In
The Mood For Love
is one of two films Hong Kong auteur Wong
Kar-wai has recently completed shooting in
Thailand. The movie features Tony Leung Chi-wai
(Happy Together) and Maggie
Cheung (Comrades, Almost A Love Story)
in a story about a man and a woman trying
to track down the infidelities of their respective
spouses.
The
crew consists of Wong regular Chris Doyle
behind the camera (although he only shot half
of the film) and art director/editor William
Chang. Locked in the editing room (as usual)
right up to the last minute, Wong still found
time to discuss the movie with Moving Pictures.
MP:
What can you tell us about the plot of In
The Mood For Love?
WK-W: The film happens in 1962 in Hong
Kong. Maggie and Tony are neighbours. They
are both married and somehow they discover
that both their spouses are having affairs.
The film shows them trying to
find out how the affairs started. It's a different
kind of film for me. The characters are more
mature it's the first time I've touched
on marriage, for instance.
MP: Days Of Being Wild
was also set in the 1960s. Why did you return
to that period?
WK-W: I am fond of that period, although
at that time I was very
young.
This movie is about rumours, lies and gossip
and there was a lot of that in Hong
Kong communities at that time. In the 1960s,
we still had neighbours that we knew and talked
to. We don't now. [Wong was born in Shanghai
in 1958, and his family moved to Hong Kong.]
We
set the film in a Shanghainese community where
everybody knew everybody else. The people
want to appear very decent and they try to
cover up the dark side of life. My two protagonists,
Tony and Maggie, have to pretend that nothing
has happened. But they are in pain all the
time.
MP: Were you influenced by the Hong
Kong "family" films of the 1960s? They often
had people covering up secrets...
WK-W: No, I was more influenced by
my own experiences. As a kid, I always saw
my uncle and aunts looking very decent. Then
we would hear our parents gossiping about
them. One reason that I was attracted to this
story was because I wanted to rebuild that
kind of atmosphere.
MP: There aren't many old buildings
left in Hong Kong. Is that why you shot in
Thailand?
WK-W: Yes. It's very difficult to find
1960s locations in Hong Kong. I was making
another film, 2046, in Bangkok, and I realised
that we could recreate 1960s Hong Kong there.
We also went to Cambodia there are
a few scenes at the end shot at Angkor Wat.
MP: With Happy Together,
you shot Buenos Aires as if you were shooting
Hong Kong. You ignored the city's stately
Latin look in favour of small alleys. But
here, obviously, you were using Bangkok as
an actual stand-in.
WK-W: Yes, in Happy Together,
we were trying to create a Hong Kong in Argentina,
and I wanted the audience to notice that that
was what we were doing. But this time, we
have to convince people that Bangkok actually
is Hong Kong.
MP: From the synopsis, it sounds as
if the story demands a firmer structure than
your usual work. You usually construct the
story in the editing room, but I guess that
would be more difficult here.
WK-W: Yes, there is more of a story
structure for us to edit this time. There
is a stronger, more defined storyline than
there is in my other films. We are trying
to do something very melodramatic, although
we
still want to make it interesting.
MP: What did you and cinematographer
Chris Doyle come up with for the look of the
picture this time? Any wide-angle experiments
like in Fallen Angels? Or upside-down
shots like in Happy Together?
WK-W: It's different. We tried to make
the film look very classical. There are no
hand-held cameras, which is something new.
Chris finished half the film, but he had another
obligation, so I used another cameraman to
finish it.
MP: Was it difficult shooting 2046
and In The Mood For Love together?
WK-W: Yes, it was like falling in love
with two women. When we were looking for locations
for 2046, I kept thinking, oh, that would
be good for In The Mood For Love.
And vice versa. It was very unbalancing for
me.
Then
I realised that, by necessity, the two films
must have a certain kind of relationship.
They became like one film. And I shot some
scenes for each on the same locations.
Richard
James Havis
