"IN THE MOOD FOR LOVE"
Hong Kong, 2000
Mr. Chow: "I never thanked you for the sesame syrup."
Mrs. Chan: "There's no need, I was making it anyway."
Mr. Chow: "Amazing! I was craving some sesame syrup that day."
Mrs. Chan: "Really? What a coincidence!"
Mr. Chow: "It really is."
There are no coincidences in "In the Mood for Love," Wong Kar-Wai's profound and heartbreaking examination of sin. The word "coincidence" is used three times in the film, each time by Mrs. Chan and Mr. Chow, each time with the understanding that no real coincidence has occurred. Their every word, their every gesture, their every glance has been carefully premeditated - what seems, at first, to be mere inhibition is actually a keen awareness of the control they both possess over their own actions.
To label this gorgeous film a "morality tale" may seem crude, but to label it simply a "love story" is to overlook its breadth and scope. The spouses (whose faces are never shown) are engaged in adultery, an act deemed sinful by nearly every society on the planet. Together Mr. Chow and Mrs. Chan work to understand the "how," and not the "why," of their partners' unfaithfulness. When did it start? Who made the first move? They reenact the possibilities, and fall in love.
Mrs. Chan: "Why rush off to Singapore?"
Mr. Chow: "A change of scene. I've had enough of the gossip."
Mrs. Chan: "We know it's not true, so why worry?"
Mr. Chow: "I used to think that too, and it didn't worry me. I thought we wouldn't be like them. But I was wrong."
Four times in the film, Mr. Chow and Mrs. Chan say, "We're not like them" (or some variation thereof). Whether or not they believe this is debatable - when Mrs. Chan leaves Mr. Chow's apartment, having done nothing improper but still feeling guilty, she turns and says, "We won't be like them." She's seeking reassurance, though it's alarmingly clear that they are like their spouses, insofar that they have fallen in love. This may be where the similarities end, but it is essential to understand these similarities if we are to understand this movie. The situations between the two couples are almost identical - the choices are not.
The first scenes of "In the Mood for Love" establish an uneasy attraction between Mrs. Chan and Mr. Chow. When we learn it is their spouses, and not them, who are having an affair, we are a little surprised - every previous scene seems to establish that something is happening between them. The camera is intensely aware of Mrs. Chan's figure (she is played by Maggie Cheung, one of the most beautiful women alive), and so is Mr. Chow. No one can miss Mr. Chow's earnest charm, his striking face (he is played by Tony Leung Chiu Wai, Hong Kong's finest actor) - it certainly hasn't escaped Mrs. Chan.
They are forced into close proximity when the two couples each rent a room from neighboring apartments. Mrs. Chan is alone much of the time - her husband's job regularly takes him to Japan and Singapore. Likewise, Mr. Chow's wife is often away. If anything were to happen between then, it would develop fairly quickly.
Nothing happens between them. These two individuals are very conscious of their behavior and its implications, and they behave so as to preclude romance. Mrs. Chan is cold and polite - she keeps Mr. Chow at an uneasy distance. Mr. Chow relies on propriety, and addresses Mrs. Chan with the strictest formality. What is immediately striking about this couple is how very unromantic they are.
This unromantic propriety is necessary, because they are married to other people. These marriages are unhappy: Mr. Chan is harsh, almost rude, and Mrs. Chow is spoiled and fussy. But neither Mrs. Chan nor Mr. Chow seeks happiness, and the thought of adultery has probably never entered their minds.
This changes when they discover the affair. Suddenly, they can consummate their attraction with no real charge of wrongdoing. Yet they still do not entertain the possibility of a physical relationship.
When watching "In the Mood for Love," it is so easy to be swept away by the sheer beauty of the story and the filmmaking that one can ignore the central question - Why? Why do these two individuals, who so obviously want to love each other, not take advantage of the opportunity?
