In the Mood for Love (2000)
Wong Kar-wai’s In the Mood for Love presents a painstakingly vivid story of love that grows out of two characters’ shared sorrow. Mr. Chow and Mrs. Chan enter a budding friendship when they discover their spouses are cheating on them with one another. With the absence of their respective partners and a desperate need to cope with the situation, the two main characters slowly gravitate toward each other aided by delicate chance encounters. Their collective pain leads to a beautiful relationship that ultimately ends in separation due to the characters’ adamant wish to not be like their own spouses and their conformation to social norms. Wong Kar-wai’s use of only diegetic sound with the exception of “Yumeji’s theme” highlights the moments where the theme does come into play. With the combination of mise-en-scène and cinematography that manipulates time and “Yumeji’s theme”, Wong brings the audience closer to the growing intimacy the characters experience. Additionally, the film sound marks the various stages of their love story and highlights the fleeting moments or opportunities the characters miss which eventually decides the course of it. For ease of understanding, this essay will refer to all scenes that employ “Yumeji’s theme” as ‘Yumeji scenes’.
The “Yumeji’s theme” is a ¾ Waltz for strings. Waltz, being known to be a partner dance, insinuates the budding romance between Mr Chow and Mrs Chan. Thus, using “Yumeji’s theme” throughout the convergence period of their love story, Wong hints at the necessity of each others’ support for the characters that leads up to their romance. The melancholy that the disjunct movement of minor chords insinuate, almost foreshadows the fate of their relationship. Yet, the theme also elicits a beautiful, wistful feeling that reflects the characters’ feelings toward each other. The instrumental only score further gives the impression of a self contained bubble around the characters, almost creating an emotional magnifying glass for the audience to observe them and the slightest of their movements. However, after the lovers’ separation, “Yumeji’s theme” is replaced by ‘quizas, quizas, quizas’ as the main score used in the following scenes. Literally translating to ‘perhaps, perhaps, perhaps’, the song marks the divergence of their love story. The song is played thrice pointing out the stages of their separation. Referring to the regrets they hold after the end of the relationship and the time times they missed the chance of meeting each other, both in Singapore and later when Mr Chow comes back to Hong Kong, the song embodies the sorrowful end of their love story. Since the audience get used to the “Yumeji’s theme” throughout the convergence period, it slowly becomes a marker for the budding romance. However, the audience realizes the true significance of “Yumeji’s theme” after Quizas takes its place as the only non-diegetic sound. It becomes almost jarring to not hear “Yumeji’s theme” anymore. Additionally, there is always some form of interaction between the character in every Yumeji scene, thus when Quizas replaces “Yumeji’s theme”, it leads to the dawning of the realization on the audience that the lovers might never meet again. The one final song we hear in the film is during the final Angkor Wat scene when Mr Chow whispers his secret in a hole in the wall and fills it with soil. This particular piece has never been heard before in the film. The introduction of a brand new musical piece marks the beginning of a new chapter in both their lives and the final end of their love story.
Wong takes “Yumeji’s theme” from Shigeru Umebayashi’s score for the 1991 film Yujemi by Seijun Suzuki and repurposes it in In the Mood for Love. Beyond the structure of the score itself, the technical use of the score accentuates its significance in the film. All diegetic sound drowns out when “Yumeji’s theme” begins to play. The melancholic theme follows a pattern of shots that mark the progression of their relationship especially highlighting missed opportunities that decide the fate of their affair. A common motif in all of Yumeji’s scenes is the use of slow motion. The slowed down motion of the characters brings attention to the smallest of movements or looks that the characters make. By slowing down the passage of time, Wong makes these moments excruciating, drawing attention to the miniscule differences in timing in which the two lovers miss one another. The slow motion pulls the audience away from realism, making them more observant as all other sound except “Yumeji’s theme” ceases. Thus, the audience can notice gestures and moments that even the characters do not. “Yumeji’s theme” interacts with the slow motion to make the audience feel these moments more intimately. The complete dominance of the theme in the Yumeji’s scenes, creates a self contained bubble around the characters that put them under the audience’s hyper attentive observation.
The film uses “Yumeji’s theme” a total of eight times. In all of these scenes, the only variation in the score is the length of the piece used. This strict usage of the same score over and over without any variations behaves against the norms of film scoring. The lack of variation in the score reflects a lack of difference in the magnitude of the effect that these missed opportunities have on their relationship. In the noodle shop scene, the characters physically miss each other by a few moments. In the mirror scene with “Yumeji’s theme”, however, Mrs. Chan looks at Mr. Chow and smiles. As soon as she looks back down again, Mr. Chow looks up at her. Even though they sit next to each other, they miss each others’ loving glances. The use of the same theme in the two scenes eliminates a difference in the degree in which these two missed encounters affect their relationship. Thus, the repeating score sends the message that it is these little moments that form a relationship; the little glances affect the relationship at the same level as physical interactions.
