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Stars indicate the most critically-acclaimed movies.

In the Mood for Love
USA Films


8.6

based on 27 reviews
Read critic reviews
How did we calculate this?

based on 25 votes
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FILM:

MPAA 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)

GENRE(S):	Romance
WRITTEN BY:	Wong Kar-Wai
DIRECTED BY:	Wong Kar-Wai
RELEASE DATE:	DVD: February 26, 2002 Video: July 31, 2001 Theatrical: February 2, 2001
RUNNING TIME:	90 minutes, Color
ORIGIN:	France / Hong Kong
LANGUAGE(S):	Cantonese (with English subtitles)

Original title "Hua yang nian hua"

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...

100

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.

100

Philadelphia Inquirer Steven Rea

A feast for the eyes and succor for the soul.

100

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."

100

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.

100

Seattle Post-Intelligencer Sean Axmaker

There may be no more sensual director in the world today than Hong Kong's Wong Kar-Wai.

Washington Post Desson Thomson

The sexiest movie of the year.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Salon.com Stephanie Zacharek

Smolders with more reserved passion than "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon."

Rolling Stone Peter Travers

The film is alive with delicacy and feeling...It's a beauty.

Time Richard Corliss

This enthralling, enigmatic, romantic drama from Asia's most influential auteur (Chungking Express) is an essay in appetite and inhibition.

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.

Entertainment Weekly Lisa Schwarzbaum

Although In the Mood for Love isn't in the mood for action, it dazzles with everything but.

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.

Dallas Observer Andy Klein

Wong weaves a spell that no other director could create.

Austin Chronicle Marjorie Baumgarten

A stylistic tour de force, one that wordlessly emotes and wears its emotions on its literal silk sleeves.

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.

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.

Christian Science Monitor David Sterritt

The story gains most of its dramatic impact from superbly understated acting and Christopher Doyle's atmospheric camera work.

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.

USA Today Mike Clark

A stylistically fastidious, exasperatingly affected package that will put most people in the mood for slumber.

The average user rating for this movie is 8.6 (out of 10) based on 25 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.

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?

Paula W. gave it a10:
Stylish and full of exquisite feeling, this film is ninety minutes of pure, distilled longing.

In the Mood for Love USA Films

In the Mood for Love
USA Films