Speaker 1: We're Tomy Lorenzo and this is the Bitter Kitten Movie Club.
Speaker 1: Hello Kitten's Welcome back to another edition of the b
Speaker 1: k MC, a supplemental edition of the Pop Style Opinion
Speaker 1: Pest podcast where we take a look at one movie
Speaker 1: per week and unpack everything we can unpack about it.
Speaker 1: This week's movie is director of Wan car Wise in
Speaker 1: The Mood for Love from two thousand, starring Maggie Cheung
Speaker 1: and Tony Leung. And you know, I gotta say, this
Speaker 1: is the third time I've watched this film. The first
Speaker 1: time I watched this film, it was only about five
Speaker 1: or six years ago. I had heard about it, I
Speaker 1: had seen clips from it, but I had never watched
Speaker 1: the full film. And I was compiling a book proposal
Speaker 1: about movie costumes, still working on that, and I knew
Speaker 1: that her dresses, I knew that Maggie Chung's chungsund dresses
Speaker 1: were iconic, so I wanted to watch the film to
Speaker 1: see if I would include them in the book or whatever.
Speaker 1: Fell in love with the movie. And then I found
Speaker 1: out that you had not seen it, and I said, oh,
Speaker 1: you had to sit down and watch this. It's so beautiful,
Speaker 1: it's so you know about yearning and longing, and you know,
Speaker 1: the filmmaking is so gorgeous and they're so gorgeous. So
Speaker 1: then we watched it together and that was the second
Speaker 1: time I watched it. Then I watched it this week
Speaker 1: and I had a totally different read on it, and
Speaker 1: I thought, am I have I changed? Am I become
Speaker 1: more cynical? Or is this actually not a love story?
Speaker 1: And that's kind of what I want to unpack today
Speaker 1: is that it's I went into this this selection for
Speaker 1: this week, thinking, well, we're just going to talk about
Speaker 1: romance and longing and yearning and repression and all that
Speaker 1: other stuff that is in the film. Don't get me wrong,
Speaker 1: and I wouldn't suggest that those characters, mister Chow and
Speaker 1: missus Chan are not in love at certain points during
Speaker 1: the film. But what really struck me watching it this
Speaker 1: time was they're actually more in pain than they are
Speaker 1: in love. They share something, you know, they share something.
Speaker 1: And it was while I was watching them like an act,
Speaker 1: you know, roleplay their partners, where like they were pretending
Speaker 1: to confront their partner or pretending to be their partner
Speaker 1: who while committing adultery. And I'm watching these scenes I'm like,
Speaker 1: this is kind of fucked up what they're doing emotionally.
Speaker 1: They are stuck in this hole where they're enacting all
Speaker 1: of their pain on each other over and over and
Speaker 1: over again. And I don't know how I come down
Speaker 1: on this just yet. Maybe we all come to a
Speaker 1: conclusion by the end of this podcast, but I'm not
Speaker 1: sure they Well, I did say that they are in
Speaker 1: love at certain points in the movie. I don't know
Speaker 1: if that's real love though. Anyway, I'm gonna stop and
Speaker 1: let you give your impression.
Speaker 2: Well, I had heard about the movie, obviously, because everyone
Speaker 2: talks about it. I mean, the fashion industry is in
Speaker 2: love with this movie, rightly. So yeah, you know, people
Speaker 2: who love movie, they love this movie. And yes, there
Speaker 2: is this whole thing about including TUCM. I was watching
Speaker 2: it and they introduced the movie as one of the
Speaker 2: best love stories you know, in cinema, and so they
Speaker 2: do play that that, you know, play that out like
Speaker 2: it's one of the best love stories. I think it
Speaker 2: is in a way. It's about love, no doubt about it,
Speaker 2: because you know they're both married and they go through stuff. Yeah,
Speaker 2: and they meet each other and they have something in common,
Speaker 2: something they share and they explored that. Yeah, I think
Speaker 2: that's that's pretty much. The movie is absolutely perfection beautiful.
Speaker 2: It's one of the most beautiful movies I've ever seen
Speaker 2: in my life. Yeah, I feel like I'm, you know,
Speaker 2: looking at a fair May painting or something. It's just
Speaker 2: one of those gorgeous things produced. I agree that is perfection.