They have one excuse, which they both refer to many times: they live under the eyes (and gossiping tongues) of their landlords and neighbors. What would be said if they began spending too much time together? How could they sleep together without their landlords knowing?
This excuse doesn't satisfy the attentive viewer. The landlords and neighbors are perfectly unaware of the affair between the spouses. Later in the film, Mr. Chow rents an apartment for writing, and Mrs. Chan visits, but they do not sleep together, nor so much as kiss.
Their landlords and neighbors have nothing to do with their ambivalence. They do not sleep together because they choose not to. The glaring reality of their spouses' indiscretions doesn't faze them in the slightest. To understand this, you must go back to the "coincidences." There are no coincidences in this film...it is no coincidence that Mr. Chow and Mrs. Chan fall in love - it doesn't take them by surprise. They both understand fully the active role they've played in their situation - they haven't fallen in love by mistake, and love is no excuse to take the relationship any further.
Both view adultery with obvious distaste - aside from their spouses, each has an individual in their life engaged in sexual impropriety. Chow's friend Ping is so frequent at the local whorehouse, he's allowed a line of credit. Mrs. Chan's boss is having an affair, and she assists his infidelity - she delivers messages from the mistress, makes excuses for the wife. Mr. Chow and Mrs. Chan never comment on these affairs, but their disapproval is clear.
Yet their disapproval is not ours. Ping and Mrs. Chan's boss may not garner our sympathy, but Mr. Chow and Mrs. Chan certainly do. By the end of the film, we are distraught that these two characters have lost what they both so deserve. Their marriages eventually fail, but not until they have moved apart. Propriety and inhibition, in the end, have cost them happiness.
We never meet the spouses, and yet, through Mr. Chow and Mrs. Chan, we experience everything they experience. Their story is actually two stories - their story and the story of their spouses. The situations are identical (unhappy marriage and close proximity brought both couples together) - the choices are not. This is where we discover the film's profoundest insights.
"In the Mood for Love" strikes a delicate balance. On one hand, we feel the enormous responsibility each character has over their actions. Yet we do not judge these actions, and the similarities between the situations instill empathy within us. We cannot view the spouses' affair as inevitable or unavoidable, because we have spent the film watching Mr. Chow and Mrs. Chan avoid adultery. And yet we understand the choices both couples made, and we are humbled by our understanding.
If a traditional view of sin applied to this film, then Mr. Chow and Mrs. Chan are victorious, because they have avoided sin. But there is no victory at the film's conclusion. Instead, there is loneliness and despair, as if something profound has been lost in their decision to avoid sin. One might argue that, in the end, we wish Mr. Chow and Mrs. Chan had slept together, and eventually left their spouses for each other. Such an argument misses the point of the film and its final moment of aguish.
This anguish is Kierkegaard's "active despair," the despair of awareness (as opposed to "being in despair," the sickness unto death). Mr. Chow and Mrs. Chan are fully aware of their moral responsibility, and it causes them grief. Their spouses, on the other hand, are not even aware of their ability to not sin. This, Kierkegaard teaches, is what separates the "saved" from the "unsaved," the "enlightened" from the "unenlightened," the "ethical" from the "religious," etc. (apply whichever binary category makes you most comfortable).
"In the Mood for Love" is one of the most truthful films ever made about sin. Its message is not easily digested but strongly felt - there are no broad generalities, no simple moral lessons, no "good" or "bad." The protagonists live in awareness of sin, a kind of despair. This is not the credulity so many Christians mistake for understanding - what we feel during a hellfire-and-brimstone sermon teaches us nothing about sin, and leads backward into folly. What we feel at the end of this film is an understanding of our own sinful nature, our own moral responsibility, and the sadness that often comes with that understanding.
For more on "In the Mood for Love," read Li Cheuk-to's essay, featured in the Criterion DVD. Thoughtful reviews of the film can be found at the Onion AV Club, the Economist, the New York Times, and Salon.com.
