In the Mood for Love (In the Mood for Love)

Set in a Shanghaiese enclave in Hong Kong in 1962, the film centers on two young couples who rent adjacent rooms in a cramped and crowded tenement. Li-chun works as a secretary in an export company while her husband's job at a Japanese multinational keeps him away on extended business trips. Across the hall, Chau works as a newspaper editor and is married to a woman who is also frequently out of town.. Li-chun and Chau soon strike up a cordial - if tentative - friendship. Chau begins to suspect that his wife's long absences are not entirely business-related when he stops in unannounced at her office to discover that she is not there. The icing on the cake comes when Chau notices that Li-chun's handbag is identical to his wife's while Li-chun discovers that Chau is wearing a tie that she gave her husband. It does not take long for them to realize that their spouses are sleeping together. While working through their guilt by imagining how their adulterous spouses first hooked up and rehearsing interrogations, the pair slowly fall in love in spite of their determination to uphold their end of their marital vows. (Jonathan Crow)