In the Mood for Love | Unsolvable True Love Proposition

Sherman 2022-04-20 09:01:37

Text | Xin Jianghu

the road of love
always so tortuous

I always thought Wong Kar Wai was a director without a pattern.

For 25 years, he has always told a story of emotional dislocation. "The Grandmaster" seems to have a much larger layout, but with the proportion of Gong Er's strong ink and color, Ye Wen has not been able to step out of the border of love between children and children.

So To Qifeng said: Wong Kar Wai actually only made one movie, and that is "The True Story of A Fei".

From the perspective of pattern theory alone, Wang Shuo in sunglasses is explaining the world with "love". His "ego" style is distinct and rare in the world, so Ang Lee is so jealous, Quentin is very fascinated, but it is this "ego" that makes him suffer too much hypocritical criticism.

one

After reading "In the Mood for Love" again, I found that there was a big misunderstanding of Wong Kar-wai's pattern.

This Shanghai-born man, his light and shadow world is not just as simple as you and me. Although "In the Mood for Love" is a small story, it shows the emotional trajectory of the big era behind it.

This story is very thin, too thin to support 90 minutes of film language expression, so Zhang Shuping almost made it into a cheongsam movie.

Maggie Cheung came to invite Tingting, and every gesture was full of style. The change of the color of the cheongsam was not only an expression of the character's heart, but its tight-fitting nature also symbolized the inevitable emotional bondage of that era.

And the bright and dark alleys are suddenly rainy and sunny, the old street lamps are very lonely, the dense smoke circles are full of loneliness, the love is about to come out between the eyebrows, and the emotional depression stops when the music starts.

The most absolute thing is those two lines of dialogue.

If there is one more ticket, will you go with me? If there is one more ticket, will you take me with you?

In the Mood for Love, nothing beats it.

The story of the film is inspired by Liu Yichang's "Flip Up" written in 1975. The structure of the novel is inspired by the double stamps with one positive and one negative. Its theme is four words: pass by.

Liu Yichang's works focus on "wiping the body". The hero and heroine in his works are an old man who burns the past and a young girl who fantasizes about the future.

Under the double-line pattern, the intersection of the two people's lives was just watching a movie as strangers in the theater.

And Wong Kar-wai's creation of "In the Mood for Love" perfectly interprets the feeling of "love" that is both brushed and missed.

Su Lizhen and Zhou Muyun went from the embarrassment of the same illness to each other, to the lingering affection for each other, and then to the regret of forgetting each other in the rivers and lakes.

two

In the 1960s and 1970s, Hong Kong's economy was taking off. Under this internal and external conflict, marriage and emotional conflicts quietly intensified.

The story of In the Mood for Love begins with betrayal, which is brought out by a rice cooker, which is Wong Kar-wai's thread to discuss marriage issues.

The rice cooker is a symbolic representative of the technological era. Its appearance liberates the hands used for cooking. When the behavior is liberated, it will inevitably affect the change of thinking.

In 1948, the heroine of Fei Mu's "Spring in a Small Town" could only buy vegetables and embroider; in 1962, Su Lizhen was a secretary of a company, and women were supporting the half of the sky that belonged to them.

In the movie, Su Lizhen and Mrs. Zhou are not housewives in the traditional sense, but are special groups who have independent jobs and struggle between old and new ideas.

The development of the times gives freedom to marriage and provides fertile ground for the breeding of extramarital affairs.

Another meaning of the rice cooker is to add a bit of fireworks to this gorgeous and hypocritical story. If there are fireworks, there is reality. Wong Kar-wai is good at nihilistic mood, but the story must have a real foundation after all.

The story begins in Hong Kong in 1962 and ends in Cambodia in 1966.

In 1966, General Charles de Gaulle visited Cambodia and an era of colonization came to an end. As a witness to this history, Zhou Muyun is by no means an individual. "It was an embarrassing relativity" at the beginning of the film and "those years gone by" at the end of the film are completely taken from the original text of "Flip Up". Liu Yichang wrote about the times, and Wong Kar-wai also shot the times.

What he wants to map is the emotional crux of the Hong Kong generation in the 1960s.

The King of Sunglasses is not without a pattern, but is hidden deeply.

three

No matter how many versions there have been before, "In the Mood for Love" ultimately presents a serious story.

It begins with betrayal and ends with regret, but behind it is a necessity.