The first time the film introduces “Yumeji’s theme” is at the mahjong table. Mrs. Chan walks into the room followed by Mrs. Chow. Almost immediately after, Mr. Chow leaves the room and the camera pans to follow his movement away from Mrs. Chan. The pan to the right, being the only camera movement in the scene, establishes Mr. Chow as a main character. The fact that he leaves the room without really interacting with Mrs. Chan is marked as a starting point of their relationship. As both Mr. Chan’s and Mrs. Chow’s faces are never revealed, the slow motion in the scene acts as an aid for the audience to understand the scene. The motif of chance encounters is established here, the miniscule difference in timing with which they run into each other, even for a second. The mise-en-scène of the scene accentuates the feeling of the audience being an outside observer. The room is visible only through the narrow doorway, establishing the audience an observer looking upon the scene from a distance. The addition of the score in the scene further takes the audience away from the world of the cinema, making them notice events that the characters are unaware of.
The second time the theme is used is at the noodle shop. The scene is set up after the audience is made aware of their individual deteriorating marriage lives. The noodle shop scene features “Yumeji’s theme” for the longest duration since the scene focuses on both characters separately. First, Mrs. Chan walks down to the noodle shop. Through the low angled, medium-long shot, she stands above everyone else, secluded and alone in a crowd. Similarly, after she leaves, Mr. Chow walks in, and in a tight medium close up shot, he eats alone. The shot accentuates his forlorn expression as he eats secluded from everyone else. By the end of the theme playing, they finally run into each other on a different day (indicated through Mrs. Chan’s quipo) and simply greet each other. This begins their interactions on a one-to-one basis. The third “Yumeji’s theme” also takes place at the noodle shop.However, the lovers meet almost as soon as the theme commences and acknowledge each other before going on their way. As the rain starts, though both take shelter in the same noodle shop area, they do not interact. Yet, the camera angle for Mrs. Chan is eye level and though she is still by herself, the angle suggests that she is a part of the setting, rather than completely secluded.
The fourth Yumeji’s scene marks the new stage of their relationship where they are much more connected to one another through the sorrow of establishing their spouses’ infidelity. The scene even starts with the characters in close proximity, both to each other and the camera. The scene starts with both a tight framing of medium close up with Mrs. Chan looking in the distance and then at Mr. Chow and then she leaves. Mr. Chow, however, continues looking at Mrs. Chan until she leaves and does not move until the scene ends. Their physical stances, thus, foreshadow their eventual decisions where Mr Chow is firm with his feelings for her and wants her to leave her husband and come with him, yet her conflicted mind does not allow her to simply give in. Both characters show hesitation and conflict in their expressions as they know they are forming a relationship that is not ideal. The fifth Yumeji’s scene again marks the next important stage of their relationship. They have moved on from basing their friendship on the shared sorrow to something that they solely share: the martial arts illustrations. They both are seen working on the martial arts illustrations through the doorways and curtains to magnify the seriousness with which they are working on them as the audience is again put in a distant observer’s position. The scene proceeds to the two reading them together, as the hesitation and conflict from the fourth Yumeji scene gets replaced with happiness and comfort.
The sixth Yumeji scene establishes a crucial setting in their relationship; the hotel room. The hotel room, as the story progresses, becomes their safe haven where they can spend time together without the society’s and even their own judgements. It is the hotel room where she can leave her worries and let herself fall deeper in a happier relationship. This one scene packs in multiple beautiful moments of their relationship. The Yumeji scene starts with the camera tracking back as Mrs Chan walks away, alone in the hallway right after saying “we won’t be like them”. The camera movement almost elongates the space, thus, creating a separation between the words she said and the hotel room. The rest of the scene is almost entirely seen through mirrors and window panes, making the audience a close observer but not a part of their haven. Even the audience is not allowed to enter the bubble they have created. The scene also highlights those missed glances the characters make toward each other, that the audience sees even though the lovers do not. In one of the shots, they miss each others’ loving glances by a second. In another, she is seen singing intently while Mr Chow lovingly smiles at her while keeping the beat. Wong provides only snippets of such moments to make the audience, like the rest of the society, feel like an outsider which is heightened by the use of mirror reflections. Thus, Wong firmly establishes the hotel room as only the lovers’ space.
The seventh Yumeji scene brings the characters out of their bubble and back in the society that resists their love. After Mrs. Suen confronts Mrs. Chan, she decided they shouldn’t meet so often. The scene starts at the mahjong table as the camera is positioned through the doorway, similar to the first time they met. Both Mr. Chow and Mrs. Chan, in different settings, smile toward their respective friends and walk away with a solemn expression looking in the distance. The scene draws parallels between their common desire to be together yet the need to conform to society’s constraints. Thus, the scene marks the start of the slow separation between them caused by the reminder of social norms in the form of Mrs. Suen’s confrontation.