Speaker 2: I mean, they both look so gorgeous, and.
Speaker 1: I have never seen two people look so beautiful. The
Speaker 1: only thing I can compare it to is there's a
Speaker 1: movie called, Oh God, what's it called with Elizabeth Taylor
Speaker 1: and Montgomery Clipped. I just had it any Place in
Speaker 1: the Sun A Place in the Sun from nineteen fifty one,
Speaker 1: and by my book, I have always considered that the
Speaker 1: most beautiful couple ever captured on film. If you ever
Speaker 1: have a chance to just google the stills. I'm talking
Speaker 1: to the audience. I'm sorry, if you ever have a chance,
Speaker 1: or if you just want to google the stills. They
Speaker 1: are breath taking. It is Elizabeth Taylor and Montgomery Clipped
Speaker 1: at the height of their beauty. And it's the same
Speaker 1: thing here with Tony Leong and Maggot Chunk, Like there
Speaker 1: are a time story. My god, these two people are
Speaker 1: breath taking.
Speaker 2: Yes, yeah, they're dressed so beautifully. He looks stunny, his
Speaker 2: hair is flawed. It looks like a goddess. I could
Speaker 2: not stop looking at her the entire time. How can
Speaker 2: you be that gorgeous and perfection? Perfection? Perfect? You're just perfect?
Speaker 1: You look your hair, you know, the custom the way
Speaker 1: she fells out those oh my god, the way she
Speaker 1: moves her arms and reminding the enselessness of her body.
Speaker 2: Reminded me a little bit of a bed feast. With
Speaker 2: the two ladies. How they move very gracefully. Everything is
Speaker 2: just gorgeous. She the costumes are beautiful. The costumes were
Speaker 2: designed by William.
Speaker 1: Chan Yeah, William Chang.
Speaker 2: Yeah, he worked very closely with the director. They had
Speaker 2: a very clear vision of what they wanted. And it's
Speaker 2: interesting because it's that Chinese dress that most women wore now, yeah,
Speaker 2: and it and which is kind of like one the
Speaker 2: same kind of silhouette and fit, but they they make
Speaker 2: it specially unique by changing the fabrics and adding details.
Speaker 1: And I mean, the basic dress is exactly the same
Speaker 1: and it's just changed up by fabrics, the different fabric
Speaker 1: fabric choices. So her silhouette remains exactly the same and
Speaker 1: her hairstyle except for when the time period shifts and
Speaker 1: in a little bit later she has longer hair, but
Speaker 1: she has that boufont hairdoo absolutely gorgeous, and it just
Speaker 1: it's just such a it combines so beautifully on her.
Speaker 1: There are other women in the film who have similar
Speaker 1: hairstyles that are wearing the same style of dress, but
Speaker 1: it just doesn't look the same on them as it
Speaker 1: does on her.
Speaker 2: The story is that it took five hours every day
Speaker 2: to do the hair makeup alone, because yeah, and you
Speaker 2: can see that, and I love that it reflects the
Speaker 2: sixties also it's very Asian but also the sixties, and
Speaker 2: it's just beautiful. She the designer made the custom designan
Speaker 2: I believe forty six dresses. She ended up wearing. How
Speaker 2: many tweets anyone dresses into film.
Speaker 1: She rarely re wears a dress. She does rewear a
Speaker 1: couple of them, but they're all such blindingly distinct prints
Speaker 1: and colors that every time she changes a dress, it's
Speaker 1: extremely noticeable. Like my film, and it's smart because of
Speaker 1: the style of filmmaking, which has a sort of dreamy
Speaker 1: it's not nonlinear, but it's not exactly. I mean, I
Speaker 1: think it all happens in order, but it sort of
Speaker 1: floats in and out. Things tend to repeat, and the
Speaker 1: only way you know time has passed is by her
Speaker 1: dresses bye bye, because they shift from scene to s the.
Speaker 2: Core of the movie. According to director, something I read
Speaker 2: is that that's what he wanted, repetition. It's pretty much
Speaker 2: the same emotions played.
