In The Mood For Love

In the film Mood for Love we follow Mr. Chow and Mrs. Chan both of which having significant others we never fully get to see. The mysteriousness that surrounds their partners only grows in intrigue when Mr. Chow and Mrs. Chan grow a tense friendship in the absence of their lovers being home. It does not take both of them long to expose their theories as to why they see so little of their partners and they conclude that their his wife and her husband are having an affair together. The rest of the film follows the two as they ambivalently dance with each others desires for one another while wrestling with the burden of their partners unfaithfulness. Mr. Chow and Mrs. Chan are shown recreating their predictions as to how the affair between their lovers were initiated. It is through these interactions and through the attitude that the neighbors take towards their obvious relationship that show the strong social pressure for spouses to stay loyal. As pointed out in Nochimson’s “World on Film” This is a struggle for both Mr. Chow and Mrs. Chan as their feelings towards one another are obvious to the viewer even before Chan declares it with his words but they still have issues along the way in communicating to one another how they feel clearly as the societal shame of being unloyal looms over them even in private settings (Nochimson,2010,p.346) Slow motion shots and extravagant music accompanies their small interactions showing the deep meaning in their ambiguous brief encounters. The extent to Mr. Chow and Mrs. Chan’s relationship is left up to mystery so when the film skips 5 years we are left with more questions than answers when they go their separate ways. The film shows the fragile veil between unguarded sensuality and the social standards that surround marriage and no matter how distant Mr. Chow and Mrs. Chan are in distance their still is a connection there.