At once delicately mannered and visually extravagant, Wong Kar-wai’s In the Mood for Love is a masterful evocation of romantic longing and fleeting moments. With its aching musical soundtrack and exquisitely abstract cinematography by Christopher Doyle and Mark Lee Ping-bin, this film has been a major stylistic influence on the past decade of cinema, and is a milestone in Wong’s redoubtable career.

Hong Kong, 1962: Chow Mo-wan (Tony Leung Chiu-wai, Happy Together) and Su Li-zhen (Maggie Cheung Man-yuk, Police Story) move into neighboring apartments on the same day. Their encounters are formal and polite—until a discovery about their spouses creates an intimate bond between them.

Reviews

"In the Mood for Love is probably the most breathtakingly gorgeous film of the year, dizzy with a nose-against-the-glass romantic spirit that has been missing from the cinema forever." – The New York Times

"Their pain borne with grace and their rapture held in check are revealed as vividly through the two stars’ radiant stillness as from the nocturnal glow of Wong’s poised, tense images." – The New Yorker