Speaker 1: You know, they are people who are stuck in a
Speaker 1: loose yes, exactly, and so the film very much has
Speaker 1: that quality. And it's very much whenever the plucking cello
Speaker 1: strings happens and they go into a slow motion thing,
Speaker 1: it feels like people, beautiful people who are trapped, but
Speaker 1: they are trapped.
Speaker 2: I do think they both look incredible, and I think
Speaker 2: that it's funny because one of the bitch and neighbors
Speaker 2: I love her, she says, did she go dressed like
Speaker 2: that to get nudice? Yeah?
Speaker 1: Yeah, because I mean, because she's always perfect no matter
Speaker 1: where she goes, whatever she does to words, I do
Speaker 1: think sometimes you know this, this is a time and
Speaker 1: a place that is completely alien to me. I cannot
Speaker 1: talk about what Hong Kong in the nineteen sixties was like.
Speaker 1: Their lives would have been, like, however, one car, why
Speaker 1: does remember Hong Kong in the nineteen sixties, and he
Speaker 1: really wanted to recreate that period in that time. So
Speaker 1: I have to rely on my faith in him as
Speaker 1: a director that what he has done is faithful to
Speaker 1: the time and place. On the other hand, I do
Speaker 1: think it gets into a bit of Hollywood style fantasy
Speaker 1: when you look at where they're living and what they
Speaker 1: do for a living. It's kind of hard to reconcile
Speaker 1: that with the fact that they both look like movie
Speaker 1: stars throughout the entire movie, Like how does she look
Speaker 1: like that living in that tiny little aparty? And where
Speaker 1: does he even keep all those trustes?
Speaker 2: And I think he's aware of that because if you
Speaker 2: look at the walls, the walls are dirty. When you
Speaker 2: know the buzzer, everything, it's dirty and old, right, So
Speaker 2: it's an old building, you know, it's nothing fancy.
Speaker 1: Rainy alleyway that they needed that is gorgeous. It's all
Speaker 1: crumbling and stare light bulbs. But my god, it looks
Speaker 1: so beautiful. Meaning at the stairs all the time. I mean,
Speaker 1: just her, get Jesus Christ, look at her. I do think, uh,
Speaker 1: director Wong Uh and the cinematographer whose name I don't
Speaker 1: have in front of me, were very deliberately and how
Speaker 1: they shot her. They were very aware of how those
Speaker 1: dresses hug her body. They were very aware of the
Speaker 1: shape of her body. So, you know, it's weird for
Speaker 1: me to be sitting here talking about an actress's body
Speaker 1: in this, but they made it central. And you know,
Speaker 1: she has a long, thin, sinuous sort of body. And
Speaker 1: the way she moves on camera, the way they shot
Speaker 1: her as she moved through, you know, with her her
Speaker 1: pocketbook in the crook of her arm close up and
Speaker 1: you're watching her hips way that is just sexy, sexy,
Speaker 1: sexy as hell without being remotely This is what I'm
Speaker 1: trying to get at. They centered her body on screen
Speaker 1: quite a bit, but I did not feel it was lascivious.
Speaker 1: It's clearly the male gaze at work here. I mean,
Speaker 1: I wouldn't suggest otherwise, but I didn't think it was
Speaker 1: a lacibious framing of her body. It was simply the
Speaker 1: fact that her body looks amazing in those dresses. And
Speaker 1: they are constantly in very close quarters with each other,
Speaker 1: so you're getting close ups on her body, their bodies
Speaker 1: are constantly touching.
Speaker 2: But I also think their beauty makes a point that
Speaker 2: these two characters are absolutely breathtaking, their gorgeous. Yeah, and
Speaker 2: yet they're being you know, uh, their spouses are cheating,
Speaker 2: are cheating on them. So so it has a point
Speaker 2: there to show that these you know, these people are
Speaker 2: gor She is absolutely I've seen so many incredibly beautiful
Speaker 2: actors male and female on you know, on screen, on screen.
Speaker 1: But my god, she'll cut to her face every now
Speaker 1: and then every Wow, look at that face. Look at
Speaker 1: how perfect that face.
