“In the Mood for Love” Ambiguous passage of time, ambiguous relationships, and the changing face of Hong Kong

Confining a “temporary” secret to “eternity”

"You know, that's how the old people used to do it. A person with a big secret would find a big tree in the mountains and whisper the secret into a hole dug in the trunk. The hole would be filled with earth so that the secret would never leak out. contain it.”

As he said in Singapore in 1963, Chau sealed his secret at Angkor Wat in Cambodia in 1966. He places his lips not on a large mountain tree, but on a hole in a building in ruins, whispers a secret, and then disappears somewhere. The fleeting events with Mrs. Chan were forever captured in a place that celebrates over 800 years of history and will continue to exist.

After Mrs. Chan burst into tears after hearing Chau's farewell words, the two of them held hands and stood shoulder to shoulder in the taxi. From the wife's words, "I don't want to go home," it could be interpreted that the two had a physical relationship immediately afterward. However, what really happened that night is Chau's secret, and the audience has no way of knowing. It is unclear how Chau perceived his relationship and separation from Mrs. Chan, but that too is his secret.

“In the Mood for Love” © 2000, 2009 Block 2 Pictures Inc. All Rights Reserved.

No matter what form it takes, Kar-Wai knows that his time in ``suspension'' will come to an end someday. That's why this film doesn't depict a decisive moment, and its ending is completely avoided. (As mentioned above, the scene where the two try to have sex and then give up is deleted, but in fact, there was also a scene that really crossed the line, which was also cut towards the end of production.)

Furthermore, two versions of the ending, in which the two meet again, were filmed, but neither was used. The first one takes place in Hong Kong in 1972, and two people who have changed from each other meet again. The other is that they bump into each other at Angkor Wat and exchange a few words. In any case, the two were never married.

By keeping the moment when something ambiguous becomes certain, or when their story concludes, a secret, Chau and Mrs. Chan's time in limbo seems to last forever. At the very least, by doing so, I think Kar-Wai is trying to make us forget that "suspended" time existed and still exists. However, in return, Chow will wander in an eternal secret.

``A man remembers the years gone by.

As if looking through dusty glass

You can only see the past, you cannot touch it.

Everything I see is vague, like an illusion..."

The past is the past and time just moves on. The story continues into ``2046'' as Chau continues to spend time in ``suspension'' alone.

References/materials:

“ in The Mood For Love ~ In the Mood for Love ” DVD (bonus video), TC Entertainment

Kosuke Fujishiro, “Between two eras: the space and time between In the Mood for Love and 2046”, Kentaro Sugino (ed.), “Film and Ideology”, Minerva Shobo, 2015.

“ Filmmakers [14] Wong Kar-wai ” Kinema Junposha, 2001

Masayuki Yoshikawa, Toru Kurata (editors) “ 60 Chapters for Understanding Hong Kong ” Akashi Shoten, 2016

In The Mood For Edinburgh http://old.bfi.org.uk/sightandsound/feature/55

Text: Takatoshi Inagaki

Writer/editor/dramaturg. His writing activities span across fields such as movies, dramas, comics, theater, and art. Contributes to theater programs such as the movies ``Tenet'' and ``Joker,'' edits web media, edits exhibition catalogs, and appears on radio. Major stage works include dramaturg for PARCO's productions of ``Kengyo Yabuhara'', Tristone Entertainment's ``Shoujo Kamen'', prosthetic assistant for Kinoshita Kabuki's ``Tokaido Yotsuya Kaidan'', ``Sannin Kichizo'', ``Kanjincho'', and KUNIO's ``Greeks''. ”Literature.

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© 2000, 2009 Block 2 Pictures Inc. All Rights Reserved.