Review: ‘In The Mood’ encases delicate tale

Geoff Carter

Friday, March 23, 2001 | 9:50 a.m.

Grade: ***

Starring: Tony Leung, Maggie Cheung, Rebecca Pan and Lai Chin.

Screenplay: Wong Kar-wai.

Director: Wong Kar-wai.

Rated: PG for thematic elements and brief language.

Running time: 97 minutes.

Playing at: Century Suncoast.

Late in Wong Kar-wai's beautiful "In The Mood For Love," Chow (played note-perfect by Tony Leung Chiu-wai) patiently describes to a friend how a secret was kept in ancient times: You would climb a mountain, carve a hole in a tree, whisper your secret into the hole and cover the hole with a clump of mud. The secret would then be trapped forever.

His friend chuckles, exclaims "What a pain!" and says he'd just go out and have sex. It's a crude statement, but one that reflects the film's theme -- the hundred distinct steps that must be taken before two people can fall in love. Sometimes you can avoid them by sliding down the banister, and sometimes you take each step one at a time, all the while questioning the stability of the next.

The story is set in Hong Kong, 1962. The political and social upheaval of the 1960s is hinted at but never made explicit; director Wong is more immediately concerned with the world inside the apartment building where Chow and his wife have moved into a sublet room next door to Mrs. Chan (Maggie Cheung) and her husband. (In keeping with the film's unwavering focus, the spouses are never seen -- only heard.)

Chow and Mrs. Chan move into their respective rooms on the same day, without their spouses, who are both out of town on business. Their first meeting is stilted at best: "How should I address you?" Chow asks. "My husband's name is Chan," she says. This timid reluctance colors their every conversation, right up to the one where they figure out that their spouses are having an affair.

"I wonder how it started?" wonders Mrs. Chan. And thus begins one of the most heart-rending exchanges in recent memory, as the cuckolds try to re-enact the circumstances that precipitated their spouses falling for each other.

Wong knows better than to make this easy. Even the camera is shy; it hides around corners and in hallways, watching the characters through nervous eyes. It follows the beautiful Cheung, regal in form-fitting mini-dresses and jet-set hair and makeup, in low-angle slow motion, rendering her long legs and gentle sway as sensuous as slow-rising smoke. Chiu-wai is viewed in medium close-up, almost invariably with an expression of longing playing upon his handsome features. You get the sense this is really how these characters see each other.

The sets have their own color, shape and expression. Wong floats through the rooms like a ghost, lingering on doorways and walls, listening to what they have to say about the goings-on. They speak as clearly as the characters do: All that's seen of the unfaithful wife is a rack of postcards in a shop window (she's speaking on a telephone next to it -- this is made evident by just one, subtle shot).

Better still, many of the phone conversations between Chow and Mrs. Chan are played over a close-up of a clock in Mrs. Chan's office: Wong knows these conversations don't take place on a split-screen in real life. Mrs. Chan would indeed be staring at the clock, and Chow would likely be wondering how much time they really had.

"In The Mood For Love" runs counter to everything you know about love stories. Its languorous pacing may not agree with American audiences accustomed to Julia Roberts fixing everything, against all conceivable odds, by the last reel. The cuckolds' affair proceeds messily, is mostly hidden behind closed doors (to the point that the viewer is never sure if it really takes place) and ends the only way it can end -- not at all well for anyone.

It's the most truthful film you'll see this year. And the truth is seldom pleasant -- that's why we hide it around corners, down hallways, behind locked doors. It may be easier for some to bypass it for quick gratification, but nothing valuable is earned that way. "In The Mood For Love" whispers its truths into the viewer's most secret space, covers it and leaves its lessons to take root inside.