Speaker 2: She she is. But he is gorgeous as well. He's
Speaker 2: very beautiful. But she is insane. She Yeah, absolutely, She's
Speaker 2: like a porcelain doll. She's just incredible. All right.
Speaker 1: Let me say, let me read a quote from one
Speaker 1: car Wide that he gave to La Weekly around the
Speaker 1: time of the film. I think it's very interesting that
Speaker 1: most of the audience prefers to think that this is
Speaker 1: a very innocent relationship. These are the good guys, because
Speaker 1: their spouses are the first ones to be unfaithful, and
Speaker 1: they refuse to be Nobody sees any darkness in these characters,
Speaker 1: and that they are meeting in secret to act out
Speaker 1: fictitious scenarios of confronting their spouses and of having an affair.
Speaker 1: I think this happens because the face of Tony Leung
Speaker 1: is so sympathetic. Just imagine if it was John Malcobits
Speaker 1: playing this role, you would think this guy is really weird.
Speaker 1: And that's the other way I think director Wong uses
Speaker 1: their beauty is to mask that what's happening here is
Speaker 1: not really as it's I don't want to say that
Speaker 1: it's not innocent because it is innocent. I don't think
Speaker 1: they actually He says in certain interviews that they do
Speaker 1: not consummate the relationship, and there was some confusion about
Speaker 1: that because there was a scene where it looked like
Speaker 1: they had, but then they act throughout the rest of
Speaker 1: the film as if they've never even touched each other.
Speaker 1: And he said he has a very loopy, improvisational directing style.
Speaker 1: So they shot for like fifteen months. Maggie Chung. She
Speaker 1: gave an interview at the Toronto Film Festival that year
Speaker 1: where she talks about how pissed off she was working
Speaker 1: with him because he was just constantly they were improvising things,
Speaker 1: the story was shifting. He would do take after take
Speaker 1: after take, and it was very hard. There was no
Speaker 1: hard script for them to work with. I'm pointing this
Speaker 1: out because one of the scenarios that he did shoot
Speaker 1: is that they did have sex. I don't think he
Speaker 1: shot a sex scene, but they shot a scene where
Speaker 1: it was clear. It's clear, and then he decided not
Speaker 1: to use it in the film. He decided not to
Speaker 1: go in that direction. And that's a very interesting way
Speaker 1: of doing filmmaking because it leaves the audience with a
Speaker 1: because he used takes and he said that, he said,
Speaker 1: I used takes where they were acting as two people
Speaker 1: who had had sex.
Speaker 2: With each other. I can think of a couple of
Speaker 2: a couple.
Speaker 1: Of scenes where it seemed like they had and then
Speaker 1: later in the film it's like, oh no, they've they've
Speaker 1: never even touched. And I do think that's I guess
Speaker 1: what I'm trying to get out here is that this
Speaker 1: film is probably more impressionistic than it appears at first glance,
Speaker 1: and that even though it is relatively linear storytelling, I
Speaker 1: think I don't think you can take much of the
Speaker 1: I don't think you can take the film entirely literally.
Speaker 1: I guess that's my point. It's impressions of things. It's
Speaker 1: moods of I think it's very telling that the title
Speaker 1: is in the mood for love, which doesn't necessarily imply
Speaker 1: that there's actual love there. It just means you're in
Speaker 1: the mood for it.
Speaker 2: I think because everything is so secretive, and especially at
Speaker 2: that time, you can tell, you know, you couldn't share
Speaker 2: with the rest of the apartment building that you know,
Speaker 2: their spouses were having an affair. So they they found
Speaker 2: each other and it happened that they were, you know,
Speaker 2: in the same situation. And I think they they kind
Speaker 2: of share that. I do believe that they I think
Speaker 2: it started because I think their relationship because, like I said,
Speaker 2: they had something in common that they shared, and also
Speaker 2: they felt betrayed. I mean, you can tell that they're
Speaker 2: very hurt by by by what, you know, being cheated.
