in the mood for wong kar wai

wong kar wai's movies slapped me on the face, hard enough for me to turn my shoulder at an angle against trash movies. since then, i promised that i will never watch one, unless its for free and there's good popcorn to compensate for the ugliness of the motion picture, MAYBE. 

in the mood for love was created by wong kar wai when he was in the midst of going nowhere with 'ashes of time'. he needed a break from the editing and the making of ashes of time so he said that he wanted to make this movie, an innocently happy/ free flick that i bet resonates his need at those moments. in such state, he was able to craft this movie to perfection– from the instrumentals that is bound to rouse intimate emotions to the plot and the cinematography, it is a packaged beauty. a beautiful movie for me is one where you cannot a single element that you can identify and thus, make it stand out from the rest of the facets of a film. a good movie is a good movie. it is always a mystery which one among the many facets of the motion picture appealed to you most. they must 'hang' together, so to speak. a good movie does not end with its 'running time,' the story lingers on, in you and with you. it makes you think, and makes you believe.

so, how is this movie beautiful again? the story is told not only by the lines of each character, moreover, by the lines that makes the characters. the way the shots were juxtaposed and thought out, it is impossible that you will not think the motives behind each shot. it made me think of the relevance of the hallways, of the night lamppost, of the alley leading to the noodle vendor, etc. etc. maybe you'll be able to really think of the difference between repetition and redundancy with the succession of scenes.  of course, the lighting, it augments every emotion meant to be conveyed.  and perhaps, it misleads you to the wrong assumptions. still, what i liked best in the movie, is how there are varied perspectives inculcated into the story.  just watch it! there are two ways for lust to happen– with a man's initiative and with a woman's. the plot shows the disparity with who initiates the intention. two perspectives, that yielded two different feelings as an audience. and yet in the end, who initiated does not matter.

ok! so i bet you did not understand a word that i typed out here because what i really want to say: maybe you should consider watching more films like this one.  you might wanna be slapped hard on the face too. after all, its worth it.