This Hong Kong film is one of the most beautiful and moving romances in cinema. It is possible to discover it on television and in streaming.
Love stories have always inspired cinema, sometimes giving rise to great classics of the seventh art. This week, it is possible to discover on television a huge classic of Hong Kong cinema, which is also the most beautiful love story ever seen on the big screen. Pure, visually superb and moving, it is a feature film that you absolutely must have seen in your life, even if you are not a fan of the genre.
Released in 2000, In the mood for love announces the color just in its title. Directed by Wong Kar-Wai (Chungking Express, 2046…), this meeting between two lonely souls takes place in Hong Kong in the 1960s. Ms. Chan and Mr. Chow live in the same building. Their spouses are often absent… And one day they discover that they are lovers. Hurt by the betrayal of their partners, they decide to hang out more and more, and in turn develop an affair that will change their lives.
Carried by the nuanced interpretations of Maggie Cheung (Our wild years) and Tony Leung (Chungkin Express, Shang-Chi, Once upon a time in Hollyood), In the mood for love is far from being an electric and lightning passion that we usually find in the romances of Western cinema. And that’s all his brilliance. Because Wong Kar-Wai signs here a nostalgic work on missed appointments, all in delicacy and subtlety, charged with emotion and sensuality.
The French critic, who gave it a score of 4.6/5 on Allociné, is categorical: it is a film “unique like all perfect films” (L’Obs), “a marvel of style, elegance, of subtle emotion” (Le Figaro), “one of the greatest of the year” 2000 (Le Parisien), “a dream of sweetness, nostalgia, sadness, exquisite refinement” (Les Echos). This critical success was also a public success, since Allociné users gave it a rating of 4.1/5 (out of more than 11,000 ratings given).
In the Mood for Love won the César for Best Foreign Film in 2001, as well as the Best Actor Award at the 2000 Cannes Film Festival for Tony Leung. Wong Kar-Wai’s masterpiece can be discovered on France 5 this Friday, May 17 (9:08 p.m.), and for 30 days on the france.tv platform.