Speaker 2: So so they found each other and they had that
Speaker 2: to talk about and you know, uh and share because
Speaker 2: they couldn't share with anybody else. But at the same time,
Speaker 2: I think they were feeling in attraction to each other obviously,
Speaker 2: I mean it's clear, Uh you can you can see
Speaker 2: the tension, you know, you can feel the tension. So
Speaker 2: it's an it's interest. At the same time, they're trying
Speaker 2: to be mature about it, you know, rational about it. Right,
Speaker 2: It's conflicting.
Speaker 1: Yeah, all right, why don't we take a short break
Speaker 1: and when we come back, I want to talk a
Speaker 1: little bit about why did their spouses cheat on them?
Speaker 2: We'll be right back.
Speaker 1: We're back talking about in the Mood for Love and
Speaker 1: one of the things, you know, the thing we're trying
Speaker 1: to unpack the fact that the idea that this film
Speaker 1: is darker than it appears at first glance, and that.
Speaker 2: It's a sadder not necessarily you know.
Speaker 1: Well, no, I think there is a darkness there. I
Speaker 1: do think, and this is kind of what I wanted
Speaker 1: to unpack. It's not the idea that, you know, if
Speaker 1: someone cheats on a spouse, well then they must have
Speaker 1: done something to deserve it. But I mean, this is
Speaker 1: a film, this is a story, and things are put
Speaker 1: in the story that are you know, are there to
Speaker 1: be unpacked. So, and you pointed this out. They're so
Speaker 1: breathtakingly beautiful, it's a little hard to understand why anyone
Speaker 1: would cheat on them. And I do think it's an
Speaker 1: interesting always to not show the spouses.
Speaker 2: Oh my god, that was brilliant.
Speaker 1: But I do think it gets gimmicky at times because
Speaker 1: some of the scenes are staged in a way it's
Speaker 1: like you're working too hard to obscure a fire here.
Speaker 1: But I think it adds you want to know, like
Speaker 1: you want to know what does his wife look like
Speaker 1: that that's you know, or what does her husband look
Speaker 1: like that he would cheat on her? She's stunning, you know.
Speaker 1: And all you're left with is your imagination of, well,
Speaker 1: are they are these other people even more attractive than
Speaker 1: they are or did they come together for reasons other
Speaker 1: than simple attraction?
Speaker 2: And this is my point.
Speaker 1: Both of those characters, mister Chow and missus Chan, they
Speaker 1: they live at a remove from everybody around them. They
Speaker 1: are not warm with other people. He has his one
Speaker 1: friend that he that he takes care of. But she's
Speaker 1: very cold. She's very cold to her neighbors, she's very
Speaker 1: cold to her book. She's very removed.
Speaker 2: Never accept an invitation to to have a meal with him, no,
Speaker 2: you know, she always says no whatever. So she's that
Speaker 2: side of her.
Speaker 1: And then there is a very clearly a very darkly
Speaker 1: brooding side to him. So my takee and the other
Speaker 1: thing about her. I think is interesting is that there
Speaker 1: could have been a way to play this character as
Speaker 1: a lot more demure than she actually was. But uh,
Speaker 1: missus Chan comes off as fairly forceful in terms of
Speaker 1: her character.
Speaker 2: Fairies.
Speaker 1: I would never call her a bitch, like, That's not
Speaker 1: how she comes across in the film. But she's she's harsh.
Speaker 1: I think there's a harshness to her.
Speaker 2: I think she's asserted, you know, like, I mean, she's she's,
Speaker 2: she's she knows what she wants, she's I think she's yeah,
Speaker 2: and okay, yeah.
Speaker 1: So she has a sort of a sort of assertiveness
Speaker 1: to her, and he has a certain sort of dark,
Speaker 1: brooding aspect to him. Right, And I guess what I'm
Speaker 1: getting at here is when you look at unrequited love
Speaker 1: or love stories that don't pan out, which this one is,
Speaker 1: you kind of wonder, well, would it have worked if
Speaker 1: they had stayed, if they had made a go for it.
Speaker 1: And again, my previous two viewings of this film, I
Speaker 1: would have said, absolutely, it's a great love story. Look
Speaker 1: at them, They're amazing. But now I watch it and
Speaker 1: I think I don't know that that's what the film's
Speaker 1: trying to say. I don't know that these two people
Speaker 1: would have been any good with each.
