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In The Mood For Love Blu-ray Review

“In The Mood For Love” is Wong Kar-wai’s best film.

In the film buff world, you’ll often hear “In The Mood For Love” being cited as one of the best films of the past 12 years. While I wouldn’t go that far personally, it’s still undeniably a stand-out film about love, marriage, loneliness, and regret.

Taking place in Hong Kong, 1962, ‘Mood’ revolves around two neighbors named Mr. Chow and Su (AKA Mrs. Chan). Mr. Chow is a hard working married man whose wife always seems to work long hours while Su is a kind, quiet woman whose husband is constantly off on business trips. With the two being home alone so often, Mr. Chow and Su start to develop a friendship while also beginning to suspect their significant others of cheating on them. As their friendship grows, it becomes evident that Mr. Chow and Su are clearly perfect for each other and yet they don’t want to be unfaithful to their spouses. Moreover, they are clearly afraid to act on their true feelings.

“In The Mood For Love” is the definition of an art film. It’s an entirely character driven piece with very little action, symbolic repetition, and plenty of dialogue free scenes to boot. It’s a tightly paced film of raw emotion that moves briskly through time. Don’t expect any happy endings here as Wong Kar-wai’s screenplay is focused on showing the stark reality of tragic marriages and an even more tragic friendship that SHOULD blossom into something more. It’s a haunting and rough film to be sure, but it’s a treasured cinematic treat for many serious film fanatics out there.

Video/Audio:

Director Wong Kar-wai’s keen sense of style really shines in the 1.66:1 1080p format. The colors of the dresses, cigarette smoke, and use of red really show how good this hi-def upgrade is when compared to past releases.

The 5.1 DTS-HD audio track does a fine job of handling everything from the soft dialogue deliveries to the haunting music cues.

Extras:
* A thick booklet containing an essay by author Steve Erickson and a story called “Intersection” by Liu Yi-Chang that inspired Wong Kar-wai.
* 4 deleted scenes with optional commentary by Wong Kar-wai.
* A Hong Kong TV spot, a U.S. TV spot, a French TV spot, a Hong Kong trailer, a U.S. trailer and a French trailer.
* An interview with critic Tony Rayns about the soundtrack with the option to play 12 music cues.
* “On In The Mood For Love”- Critic Tony Rayns chats about the visual style, Wong Kar-wai’s work, the themes, the setting, etc.
* “Toronto International Film Festival”- Robert Gray moderates this Q&A with Maggie Cheung Man-yuk and Tony Leung Chiu-wal from the film fest back in 2000.
* “Wong Kar-Wai”- Film critic Michael Ciment and director Hubert Niogret interview Wong Kar-wai.
* “Cinema Lesson”- Wong Kar-wai talks about his style of film-making at the Cannes Film Festival.
* “Huayang De Nian Hua”- A 2000 short film tribute to Chinese cinema by Wong Kar-wai.
* “@ In The Mood For Love”- An in-depth making of documentary that shows Wong Kar-wai in action and how he makes a movie.

October 12, 2012 - Posted by nicklyons1 | Blu-Ray review | In The Mood For Love Blu-ray Review, In The Mood For Love Criterion Blu-ray, Wong Kar-wai