In the Mood for Love
I just watched Wong Kar Wai's In the Mood for Love. This is a two hour long film of sepia tinted longing, with Zhau Xun's music playing in the background, fleeting looks, long lingering gazes, with the perfect languid form of Maggie Cheung's Su Li-zhen, and the noble yet oh so human Chow Mo-wan brilliantly rendered by Leung Chui Wai. Wong Kar Wai is in his element here with the early 60s Shanghai setting.

The story spans nearly a decade, from the first time the two meet fleetingly in a hallway, through months of polite greeting, years of anguish while their respective spouses have an affair, till at last their lives part. Never to meet again.

Through it all, Li-zhen and Mo-wan are the epitome of courtesy and grace. They yearn to reach out to comfort each other, perhaps, but end up seeking solace in each other's silence. She sits on his bed as he writes his columns, eyes meet for the briefest fleeting moment, and then the moment passes. He sees her in the rain and stands with her under a small canvas canopy for shelter. They stand very close, barely touching. But not close for idle gossip to smear their well protected and pristine reputation.