In the Mood for Love

Understated melancholy romance from Wong Kar-Wai, named the second best film of the 21st century by the BBC.

Set in Hong Kong in 1962, the film centers on two young couples who rent adjacent rooms in a crowded tenement. Li-zhen (Maggie Cheung) works as a secretary in an export company while her husband's job at a Japanese multinational keeps him away on extended business trips. Across the hall, Chow (Tony Leung Chiu-wai) works as a newspaper editor and is married to a woman who is also frequently out of town. Li-zhen and Chow strike up a friendship and after suspecting their spouses are having an affair, are drawn together by shame and anger. While working through their guilt by imagining how their adulterous spouses first hooked up and rehearsing interrogations, the pair slowly fall in love in spite of their determination to uphold their end of their marital vows. (Rovi)

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