July 19th - Wong Kar-wai's "IN THE MOOD FOR LOVE"

A man. A woman. Both away from their marriages and their homes. Both lonely. Both with the feeling that their respective spouses are cheating on them, and this feeling, in a weird but understandable way, brings them together. Just how far will this misbegotten “friendship” go? The awkwardness of the whole thing is accentuated by having two otherwise good people in morally unsound positions. You may notice editing tricks the director has used to distort the perception of time. (Or not. You shall sense their effect all the same.) A beautiful film, one that makes us face the ambiguities of life, the grey areas through which we must sometimes tread.

About the director: Wong Kar-wai (b. 1958) is a Hong Kong-based filmmaker, now a regular on the art house circuit. His stylized, elegant films rarely make it big at the box office, an exception being AS TEARS GO BY (1988). IN THE MOOD FOR LOVE follows DAYS OF BEING WILD (1991) and precedes 2046 (2004) in a trilogy of sorts. He has had to work within a sometimes intrusive system, and had to shift the locations for this film when confronted with the whims of officialdom. His work has been honoured, most notably at Cannes (for HAPPY TOGETHER (1997), Best Director).