In the Mood for Love 2000
Wong Kar-wai wrote, produced, and directed it; it premiered at the 2000 Cannes Film Festival and reached U.S. theaters in March 2001. Set in Hong Kong in 1962, it follows two married neighbors (Maggie Cheung and Tony Leung) who realize their absent spouses are having an affair with each other, and who circle their own feelings through rehearsed, role-played conversations without ever consummating anything. The hosts dwell on the color and composition (characters framed by hallways, doorways, windows, and Cheung's cheongsams), the 98-minute runtime that deliberately feels long, Yumeji's Theme, and Nat King Cole's Spanish recordings including 'Quizas, Quizas, Quizas.' Shot over 15 months and largely improvised, with cinematography by Christopher Doyle (who left mid-production) and Ping Bin Lee, and editing, production design, and costumes all by William Chang Suk Ping. It ends at Angkor Wat, where Leung whispers his secret into a hole in a wall. Amanda calls it the reason they didn't need Lost in Translation on the list; Sean argues it's one of the most influential films of the century, felt in watch and perfume commercials as much as in arthouse filmmaking. Tony Leung won Best Actor at Cannes; Hong Kong submitted it for the Best Foreign Language Film Oscar but the Academy didn't nominate it. No. 4 on the New York Times' century list, 87 on Metacritic, and three stars from Roger Ebert.