In the Mood for Love (Huayang Nianhua)

Author: Tony Rayns

China | Film theory & criticism | Film guides & reviews

Published on 12^th June 2025 by Bloomsbury Publishing PLC (BFI Publishing) in the United Kingdom as part of the 'BFI Film Classics' series.

Paperback / softback | 104 pages, 60 colour illus
135mm x 190mm x 7mm | 168g

Wong Kar-wai's In the Mood for Love (2000) is a film that luxuriates in the feeling of being in love – without ever turning into a love story. Its central characters, Mr Chow and Mrs Chan, are tenants in next-door apartments in Hong Kong who discover that their respective spouses are having an affair. As they try to make sense of their partners' behaviour, they also struggle to control their growing feelings for each other. Hailed by the press as 'the consummate unconsummated love story of the new millennium', this film about desire repressed has become a firmly established classic of the twenty-first century.

In his sharp and revealing analysis of In the Mood for Love, Tony Rayns draws on his considerable expertise in East Asian cinema and on his proximity to Wong Kar-wai and his colleagues at production company Jet Tone during the film's long and complicated genesis. He delivers a personal and highly original commentary on the film and its production, complete with insights into Wong's idiosyncratic working methods and influences. He also places the film in the context of Wong's other work, with sidelights on its place in Hong Kong cinema as a whole.

This new edition features an afterword by the author, looking back on In the Mood for Love 25 years after its first release.