Speaker 2: Other, right, but it's very clear to me that they're
Speaker 2: very hurt by. They were truer because when they do
Speaker 2: their little rehearsal, which threw me off completely, like the
Speaker 2: first scene when they're saying goodbye, that the scene is repeated. Yeah,
Speaker 2: I was like, what's going on my TV?
Speaker 1: Right?
Speaker 2: Right? I thought it was like, all right, they're showing
Speaker 2: the same thing. There's something wrong with my TV. But
Speaker 2: then I realized, now they're just rehearsing. And when she cries,
Speaker 2: I think that she obviously is very hurt by her husband,
Speaker 2: be true, you know.
Speaker 1: Isn't it interesting how she never has these emotions in
Speaker 1: front of other people, though she cries when she's alone
Speaker 1: because or with him. Because that's true, she did cry
Speaker 1: with him. That's because they share something. They share something,
Speaker 1: they share the.
Speaker 2: Same emotions, and and so I think that's incredible. I
Speaker 2: think that's why they're together. They they kind of like,
Speaker 2: you know, found each other because and.
Speaker 1: So do you think they could have been happy together?
Speaker 1: Because that's not the part I that's the part I
Speaker 1: struggle with.
Speaker 2: It's hard to tell. It's hard to tell, but I
Speaker 2: do think they they they they Yeah, they think about it,
Speaker 2: they think about being together. I mean that's clear. Uh
Speaker 2: and and yeah it's And I love how the film,
Speaker 2: the film kind of like betrays you because when she says,
Speaker 2: when when they have that scene where she's he says,
Speaker 2: I didn't think you, you know, I didn't think you're
Speaker 2: gonna fall in love with me or whatever. I thought
Speaker 2: it was about them, and then then you find out
Speaker 2: it's just And that's when you get like, Okay, this
Speaker 2: is fucked up. What you two.
Speaker 1: What they're doing is not healthy for them emotionally. And
Speaker 1: I guess that's what I'm getting at most here. It's
Speaker 1: not like any therapist would have looked at that and
Speaker 1: said you need to stop doing that. It's bad for you.
Speaker 2: But I understand why they did it.
Speaker 1: It's a very human thing.
Speaker 2: I think it's yeah, it's it's yeah, you you wanna
Speaker 2: It's not that you. Because even if you don't practice
Speaker 2: in reality in life, if you if you know, if
Speaker 2: you have a spouse and you going through that situation,
Speaker 2: you might not rehearse it, but you think about it
Speaker 2: in your head all the time.
Speaker 1: Sure you're playing it over and over again, and they're
Speaker 1: just playing it out exactly.
Speaker 2: So I thought it was fantastic. Actually, I was like, wow,
Speaker 2: this is really interesting. Not healthy, probably, but interesting.
Speaker 1: So at the end of the film, she is renting
Speaker 1: the apartment landlady had uh and she has a child.
Speaker 2: Yeah, we don't know who the father is.
Speaker 1: Well, no, I mean this goes back to I wonder
Speaker 1: if the director Wong had originally planned that they would,
Speaker 1: because there was originally a scene of them postcoital, if
Speaker 1: he was originally going to imply that, but since he
Speaker 1: opted not to, and he says in interviews that they
Speaker 1: do not consummate, they don't even kiss. So no, that's
Speaker 1: not his siety, which means that she stayed with It
Speaker 1: more than likely that she stayed with her husband and
Speaker 1: had a kid with him.
Speaker 2: Again, that's not very clear because after that point they
Speaker 2: never mentioned where.
Speaker 1: This is what I want to point out is that
Speaker 1: the spouses completely drop out, and this is his He
Speaker 1: chooses to do this as a filmmaker. You make the
Speaker 1: point about how you know that's the scene that replayed
Speaker 1: and you thought there was something wrong with your TV.
