judge of ethics in that era. The spectator’s view importantly influences to the development of personal relationships. In the Mood for Love, Mrs. Suen’s multicultural background and sophisticated experience makes her has the authority to be the spectator in the sixties. In addition, in “Viewing Sinophone Cinema Through a French Theoretical Lens: Wong Kar-wai’s ‘In the Mood For Love’ and 2046 and Deleuze’s’ Cinema,” Flannery Wilson writes, “Wong also says that he wanted to place the audience in the position of one of the "neighbors," meaning that we are never supposed to see anything completely clearly; our vision is always slightly obscured, and the actors' movements are restricted by the space inhabit” (9). While Mrs. Suen knows that Su keeps in touch with Chow, a married man, she reminds her in the narrow hallway. Wong chooses to apply shallow depth of field on them, and the side wall blocks the vision of seeing. …show more content…
Dan Waters notes in “HONG KONG in the 1950S and '60S: REMINISCENCES,” “In the early 1960s, we are referring to a time when something like 30 million inhabitants died of starvation on the Chinese Mainland. This was as a result of the failure of the ‘Great Leap Forward'” (337). As the large number of Shanghai immigrants brought a positive impact of economic development, but the growth of the population made the employment and housing in an intense situation. The worker strikers and natural disaster of typhoon built an adverse impact on society and people. In the Mood for Love is a shadow of Hong Kong’s 1960. Although people are building a good relationship in neighborhood which is faded in the changes of the time. At the end of the movie, Wong repeats the shot on Su and Mrs. Suen talking inside the room as same as they meet at the beginning of the movie. From the dialects in both Shanghai dialect and Cantonese, the one knows that Suen Su is going to move out to America. Mrs. Suen is the lead of this place connecting to Su and Chow, and other neighbors. As the lead is gone, harmonious neighbor relationship will also burst. This is the same scene, but creates a different meaning. Also, Khoo notes, “Hong Kong’s cinematic engagement with the mainland appears spectral, replaying the wound of loss and potential

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