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For a long time I did not know weather I liked this film or not. This is surprising, because I usually do know, but because the film did not go anywhere, I was a bit confused.
Two people move into a somewhat communal household setting. Finding their spouses constantly working or away on business trips, their attention, out of sheer loneliness, wanders to each other. After a platonic love affair, the male lead played by Tony Leung Chiu discloses that he has a mistress on the side. Su Li-Zehn, played by Maggie Cheung is hurt, even though their love affair has not been physically consummated. Chiu leaves the country, only to come back years later, when everything has changed.
For the cynic's part, the film is correct. By never actively or actually touching the part of love, but only approaching it, the film, admittedly says more than so many others have on the subject. It is also true, I think, that nothing good could have come if they did go on to have the affair. At least that's the feeling I get.
If we are to believe it, however, when Garica Marquez writes that "...love is a state of grace; not the means to anything but the alpha and the omega, an end in itself," then this film falls miserably short of this, as do all others. Or, if you are inclined to entirely incomplete minimalism, hits it right on the mark. What films in history have achieved, approached, or sustained this phrase, if for only a short while? My honest feeling in memory is that about two. When Harry Met Sally suggests effectively this romantic perfection; and the getting is all in just getting there. It is interesting that in When Harry Met Sally, this is done in the course of wooing, rather than in its attainment. Can't anyone say anything good about love after it has been achieved by two individuals? Nicholas Spark's recent film The Notebook comes closer to this perhaps than any other film; are we to believe that once love is achieved it flies of the radar only to exist in perfection in some other dimension, or, more true perhaps, becomes latent vehicle for other ends?
In the Mood for Love is an honest film,with gorgeous and generous cinematography worthy in all respects of the best that Almodovar has to offer, yet all it manages to say in the end is that "Life is sometimes like this." Now this is by no means a diffident thing to say, especially if said well, but the problem really comes at the end of the last act when Kar Wai Wong tries to round out the film by relating, only for the second time, a broader historical theme that plays in the background of the relationship which has just taken place. This is a worthy effort, and the variation on the musical motif played throughout the film is rather brilliant, but the theme's relatively spare indictment plays too little to have much more than a superficial effect on the holistically inclined audience, leaving the viewer to split the difference, a mistake in any film. A director should know where he is going, and how to get there. But in all honesty, it is only one wrong turn. However, as anyone knows, all it takes is one notable imperfection to spoil the perfect barrel of honey.
The effort, though, is definitely worth while; trying to let a historical theme broaden and round out the film and raise it beyond the micro-meaning of the couple, but without any real foreshadowing, it is the crucial mistake. In a word, and unfortunately, it is too little too late. It is also, I think, too much of a challenge for the non-Asian viewer not familiar enough with China's history to appreciate completely this sweeping stroke.


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