Speaker 1: He he wants that sort of dreamy sort of quality
Speaker 1: where you can't quite figure out what's going on, and
Speaker 1: I think that's very much the case. You don't know
Speaker 1: what happened to their spouses. It's implied that she's still
Speaker 1: with her husband. No idea what happened to his wife though,
Speaker 1: I mean he's in Campbell at the end of the film,
Speaker 1: no idea, no end. Very little is made of what happened,
Speaker 1: like did he become a writer? Like did he write
Speaker 1: more of those uh, you know serials that they were
Speaker 1: working on that. That's the other thing. I did think
Speaker 1: it was interesting that they they don't consummate their relationship,
Speaker 1: but they spend all their time trying trying to write
Speaker 1: these little stories together. And again, it's just this feeling.
Speaker 1: There's scenes of her, very short brief shots of her
Speaker 1: just laboring writing something out, and you can tell she's
Speaker 1: passionate about these these types of stories. Uh, And again
Speaker 1: it just feels like they're sublimating their own feelings. They're
Speaker 1: they're they're not really dealing with the pain that they're feeling,
Speaker 1: so they're just writing out these stories. They're working very
Speaker 1: passionately on something together, and then it just goes away
Speaker 1: and you just don't know what happens with any of it.
Speaker 2: I think the movie also does a very good job showing, uh,
Speaker 2: how you react differently to betrayal, like because her boss
Speaker 2: is also.
Speaker 1: I know, she's very cold to him, as she would
Speaker 1: be I think, but she plays along well, she's kind
Speaker 1: of choice, That's what I'm saying.
Speaker 2: Yeah, that's what it means. Very interesting. Yeah, it's very
Speaker 2: interesting that she helps her pretty much helps her boss, you.
Speaker 1: Know, by his mistress.
Speaker 2: Yeah. I love the whole thing with the bags and
Speaker 2: the ties. Oh my god, I love that. Yeah, I
Speaker 2: just love that whole The movie is so chic, so it's.
Speaker 1: So funny to call it sheek when they're living in
Speaker 1: like I know, essentially a tenement, the light, in the cinematography,
Speaker 1: everything about I just love those scenes in that hallway,
Speaker 1: that tiny, tiny, tiny little with the kitchen at the
Speaker 1: end of it, where they're all playing with and you
Speaker 1: can't even really that's the thing. Everything is partially obscured
Speaker 1: in this film. You never get a full full shot,
Speaker 1: the whole wide open view of anyone. Everything is constantly obscured.
Speaker 1: Faces are obscured, body parts are obscured. What's actually happening
Speaker 1: emotionally or physically in a scene is obscure. So it's
Speaker 1: all just this very dreamy sort of opague film.
Speaker 2: But it's also playing on the whole not you know,
Speaker 2: hiding things right, not being one hundred percent true. No,
Speaker 2: I mean that's certain way.
Speaker 1: I had to spend all night hiding in his Oh
Speaker 1: my god, yeah, because they were playing my song all
Speaker 1: night and it was the neighbors couldn't find out that
Speaker 1: it was so repressive and they were so scared. And
Speaker 1: she says at one point, you cannot put a single
Speaker 1: foot wrong. And I love that because again, this is
Speaker 1: not my culture or my time period, so I have
Speaker 1: to rely on all right, this, I guess this is
Speaker 1: what to remember.
Speaker 2: That's the sixties in Asia. Yeah, I mean, yeah, I.
Speaker 1: Mean very traditional culture.
Speaker 2: Right. So yeah, I loved all of that.
Speaker 1: I loved it because it it showed me a world
Speaker 1: that I am not a part of. It showed me
Speaker 1: a lifestyle that I have never lived and will never live.
Speaker 2: If nothing else, I she's oh phenomenal. She's such an
Speaker 2: incredible action. She dropped out of acting. I know she
Speaker 2: made another thing. That's the thing about great acting is
Speaker 2: that you create these amazing things, man, and you're just like,
Speaker 2: my god, I mean, you should be very proud of
Speaker 2: yourself because you created. Yeah, you created something beautiful, icon
Speaker 2: of beauty, of fashion and everything. She Oh, her dress
Speaker 2: is my god, everything one of them.
Speaker 1: Like I said, I don't think those characters could afford
Speaker 1: to have such impact clothing. But it doesn't matter.
Speaker 2: No, she wears a different dress in everything. She doesn't
Speaker 2: have an apartment big enough to dresses, but it doesn't matter.
