In+the+Mood+for+Love

 This movie has a really simple storyline, but it is considered as  one of the best movies in the world. And  that is because of the interesting lighting, cinematography, editing and directing in this film. The director chooses not to tell the story to the audience straight away; instead, he uses a lot of montages in order to present the story and the theme implicitly. The use of montages creates a strong artistic impact and shows the theme implicitly. For example, there are so many montages with “streetlights”. This montages with Su and tells the audience her loneliness. Her husband was always out for work, left her alone. She went to eat by herself and she walked by herself, just like a streetlight, full of loneliness. Also, another montage is the “clock”, this shows how time past so quickly, and implies to the audience that Su and Zhou had met each other at the wrong timing. Therefore, montage is a great editing technique that’s been used in this film.

 Speak about lighting; the whole movie has a really dark color. There are many side lighting happened in this film. This lighting creates shadows on characters’ faces, giving out contrasts between light and dark, which caused a really depressed feeling. Also, there is not so much of light in most of the film. All the settings are like “dark” hallway, “dark” room, and “dark” stairs. This darkness produces a sad atmosphere.

 Finally, when we look at the cinematography of this film we can also find some interesting facts. While I was watching the movie I found it really interesting how there were so many scenes that consist abnormal camera angles and placements. There are many shots that were the reflection on the mirror，also sometimes, the camera was place in front of some sort of furniture so it gives the audience the feeling of hiding. You can’t look at what you want to look; you hide yourself in a corner and watch the others like a stalker. Which is actually what the theme is, during that time period the relationship between Su and Zhou were not allowed so they tried to hide everything, but was eventually stopped by the society’s value. From all these film techniques we know that the director is trying to show a theme of helplessness and regret.