In the Mood for Love

This is the first truly great Wong Kar-Wai film, in that he doesn't need a gun or martial arts or even sex to express himself magnificently. This is his stab into Antonioni territory by way of Scorsese-Taxi-Driver era slow-mo editing. The Romanticism isn't some bizarre subjective comic-book romanticism like in Chung-King Express or Fallen Angels, but something deeply painful and alienated and constratined by tradition, directly from the real world, again harking back to classic Antonioni films like "Red Desert." Wong doesn't really take us into the individuation of his characters too much, but then Wong has some way to go before he can say as much with his 'restraint' as Antonioni did with his.The Soundtrack is 40 minutes of the most incredibly varied, sublimely beautiful music, MOST OF WHICH IS BARELY HEARD IN THE FILM. That's why If you think that by buying the DVD you'll get the soundtrack too, you're wrong. There's plenty more here. The 3 legendary Nat King Cole (in Spanish) tracks (many more unbelievable tracks are available on the original 16 Exitos on Capitol), the beautiful East-meets-West classical "Yumeji's Theme" by Umebayashi Shigeru (originally used in a Seijun Suzuki film called "Yumeji" barely see in the West), and the other magnificent east-meets-west classical pieces by Micheal Galasso are just the beginning; in between are sandwiced sublimely bizarre and beautiful rare Chinese pop & ethnic tracks that no one in the west has ever heard! This is the best soundtrack I've heard since "Apocalypse Now," and "Rumble Fish." Get it today!

On of my favorite movies. My favorite romantic movie. If you are into films, read about how the music was selected and made, how the early sixties were very important times for Hong Kong and how the emigrants form Shanghai China running from the the communist after 1949 came to Hong Kong and had to crowd into the housing available and made for a thriving middle class. These are the characters depicted in this movie and the reason they seem so westernized. Shanghai was a very cosmopolitan city with many European communities and where a chines Hollywood like movie and musical industry existed right up until WW II started. Hong Kong became what it is now because of the influx of main China middle and upper class exiles and the free enterprise allowed by the British government. Freedom, imported intellect and plenty of available labor made Hong Kong what it became in the last 50 years. You can see glimpse of what it must been like as the backdrop of this love story. Very clever and very well made.

All the passion, longing, and intensity of the film are supremely evoked by this soundtrack, particularly the two main themes, 'Yumeji' by Shigeru Umebayashi and 'Angkor Wat' by Michael Galasso. The cello solo in the latter will make you swoon.The power of the film lies precisely in the fact that so much is NOT shown. Emotions are repressed. Touch is glancing. Yet desire practically oozes off the screen. It is Wong Kar-wai's directorial reticence that creates this palpability, a lesson American directors might learn from if they stopped blasting audiences with heavy breathing and boinking long enough to pay attention. (Yes, I know, Hitchcock understood the power of understatement, but he's obviously long since gone.)Anyway, if you don't feel heat from this music, then honey, it's time to get your temperature checked.

The soundtrack is not only magnificient but significant, in the way it suggests the mood and aides in the story-telling. The film itself de-emphasizes almost all externalities including any supporting actors and actresses. Instead the music scores and the lush palette of colors take the important role of telling the stroy, suggesting the possible coming. Not too lengthy for a soundtrack, but the 40 minutes of music fill with a sense of blues, despair, nostalgia, and exoticism. The soundtrack begins with Yumeji's Theme, as a reviewer has previously noted, this piece written by Umebayashi Shigeru was originally used in a Seijun Suzuki film called "Yumeji" barely seen outside of Asia. What makes this soundtrack unique is the audacious juxtaposition of '40s Chinese music with Nat King Cole's portugaese legendaries. Zhou Xuan's "Ha yang de nien hua" brings back memories of the legendary diva who dominated the Shanghai music scenes more than 80 years ago. The piece tags perfectly into the mixed feelings of the characters: fidelity and decency will not allow them to have an affai no matter how intimate their bond has been. Nat King Cole's Quizás, Quizás, Quizás [Perhaps, Perhaps, Perhaps] is my favorite and it fits perfectly into the yearning mood of the film. "Perhaps he works late just like he tells me." "Perhaps she forgets to call me." "Perhaps we can have an affair" "Perhaps..." The soundtrack closes out with yet another beautifully done piece--Angkor Wat Theme Finale. At first I thought the movie DVD will be sufficient to capture all the scores and music pieces and yet I was mistaken. Only "Quizás, Quizás, Quizás" could be heard in full length in movie while almost all the other pieces were cut short and faded out. The tiptoeing movie theme "In the Mood for Love" is available in three cuts. If you like the music from the movie, you have to get this soundtrack. The movie experience will never be complete without the soundtrack. 4.3 stars.