Speaker 2: But it's funny how the neighbors point that out. They
Speaker 2: talk about her shoes, Oh, a new pair of shoes
Speaker 2: or whatever I mean they talk about, which I think
Speaker 2: it's funny.
Speaker 1: Uh.
Speaker 2: And it's it's very interesting because there's a hint of
Speaker 2: of you know, social awareness and political awareness because you know,
Speaker 2: we're talking about British Hong Kong and then and then
Speaker 2: the United States. Her daughter moved to the United States.
Speaker 2: The neighbor and all that stuff. It's just a little
Speaker 2: hint of things here in there buying things in Japan,
Speaker 2: like you know they bring the rice, you know, cooker,
Speaker 2: all that stuff. Yeah. I just think it's very interesting,
Speaker 2: very much of the time of the period. Beautiful, beautiful movie.
Speaker 2: My god, it's beautiful and the music is so.
Speaker 1: No the cello, ah playing about.
Speaker 2: Love because you know it doesn't play all the time.
Speaker 2: The cello doesn't play all the time. But when it does,
Speaker 2: you're like, all right, we're moving again. Yes, it's like
Speaker 2: all right, next next move Like it's like the train
Speaker 2: is moving again to the next station. I just love it,
Speaker 2: love it.
Speaker 1: It's a great little film. It's it's a film that
Speaker 1: sticks with you, and I mean it could be frustrating
Speaker 1: if you're trying to figure something out.
Speaker 2: Yeah, a lot of people don't like the movie because
Speaker 2: they think that, you know, this is it, all right, well,
Speaker 2: this is it, this is it.
Speaker 1: It's just this dreamy sort of reflection on two people
Speaker 1: coming together for a very brief period in their lives, right,
Speaker 1: and not necessarily for the best of reasons, right, And
Speaker 1: I like, I think I think people might have had
Speaker 1: an easier time with this film if he had made
Speaker 1: it clear that he was telling a dark story, not
Speaker 1: a love story. But he left that to the audience
Speaker 1: to figure out, and it seems to me very few
Speaker 1: of them had. And I mean I copto that. I
Speaker 1: watched that film twice thinking, oh my god, such a
Speaker 1: beautiful love story. And it wasn't until the third time
Speaker 1: I watched it, where I was like, oh, I don't know,
Speaker 1: these two people are kind of fucked.
Speaker 2: Up, right, But again, we're playing into what he I
Speaker 2: think he wanted. The message that he sends as a
Speaker 2: director is that you know, are you are we judging
Speaker 2: these people? Are we defending you?
Speaker 1: Now?
Speaker 2: I'm saying as a viewer, you have all points of
Speaker 2: view about it, right right right, like the neighbors. So
Speaker 2: you know, should we judge these people or should we
Speaker 2: support them and root for them? You know, there's I
Speaker 2: guess it depends depends on how you see betrayal, depends
Speaker 2: on how you you know, what you think about it.
Speaker 2: You know, how much weight you put you know, that
Speaker 2: kind of thing anyway. Yeah, that's what I love about it.
Speaker 2: It's up to you as the audience to feel a
Speaker 2: certain way, to you know, and see things a certain way.
Speaker 2: I mean, if you think that's a big deal or
Speaker 2: not a big deal anyway, I.
Speaker 1: We would love to hear your thoughts, yes, whether you
Speaker 1: think this was a grand love story or whether you
Speaker 1: thought it was a story about two people in a
Speaker 1: kind of a screwed up relationship that we're you know,
Speaker 1: and in pain, or maybe it's not such a binary
Speaker 1: choice either way, we'd love to hear what you think.
Speaker 1: We'll be back on Monday or Tuesday, I'm not sure
Speaker 1: which one, with a look at several TV series and
Speaker 1: a recounting of our recent trip, and then we'll be
Speaker 1: back next week for the next b k MC, where
Speaker 1: we will be watching a film that I did not
Speaker 1: like much the first time I saw it, which was
Speaker 1: a Little Miss Sunshine. Until then, take care of yourself,
Speaker 1: love you mean it.
Speaker 2: Bye bye bye, bry