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In the Mood for Love

Play trailer Poster for In the Mood for Love PG Released Mar 9, 2001 1h 37m Romance Drama Play Trailer Watchlist
Watchlist Tomatometer Popcornmeter
92% Tomatometer 191 Reviews 94% Popcornmeter 50,000+ Ratings
In 1962, journalist Chow Mo-wan (Tony Leung Chiu Wai) and his wife move into a Hong Kong apartment, but Chow's spouse is often away on business. Before long, the lonely Chow makes the acquaintance of the alluring Su Li-zhen (Maggie Cheung Man-yuk), whose own significant other also seems preoccupied with work. As the two friends realize their respective partners are cheating on them, they begin to fall for one another; however, neither wants to stoop to the level of the unfaithful spouses.
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In the Mood for Love

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Critics Consensus

An exquisitely shot showcase for Maggie Cheung and Tony Leung that marks a somber evolution of Wong Kar-wai's chic style, In the Mood for Love is a tantric tease that's liable to break your heart.

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Critics Reviews

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Elvis Mitchell New York Times 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. Jul 17, 2023 Full Review Joe Morgenstern Wall Street Journal In the Mood for Love excites us with words not spoken, passions not played out. A mood story more than a love story, it's all about sustaining a state of exquisite melancholy in the face of desire. Jul 15, 2023 Full Review Peter Bradshaw Guardian If it is possible to find the erotic register of despair, or the romantic dimension of ennui, then Wong Kar-wai certainly achieves it in his new film. Rated: 5/5 Jul 15, 2023 Full Review Jared Mobarak Hey, Have You Seen ...? There’s a difference between being duty-bound to another and being bewitched by them. There’s also a difference between preserving the potential of love at its height and acting on it to discover its decline. There’s magic in the uncertainty of maybe. Rated: 10/10 Jul 11, 2025 Full Review Laney Gibbons Loud and Clear Reviews This cinematic achievement, which leaves a lasting effect on the spirit, reminds us of the tremendous depths of the human heart and the persistent appeal of what might have been. Rated: 4/5 Aug 3, 2024 Full Review Alan Jones Radio Times Sumptuously shot in tight corners, cramped corridors and tiny alleyways for maximum intimacy, the unspoken longing of the star-crossed lovers is both palpable and poignant, though the rushed ending somewhat undercuts the glorious build-up. Rated: 5/5 Jul 31, 2024 Full Review Read all reviews

Audience Reviews

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Osmin B Breathtakingly beautiful. Rated 5 out of 5 stars 07/13/25 Full Review Michael Deservedly called a masterpiece. Read the New Yorker review from 2023 which says it all. Rated 5 out of 5 stars 07/06/25 Full Review T W Rapturous, beautiful, haunting, and heart breaking. I could watch this a thousand times Rated 5 out of 5 stars 07/06/25 Full Review Spencer Nielsen My favorite movie. A film whose aesthetic qualities are so intoxicating, it is the purpose of the narrative. Rated 5 out of 5 stars 01/19/25 Full Review Alan W Indulge me and let me count the many ways I adore this film. Maggie Cheung in a series of breathtakingly gorgeous, perfectly tailored, floral Cheongsan. The claustrophobic setting of a 60s HK old-building corridors forcing our main characters to brush against each other as they pass from opposite directions. Lashings of brutally beautiful reds at the hotel where their clandestine meetings take place juxtaposing against the grey monotone concrete neighbourhood they live in. Wong Kar-Wai's deliberately withholding and opaque writing and eloquent and expressive directing combining cinematographers Christopher Doyle & Kwan Pun-Leung's sumptuous visual compositions with that haunting theme from Shigeru Umebayashi and Michael Galasso's score. Last but never least, those furtive looks and glances full of longings and non-verbalized passion from Cheung and Tony Leung, as the next-door neighbours who develop an uncontainable bond with each other as they discover the secret their respective spouses are hiding. As a director, Wong has never been better before or ever since. All his artistic temperament and shticks that can make his films impenetrable or alienating are perfectly deployed here to recount a lean and profoundly felt romance set in a 60s Hong Kong that's bathed in rose-tinted nostalgia. Watching this on a big screen a quarter of a century later, this remains up there, with the likes of Blade Runner, The Shawshank Redemption, Airplane! and La La Land, as a handful of films I'd consider cinematic perfection. Filed right next to Brief Encounter (which I only saw subsequently), there's nothing quite like a forbidden love left unacted upon to produce the greatest romantic film of my generation. Meanwhile, the 2001 short is a playful reunion that's slight but curious. Though I'm not ungrateful for it purporting to give us the happy ending we pine for. Or at least a version of it. Rated 5 out of 5 stars 07/22/25 Full Review Thomas C Beautifully shot and told. The ending is abrupt and didn’t match the slow deliberate pace of the rest of the film. The tightness of the living quarters in Hong Kong was brilliantly captured. Would have been better as a short film like a Novella. Rated 3 out of 5 stars 07/20/25 Full Review Read all reviews
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Movie Info

Synopsis In 1962, journalist Chow Mo-wan (Tony Leung Chiu Wai) and his wife move into a Hong Kong apartment, but Chow's spouse is often away on business. Before long, the lonely Chow makes the acquaintance of the alluring Su Li-zhen (Maggie Cheung Man-yuk), whose own significant other also seems preoccupied with work. As the two friends realize their respective partners are cheating on them, they begin to fall for one another; however, neither wants to stoop to the level of the unfaithful spouses.
Director
Kar-Wai Wong
Producer
William Chang
Screenwriter
Kar-Wai Wong
Distributor
USA Films
Production Co
Paradis Film, Jet Tone Productions, Block 2 Pictures
Rating
PG (Thematic Elements|Brief Language)
Genre
Romance, Drama
Original Language
Chinese
Release Date (Theaters)
Mar 9, 2001, Wide
Release Date (Streaming)
Oct 15, 2020
Box Office (Gross USA)
$535.2K
Runtime
1h 37m
Sound Mix
Dolby Stereo, Dolby Digital, Dolby A, Surround, Dolby SR
Aspect Ratio
Flat (1.66:1)
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