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Stars indicate the most critically-acclaimed movies.
In the Mood for Love
Universal acclaim
Based on 27 critic reviews
How did we calculate this?
Based on 28 votes
Read user comments
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Movie Info
Genre(s): Romance
Written by: Wong Kar-Wai
Directed by: Wong Kar-Wai
Release Date:
Theatrical: February 2, 2001
DVD: February 26, 2002
Running Time: 90 minutes, Color
Origin: France / Hong Kong
Language(s): Cantonese (with English subtitles)
Summary
RATING: PG for thematic elements and brief language
Starring Tony Leung Chiu Wai, Maggie Cheung, Lai Chen, Tung Cho 'Joe' Cheung, Ping Lam Siu, and Rebecca Pan
Chow Mo-wan rents a room in a Hong Kong apartment building. It's sheer coincidence that he moves in the same day that Su Li-zhen moves in next door. They never have a real conversation until Mr. Chow realizes that their respective spouses are having an affair. This discovery shocks both of them. Mr. Chow, feeling hurt and wishing to understand how the affair happened, begins finding excuses to spend time with Mrs. Chan. (USA Films)
Also On Metacritic
FILM: 2046 Ashes of Time Redux Days of Being Wild Eros Fallen Angels Happy Together
Also On The Web: Internet Movie Database Official Studio Site
What The Critics Said
All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...
The New York Times A.O. Scott
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.
Read Full Review >Philadelphia Inquirer Steven Rea
A feast for the eyes and succor for the soul.
New York Post Jonathan Foreman
Rapturously elegant and deeply sexy in a deliciously restrained way. One of the most romantic movies I have ever seen, right up there with "Brief Encounter"and "Casablanca."
Wall Street Journal Joe Morgenstern
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.
Seattle Post-Intelligencer Sean Axmaker
There may be no more sensual director in the world today than Hong Kong's Wong Kar-Wai.
Read Full Review >Film.com Peter Brunette
It's a masterpiece, a sublime tone poem that shows what cinema is capable of when it tries to do more than just tell a story.
Read Full Review >Mr. Showbiz Michael Atkinson
Her (Cheung) gorgeously sad face and slow, lithe frame are the movie's hammer and chisel. One shot of her walking away from a rented room down a hallway is, all by itself, twice the movie of anything else currently in theaters.
Los Angeles Times Kenneth Turan
The result is a kind of ultimate romantic film, joining an almost Jamesian sadness and discipline to that extraordinary visual sensibility. It's not the kind of thing you see every day.
Read Full Review >Village Voice J. Hoberman
A wondrously perverse movie that not only evokes a lost moment in time but circles around an unrepresentable subject. Mood is the operative word. A love story far more cerebral than it is emotional.
Read Full Review >LA Weekly Manohla Dargis
It is undeniable in its poignancy, an ecstatic vision of what might have been, though as much for its story as for the fact that the whole thing dissolves like a paper fan in rain, an evanescent masterwork.
Read Full Review >Salon.com Stephanie Zacharek
Smolders with more reserved passion than "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon."
Read Full Review >Rolling Stone Peter Travers
The film is alive with delicacy and feeling...It's a beauty.
Read Full Review >Time Richard Corliss
This enthralling, enigmatic, romantic drama from Asia's most influential auteur (Chungking Express) is an essay in appetite and inhibition.
Read Full Review >Baltimore Sun Chris Kaltenbach
All about mood, and not one bit about action - which explains why it's at once both the most passionate film of the year so far, and the most determinedly inert.
New York Daily News Jack Mathews
A love story told from the point of impact, at the heart, and no conventional resolution could be more profound.
Read Full Review >Entertainment Weekly Lisa Schwarzbaum
Although In the Mood for Love isn't in the mood for action, it dazzles with everything but.
Read Full Review >TV Guide Ken Fox
It's extraordinarily sexy: The atmosphere is all cigarette smoke and Nat King Cole songs, silk suits and tight sheath dresses.
Read Full Review >Dallas Observer Andy Klein
Wong weaves a spell that no other director could create.
Read Full Review >Austin Chronicle Marjorie Baumgarten
A stylistic tour de force, one that wordlessly emotes and wears its emotions on its literal silk sleeves.
Read Full Review >San Francisco Chronicle Edward Guthmann
Wong denies us the satisfaction of resolution, but in sharing his mastery of cinema, and his gift for conveying mood, desire and vivid emotions, he's more than generous.
Read Full Review >Chicago Tribune Michael Wilmington
Shimmers and glows. But it also stings a little -- like the lovely flame that dies and the smoke that, in yet another Cole song, gets in your eyes.
Chicago Sun-Times Roger Ebert
The most ingenious device in the story is the way Chow and Su play-act imaginary scenes between their cheating spouses.
Read Full Review >Christian Science Monitor David Sterritt
The story gains most of its dramatic impact from superbly understated acting and Christopher Doyle's atmospheric camera work.
Read Full Review >Miami Herald Rene Rodriguez
A dreamy, ravishing ode to romantic longing, and it is bound to frustrate people who like their movies to get to the point, or at the very least have one.
New York Magazine Peter Rainer
In the Mood for Love has novelty value, I suppose, and plenty of pretty camera moves, but it's not really a movie you can warm to.
Read Full Review >USA Today Mike Clark
A stylistically fastidious, exasperatingly affected package that will put most people in the mood for slumber.
Read Full Review >What Our Users Said
The average user rating for this movie is 8.7 (out of 10) based on 28 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.
Adam B. gave it a9:
This movie looks really nice. If you like movies that look nice. You should try looking at the screen when this movie is playing. Some cool smoky shots with some nifty fifties dresses. It is basically Lost in Translation's Dad. Sofia Coppola owes quite a bit of debt to the Wong Kar Wai.
R G gave it a10:
there is no director like wong kar wai who in every movie explores the stale and done state of love. but somehow he makes this theme more beautiful every movie and this movie is the pinecale of films about love. there is no sure way to describe this movie to someone because of the seemingly thin plot and its experience. somehow one has to create their own definition to be engaged with it. the details that every shot contains begs multiple viewings and the cinematic response to the repeated settings and music is something of an awe experience. hands down one of the best movies of the new mellenium.
David H. gave it a10:
Moving, erotic and beautiful. I haven't enjoyed a film so much in a long long time. The abstract ending just about gets away with it. The male lead is particularly compelling, the soundtrack is superb and and the photography is beautifully grainy and organic (DEATH TO DIGITAL PHOTOGRAPHY).
Fikret gave it a3:
I guess my challange is to try to understand why there are so many people who fell in love with this movie. No plot, meaningless scenes (Cambodia scenes), slow, and a stupid ending. I can't resist but ask the questions: is it the romantic music that made people love this movie? or do they just think that they're supposed to love this movie like we were told to find the "Mona Lisa smile" amazing?
John gave it a10:
An absolutely spectacular movie, one of the very best films of the 2000s... (I wish I could say the same for 2046, which was so unexpectedly awful I still can't believe (apart from the visual style and casting) was the same director)... Still, In the Mood for Love is one of the most hauntingly romantic movies I have ever seen. It's a genuine masterpiece and can be appreciated by anyone... without ADD.
Keaton K. gave it a10:
Wong's peerless masterpiece, this film is a harrowingly romantic and lyrical meditation on unrequited love, memory, and repression.
J.C. gave it a1:
Nothing happens. This is not a good thing. Everything is completely repetitive to the point of mind-numbing boredom, even the music (which was nice at first) repeats until its annoying. Do people really like this movie or do they just think they're supposed to?
