IN THE MOOD FOR LOVE

wong kar wai
Originally uploaded by rustedrare.

As usual, Wong Kar Wai has pulled me into his film; like all of his work, I couldn't walk away. The imagery is so strong. Wai uses shallow focus in the foreground a lot; it shows the characters sense of confusion. Vertical lines are also rampant in the foreground, and the two main characters are framed exactly the same. In one scene, Wai puts Leung's character, Chow, in a mirror and Chan (Maggie Cheung) in the same frame, both characters are looking to the right with a lamp over their head; It is easily a motif of parallel lives feeding off of each other at horrible times; people who are put in each other's paths to help each other into a happier realm without even carrying on together.