Alyssia Chung
Professor Carolina Jones
FILM 315
April 15, 2015
Unrequited Love
In The Mood For Love is essentially a story of adultery; however, the two adulterers in
question are hardly ever seen – their faces never even shown for that matter. This is
because this tale does not revolve around the contemptuous act but rather focuses on the
unrequited love of the victims. Their cheating spouses merely fade into the background as
they come together.
Mr. Chow and Mrs. Chan, the stars of this love story, are lonely people in the midst of a
bustling environment. They are both married but their spouses are never seen. Eventually
these unseen characters disappear entirely from the film, only to be brought back by Mr.
Chow and Mrs. Chan’s reenactments of the interactions that may have taken place during
the infidelity. Nevertheless, it is clear that these two are drawn to each other even before
their initial interactions with another. Time and time again, they run into each other
intermittently at their loneliest hours. One in particular is the noodle shop, where the wife
continually frequents alone.
Again, they repeat to another that they fear becoming what their spouses had become—
though this belief becomes moot as they inevitably fall for another. Frustratingly enough,
their love seems to be doomed from the start as the movie concludes with their concrete
separation from another. This seems to be foreshadowed by their boxed in lives. Both
characters are seemingly well to do people who had supposedly married well; and yet they