The two who were cheating parties did not appear in the movie from beginning to end, but there are signs that they are not happy because traditional ethics will make them feel guilty; and the two who were cheated are obviously also very miserable, their values ​​are in Weighing "right and wrong" and trying to role-play the reasons for betrayal.

The two couples are coerced by embarrassing emotions, and then they go to discuss the problem of marriage.

Zhou Muyun said: I spend a lot of time on my own, I can do whatever I want. It's different when I get married. There are many things that I can't do alone.

Su Lizhen said: I never thought that marriage was so complicated before. If you are alone, it is enough to do well by yourself, but when two people are together, it is not enough to do well by yourself.

If love is staring at each other, then marriage is more about balance. When the passion fades, what two people need to do is to look in the same direction.

Su Lizhen in the movie is stubborn, she said to Zhou Muyun: We will not be like them. But judging from the clues given by Wong Kar Wai, it is clear that the two people, both mentally and physically, have come together.

Love is something that can never be hidden.

But why not be wrong?

In the general environment, the times are harsh on extramarital affairs. Su Lizhen's values ​​do not allow her to challenge traditional ethics to the end. She is a self-respecting person. The landlord Sun Tai reminded her that the eyes of people around her shocked her.

On the other hand, there is uncertainty on the road to love.

When Zhou Muyun said: If there is one more ticket, will you go with me... He actually prepared two tickets, and when he walked out of 2046, time seemed to stand still, but he did not wait for the person to wait; while Su Lizhen was in a hurry Came here and said: If you have another ticket, would you like to take me with you, she actually bought her own ticket.

This is the "passing by" in Wong Kar-wai's lens.

wantonly

When Su Lizhen later went to Singapore, she left a lipstick mark in Zhou's room and took her embroidered slippers. The phone rang three times and they didn't speak to each other.

This is the second miss.

If the first time missed was a helpless coincidence, then this time it was Su Lizhen's artificiality.

In 1995, Dongmu filmed "The Last Dream of the Covered Bridge". Francesca, played by Aunt Mei, met true love in marriage. She was so tangled, and finally chose to return to the family. Because she knows: love is an elusive feeling, and once you stay together, it will disappear.

Obviously, after two years of precipitation, Su Lizhen understands this very well. Perhaps, loss is the best destination for love.

Because you can always remember.

At the end of the movie, Su Lizhen returned to the place where she met Zhou Muyun, and re-rented Mrs. Sun's house. Zhou Muyun came to visit Mr. Gu. He stopped at Su Lizhen's door and didn't knock because he didn't know it.

This is the ending of forgetting each other in the rivers and lakes.

However, judging from the sequel "2046", Zhou Muyun never got out of the shackles of this relationship in his life.

Wu

A century ago, Bernard Shaw said: If you want to get married, get married, if you want to be single, you will be single. Anyway, you will regret it in the end.

It seems like a joke, but it's in a sentence.

Because life is uncontrollable, it is full of various regrets, and the road to love is always tortuous. Love is a feeling that some people can't meet in their entire lives. Even if they have it, keeping it fresh is a huge problem.

It's not just about marriage, it's about love. What "In the Mood for Love" portrays is this feeling of "love".

In the mainland in 1948, the extramarital affair of "Spring in a Small Town" was about estrus, but ended with rituals; in 1962, in Hong Kong, "In the Mood for Love" cheated in both directions, but passed by gracefully; and now, we let marriage be free, because the second It's also beautiful...

This is the era, and this is the emotional trajectory of the era.

In Wong Kar Wai's film, Ah Fei is lost, He Zhiwu is lost, Zhou Muyun is lost, Hong Kong in that era is lost...

In fact, we are all lost in the emotional world...

Because there are two kinds of regrets in this world, one is for lovers to get married, and the other is for lovers to pass by.

To miss is a proposition that we will face all our lives.

A sparrow flew from a distance and stood on a drying rack. After a while, another sparrow flew from a distance and stood on the drying rack. It looks at it, it looks at it. Then two sparrows flew at the same time, one to the east and one to the west.

This is "Falling".

This is "In the Mood for Love".

this is life.

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Extended Reading

In the Mood for Love quotes

  • Chow Mo-wan: It's me. If there's an extra ticket... would you go with me?

    Su Li-zhen Chan: It's me. If there's an extra ticket... would you go with me?

  • Su Li-zhen Chan: Am I hopeless?

    Chow Mo-wan: Not really.