Hosted by Andrew Quinn and Darren Mooney, and this week with special guests Stacy Grouden and Luke Dunne, The 250 is a fortnightly trip through some of the best (and worst) movies ever made, as voted for by Internet Movie Database Users.
This time, a Valentine’s and Chinese New Year treat. Wong Kar-Wai’s In the Mood for Love.
Sixties Hong Kong is in a state of transition. Lives overlap in the densely populated city, as the Chan and Chow families move into the same building. Over time, Mrs. Chan and Mr. Chow come to suspect that their spouses are having an illicit affair. This act of betrayal draws the two strangers closer to one another, even if neither seems entirely sure where this intersection will take them.
At time of recording, it was ranked the 239th best movie of all time on the Internet Movie Database.
Show Notes:
- Recorded 27th January 2021.
- Fa yeung nin wah at The Internet Movie Database.
- The IMDb Top 250 at time of recording.
- Read Stacy’s articles at State.ie.
- Read Stacy’s reviews at entertainment.ie.
- Watch Stacy and Darren at The Escapist Movie Podcast.
- Follow Stacy on Twitter.
- Karina Longworth looks at the history between Sean Penn and Madonna on You Must Remember This, September 2014.
- J.K. Trotter at Gawker offers a brief history of allegations about domestic abuse in the relationship between Madonna and Sean Penn, December 2015.
- Vivienne Chow at the BBC discusses the legacy and reputation of Wong Kar-Wai, November 2018.
- IndieWire publishes a twenty-minute interview with Wong-Kar Wai on the genesis and development of In the Mood for Love, October 2014.
- Wong Kar-Wai talks to The A.V. Club about his life and career in the lead-up to the release of In the Mood for Love, February 2001.
- R.D. Francis takes a look back at the short life of Quentin Tarantino’s Rolling Thunder films for Bands About Movies, July 2019.
- The BBC publishes a poll of the greatest films of the twenty-first century, August 2016.
- The BFI publishes its poll of the best movies of all-time, August 2012.
- Criterion discusses In the Mood for Love in the context of the Sight and Sound poll, August 2012.
- Nathan Rabin discusses Wong Kar-Wai’s My Blueberry Nights at The A.V. Club, June 2011.
- Jim Emerson reviews My Blueberry Nights for RogerEbert.com, April 2008.
- Ben Kenigsberg at The New York Times recommends In the Mood for Love as a pandemic romance, November 2020.
- Sara Merican at Forbes discusses the twentieth anniversary screenings of In the Mood for Love at the New York Film Festival, October 2020.
- Ann Lee at the BFI discusses Wong Kar-Wai’s cinema of loneliness and longing, February 2021.
- Steve Erickson at Criterion writes about the repression at the heart of In the Mood for Love, October 2012.
- Timothy R. Gleason, Qi Tang and Jean Giovanetti discuss Wong Kar-Wai as an international auteur working in Hong Kong cinema in The Journal of Asian Pacific Communication, January 2002.
- Wong Kar-Wai talks to BOMB about the development of In the Mood for Love, April 2001.
- Tony Leung and Maggie Cheung talk to The New York Times about working together and working on In the Mood for Love, August 2005.
- Sheena Scott at Forbes looks back on the premiere of In the Mood for Love at Cannes, May 2020.
- Wong Kar-Wai talks to The New York Times about the production of In the Mood for Love, January 2001.
- Charles Barfield at The Playlist reports on Criterion’s upcoming box set of Wong Kar-Wai’s films, December 2020.
- Elvis Mitchell at The New York Times reviews In the Mood for Love, September 2000.
- Roger Ebert reviews In the Mood for Love for The Chicago Sun Times, February 2001.
- Wong Kar-Wai compares In the Mood for Love to Vertigo in an interview with L.A. Weekly, February 2001.
- Austin Ramzy and Mike Ives at The New York Times explore the history and context of the protests in Hong Kong, June 2020.
- Erin Blakemore at National Geographic looks at the complicated and troubled history of Hong Kong, August 2019.
