In this blog post I’ll be analyzing the corridor scene in In the Mood for Love (2000), directed by Wong Kar Wai. The deconstruction will mainly be on the sound, lighting and camera movement.
The scene happens when they have just become next-door neighbors, it establishes the private lives of the two characters – married but lonely. First we see the woman, Li-zhen, walking down the corridor to get dinner then coming up. Shortly after that, the man, Mo-wan, walks into the frame and down the corridor. The audience are led to imagine if Li-zhen comes up 2 seconds later or Mo-wan goes down 2 seconds earlier, they would have bumped into each other. It kind of implies that they have missed out on each other at their earlier stages in life and got married to people who don’t really love them. Then another time at the corridor, they do bump into each other, greeting only briefly, still looking quite distant from each other, but they turn their heads, acknowledging that they go to the same place to get dinner. The second time could be an analogy of their current situation – starting to pay attention to each other and find out that they have so much in common – the same misfortunes and the same solitudes. The scene also implies the appreciation they have for each other later on, and that their destinies have already brought them to each other. We’re informed that there’s meant to be a friendship, a romance between them. The dark and narrow corridor could be a symbol of their current state of life – not passionate for work, aware of their parter’s affair, lonely and gloomy and in search for a beacon of light. The story is set in Hong Kong in the 1960s, which is a chaotic time, people were always moving to or away from something. Surrounded by all the hustle and bustle in such environment, the special bond between the two seems to be all the more precious, for true love/soul mates are hard to find.
The original soundtrack “Yumeji’s Theme”, composed by Shigeru Umebayashi, a famous Japanese film score composer. It suits perfectly for when they encounter with each other at the early stage of their relationship. It creates a sense of intimacy and privacy for there’s only non-diegetic sound, as if when they come close, they are the only two people in the world or the world goes quiet for such intense, magnetic-like attraction between the two individuals. The synchronization of the music and the visuals in this scene is what I consider a very well-thought, quality one. The music does not tell you what the visuals are already telling you, but rather it implies, hints very implicitly that there’s a subtle romance between the two that is either already there or yet to happen, that perhaps they have not acknowledged it themselves. The song is the theme song of their relationship as it comes up whenever they are alone together. It gives out a sense of ambiguity of their feelings toward each other and a sense of melancholy that seems to be predicting their future.
The slow-paced soundtrack goes very well with the slow-motion. It indicates that they live their days like this over and over, nothing special, nothing interesting, same loneliness, same empty home, same unhappy marriages with the partners who cheat on them. The camera movement is also a highlight, we could see that when a shot moves from the left to the right, it is cut to another shot that also moves from the left to the right. The fluid montage here adds to the dreaminess of the scene.
The low-key lighting at the corridor casts shadows on the wall when they walk up and down, conveying a sense of solitude. The sharp and artificial lighting at the noodle stand illuminates their facial structures, accentuating the boredom and indifference on their faces for they’re stuck in this tragic cycle of disappointment.
Here’s another scene of the corridor where they finally have a proper encounter because of the rain. It implies that for the longest time in their life, they’ve lived in sorrow, and at the entry of this corridor, where there’s a a street lamp, their fates have brought them to a turning point, offering them another chance to find happiness.