The adorable Nostra of My Filmviews has brought a new blogathon to the town—The Five Senses Blogathon—in conjunction with MovieInsiders and Karamel Kinema.The main idea of this blogathon is to describe the film in association with the five senses of our body—the sight, sound, touch, taste, and smell. For further details, you better check this post by My Filmviews.
As for me, I took this differently ’cause I found a film filmed to solely humor my senses. Even, I could narrow it down to two scenes of a movie that could best satisfy those senses. Without further ado, I present you: Wong Kar-wai’s In The Mood For Love.
It’s a tale of brokenhearted couple who met in a strangest moment in their life. The couple (portrayed by Tony Leung and Maggie Cheung) realized their mutual sufferings and decided to ‘be together’; but love was never been easy for them. Only Wong Kar-wai’s solid direction could emanate the misery of those melancholic souls fed by broken heart and forbidden love.
[Now, it’s a SPOILER ALERT area]
Those two scenes I mentioned earlier are: the corridor glance scene—the moment when the couple glances each other for the first time—and a deleted scene about room 2046. So, let’s begin.
[youtube=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ypY9OaKCfRU]
[youtube=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=39Bj2YvPPE0]
SIGHT
The whole film was filmed beautifully—the production design, the costume, the make up, the location, the cinematography—every single thing of it.
Yet, look at the couple glancing at each other. It was just a short glance; their eyes only met each other for milliseconds, but there was intensity. There’s a sense of detail on that glance. Wasn’t that the whole film in one glance?
SOUND
The Yumeji’s Theme were played along those scenes. ‘Twas a beautiful piece of music—sounded classic and jazzy at the same time, mesmerizing but melancholic at the same time. Anytime I listened to it, I couldn’t help but thinking of the pathetic couple of In The Mood For Love.
SMELL
Check the Room 2046 scene. There was a bit of a moment when the man reluctantly approached for the woman as he eager to kiss her. That very moment was a second where he could smell the woman’s thick lipstick and perfume. Yet again, that flash moment was mostly a contemplating moment when both of them finally realized that it wasn’t what they wanted. An affair for an affair wasn’t what they needed; and the smell of the lipstick would be a reminder for that man. I could feel that.
TASTE
Could you feel it like I do? The man drank a bottle of liquor in the room while the woman away. His sight was empty and I believed what he drank was tasteless—literally and figuratively.
TOUCH
There was a brief moment near the end of the Room 2046 scene, after the man asked the woman to hand him a cigarette and before they went together by a taxi. We couldn’t see anything clearly but we could hear. It was the closest scene in this film addressing to sexual affection (as I refer it to ‘touch’ sense).
Yet, the best moment was yet to come until they were on a taxi, where they held each other’s hands and leaned at each other—skin to skin.
———
There you have it; my five sense with movie associations in only one film. Kudos to Wong Kar-wai.
Leave a Reply