- Andrew Higgins at The Guardian reports on the transition of Hong Kong from Chinese to British rule, July 1997.
- Sandra Burton at Time Magazine looks at the immigration to and from Hong Kong over its history, September 1999.
- Wong Kar-Wai talks to The Irish Time about his history and his relationship to Hong Kong, January 2005.
- Wong Kar-Wai talks to The Evening Standard about the specific cultural and historical context of the food in In the Mood for Love, October 2000.
- Evan Osnos at The New Yorker reflects on the long-term consequences of China’s cultural revolution, May 2016.
- Maynard Parker reports for The Atlantic from Hong Kong in the midst of the cultural revolution, November 1967.
- Gary Cheung at South China Morning Post reflects on the riots and chaos that spread through Hong Kong as a result of the cultural revolution, June 2016.
- Mary Hui at Quartz compares the current political turmoil in Hong Kong to the aftershock of the cultural revolution, July 2020.
- Iain Marlow at Bloomberg reflects on how the deadline of 2047 hangs over the city, December 2019.
- Brian Wong at The Diplomat looks at how recent protests in Hong Kong are framed in terms of the 2047 deadline, January 2020.
- Kalyeena Makortoff at The Guardian reports on how HSBC got caught up in the battle with China over Hong Kong, September 2020.
- Jennifer Wang at Forbes reports on the disappearing billionaires in Hong Kong, January 2021.
- Maggie Cheung talks to The Independent about her life and career, October 2011.
- Wong Kar-Wai talks to IndieWire about the challenges in producing In the Mood for Love, February 2001.
- Jamie Wolf profiles Wong Kar-Wai at The New York Times, looking at the overlapping productions of In the Mood for Love and 2046, September 2004.
- Niki J.P. Alsford at The Conversation on the contradictions of Hong Kong’s “one country, two systems” model, June 2019.
- Cheng & Tsui on the complicated relationship between Hong Kong cinema and China, November 2013.
- James Southcott discusses the theme of identity crisis that runs through Hong Kong cinema in The Film Magazine, March 2020.
- Mike D’Angelo at The Dissolve discusses Wong Kar-Wai’s recurring fascination with the manipulation of time, October 2013.
- Wong Kar-Wai talks to Artist Interviews about his fascination with the manipulation of time and the allure of memory, March 2001.
- Catherine Weng discusses the meaning of the original Chinese title of In the Mood for Love at The Taiwan Times, October 2020.
- Janelle Okwodu at Vogue looks back on the fashion of In the Mood for Love, May 2020.
- Miranda Yen at The Pankou lists all of the qipaos (cheongsams) that appear on screen in In the Mood for Love, January 2018.
- Rachel Rabbit White at Vice discusses the horniness of In the Mood for Love, August 2019.
- Lanre Bakare at The Guardian looks back on the ambiguity of the ending of The Sopranos, January 2019.
- Jason Bailey at Flavourwire reflects on contemporary pop culture’s obsession with closure, October 2014.
- Padraig Cotter at ScreenRant explains the ending of In the Mood for Love, August 2020.
- Vikram Murthi at IndieWire reflects on the ending of In the Mood for Love, November 2015.
- Ava Wong Davies at Girls on Tops looks at the use of food in In the Mood for Love, March 2020.
- Bere Wangge at Globe Trotter looks back on the shared twenty-year legacy of both In the Mood for Love and Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, September 2020.
- Darren Mooney looks at the evolving and complicated relationship between Hollywood and China for The Escapist, September 2020.
- Keith Bradsher writes about the legacy of the 1997 Asian stock market crash in The New York Times, June 2007.
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Filed under: Movies, The 250 | Tagged: chaste, China, Hong Kong, in the mood for love, longing, love, luke dunne, pandemic, podcast, romance, sex, stacy grouden, The 250, time, wong kar-wai |
the m0vie blog 
Andrew and Darren! Thank you so much for being a reader of B&S About Movies (in Pittsburgh, USA). We’re glad to have been of an assistance/reference in your preparing the show.
I am listening right now as I writer another review.