Music used in the film marks the stages of their relationship. When Mr Chow and Mrs Chan are progressing towards each other, “Yumeji’s theme” takes monopoly as the only score used throughout their relationship till they separate. The final Yumeji scene is used is the cab scene when they both have mutually realized that their relationship can progress no further. The scene begins with Mrs. Chan crying bitterly on Mr. Chow’s shoulder as he tries to comfort her with the camera tracking from behind a barred window. The mise-en-scène gives the illusion that the lovers themselves are trapped behind the societal etiquette that they have to follow. The scene cuts to them riding in the cab together where Mrs Chan says “I don’t want to go home tonight” as they drive away with her head on his shoulder and a close up of them tightly holding hands. The close up helps present the evolution of their relationship from when Mrs. Chan removed her hand away from Mr. Chow’s in an earlier cab scene to now when they have fallen in love with each other. This is also the only Yumeji scene that doesn’t employ slow motion, indicating a clear separation point from the previous usage of the theme. The first seven scenes with “Yumeji’s theme” work towards highlighting a convergence between the two lovers. Their romance starting from their first encounter at the mahjong table to their interactions in the noodle shop to their intimacy in the mirror scene. However, the final Yumeji scene in the cab is the starting point of divergence in their relationship. The lack of slow motion thus, in the last Yumeji scene stands out to the audience. Even though the scene is shot in real time 24 fps, it feels faster to the audience, making them realize the fleeting time the lovers have left together and the melancholy that accompanies it.
In the noodle shop scene where “Yumeji’s theme” comes into play, the shot contains an ellipsis of time. The use of the same score combined with the manipulation of time (understood almost solely by Mrs Chan’s quipo) in the same shot makes it difficult for the audience to follow the narrative of the film. This confusion draws their attention to the feeling or ‘mood’ of their love, which is assisted by the use of slow motion. The audience are shown the emotions or loving moments between the characters and due to the slow passage of time the audience stay with them for longer. Wong intentionally breaks the constraints of transparent film making, taking the film away from linear narrative structure to heighten the emotions felt by the characters in these scenes. Using the ellipsis of time to show different moments in the same shot, distinguished only by the quipos, the shot brings forward the missed encounters that could have contributed to their growing intimacy. Wong bestows the task of filling these gaps in the narrative to the audience, who in turn retroactively construct the film and the significance of “Yumeji’s theme”. The audience thus, get surrounded in a larger bubble as they, similar to the characters themselves, put together the bits and pieces that Wong provides to make a larger sense of the narrative. This is essentially due to the restricted narrative of the film, the audience’s knowledge is mostly restricted to the respective characters. As the film progresses, the narrative slowly comes together, as the audience start to give in to just experiencing the emotions and ‘mood’ of the film.
The “Yumeji’s theme” is a ¾ Waltz for strings. Waltz, being known to be a partner dance, insinuates the budding romance between Mr Chow and Mrs Chan. Thus, using “Yumeji’s theme” throughout the convergence period of their love story, Wong hints at the necessity of each others’ support for the characters that leads up to their romance. The melancholy that the disjunct movement of minor chords insinuate, almost foreshadows the fate of their relationship. Yet, the theme also elicits a beautiful, wistful feeling that reflects the characters’ feelings toward each other. The instrumental only score further gives the impression of a self contained bubble around the characters, almost creating an emotional magnifying glass for the audience to observe them and the slightest of their movements. However, after the lovers’ separation, “Yumeji’s theme” is replaced by ‘quizas, quizas, quizas’ as the main score used in the following scenes. Literally translating to ‘perhaps, perhaps, perhaps’, the song marks the divergence of their love story. The song is played thrice pointing out the stages of their separation. Referring to the regrets they hold after the end of the relationship and the time times they missed the chance of meeting each other, both in Singapore and later when Mr Chow comes back to Hong Kong, the song embodies the sorrowful end of their love story. Since the audience get used to the “Yumeji’s theme” throughout the convergence period, it slowly becomes a marker for the budding romance. However, the audience realizes the true significance of “Yumeji’s theme” after Quizas takes its place as the only non-diegetic sound. It becomes almost jarring to not hear “Yumeji’s theme” anymore. Additionally, there is always some form of interaction between the character in every Yumeji scene, thus when Quizas replaces “Yumeji’s theme”, it leads to the dawning of the realization on the audience that the lovers might never meet again. The one final song we hear in the film is during the final Angkor Wat scene when Mr Chow whispers his secret in a hole in the wall and fills it with soil. This particular piece has never been heard before in the film. The introduction of a brand new musical piece marks the beginning of a new chapter in both their lives and the final end of their love story.
Wong connects the audience to the characters by the use of music. Though the narrative itself is designed to confuse the audience, the music marks the different stages of their relationship to guide the audience. The use of the same score, in turn, brings attention to the lovers’ expressions and smallest of actions that accumulate to decide the course of their relationship. The slow motion, the music, the mise-en-scène all come together to make the audience the prime observer as they notice things that no one in the film does, bringing them closer to the lovers. Though Wong forms a bubble around the characters, he succeeds in creating a bigger bubble around the audience as they become increasingly invested in the lovers’ relationship. In In the Mood for Love, music rises above the narrative and brings forth the mood of their love.
Works Cited
Kar-wai, Wong, director. In the Mood for Love. USA films, 2000.