章 139: Lonely aliens seek love

Ickapoo is lonely. But love is not always the answer.

Love as ephemeral vapour in In the Mood for Love

Wong Kar Wai’s In the Mood for Love treats love as an ephemeral vapour, a missed chance and opportunity, a fleeting emotion which never acted upon becomes a ephemeral memory buried by time. The protagonists Chow Mo Wan and Mrs Chan are neighbours who are cheated upon by their spouses, and they are thrown together by circumstances to find themselves falling in love with each other instead of their faithless spouses. Though proclaiming throughout that they ‘will never be like them’ as in like their adulterous spouses, they find themselves drawn to the edge of adultery like their spouses because of their chemistry and loneliness. In the Mood for Love thus precisely captures love as a kind of mood, a fleeting emotion that is set up by circumstances, in this case their mutual loneliness, need and chemistry, and a vapour which becomes a vague memory once it fails to be acted upon.