---
title: "In the Mood for Love: the reviews"
canonical: "https://film.one/film/in-the-mood-for-love/reviews"
title_page: "https://film.one/film/in-the-mood-for-love"
critics_score: 84
critics_reviews: 14
licence: "© Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL."
---

# In the Mood for Love (2000): what the critics said

Critics' score 84 from 14 reviews: 13 positive, 1 mixed, 0 negative.

Most critics admire this as a study in controlled longing, and the praise gathers almost entirely in two places: Wong Kar-wai’s direction and the two leads. Reviewers return again and again to the cramped 1960s interiors, the colour, the slowed rhythm and the sense that the whole film is being remembered rather than watched. Tony Leung and Maggie Cheung are singled out for conveying everything without saying much, and Cheung in particular draws repeated attention for the way the sadness sits in her movement and posture.

The reservations come from the same restraint. Variety, reviewing from the festival, admires the visuals and performances but finds the melodrama too slight to leave a lasting mark, and The New Yorker calls it accomplished but peculiar, a film that refuses the emotional payoff it spends its length preparing. The spread is narrow: one mixed notice, none negative, and the later reviews are, if anything, firmer in their admiration than the first.

## Empire — David Parkinson

Fi1m's normalised score 90/100 (inferred from the text). 1 January 2000. 

The critic praises Wong Kar-Wai for shifting to more traditional storytelling in this tale of hesitant romance between neighbours in 1960s Hong Kong whose spouses are having an affair. Performances and photography are singled out as masterful and beautiful, making it an astounding achievement and sublime cinema.

[Read the review](https://www.empireonline.com/movies/reviews/mood-love-review/)

## Film Comment — Kent Jones

Fi1m's normalised score 90/100 (inferred from the text). 1 January 2001. 

The critic praises Wong Kar-wai's return to a more contemplative style in this story of repressed longing between two neighbors in 1960s Hong Kong, highlighting the film's visual and rhythmic elegance. Maggie Cheung's performance is singled out as heroic and radiant, capturing the sadness of self-censorship and propriety.

[Read the review](https://www.filmcomment.com/article/of-love-and-the-city-wong-kar-wais-in-the-mood-for-love/)

## Little White Lies — Mick Gaw

Fi1m's normalised score 90/100 (inferred from the text). 30 June 2025. 

Twenty-five years after its première, the film continues to be one of the most viewed and discussed in the contemporary cinematic landscape, with its cult status undeniable. Wong's magnum opus realizes an interpersonal connection that transcends the framework of modern distractions, mining for the raw essence of a feeling through restraint and nostalgia.

[Read the review](https://lwlies.com/in-praise-of/in-the-mood-for-love)

## Los Angeles Times — Kenneth Turan

Fi1m's normalised score 90/100 (inferred from the text). 2 February 2001. 

The critic hails the film as a swooningly cinematic exploration of romantic longing that luxuriates in atmosphere, color, texture, and suppressed emotion, crediting Wong's visual assurance and the leads' chemistry for its hypnotic effect.

[Read the review](https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2001-feb-02-ca-20316-story.html)

## Slant Magazine — Ed Gonzalez

Fi1m's normalised score 90/100 (inferred from the text). 2 May 2001. 

The critic calls the film a ravishing evocation of an unconsummated romance tested by emotion and culture. They single out Wong’s impeccable use of interior space and mise-en-scène that displaces desire into the visuals and soundtrack.

[Read the review](https://www.slantmagazine.com/film/in-the-mood-for-love/)

## The AV Club — Scott Tobias

Fi1m's normalised score 90/100 (inferred from the text). 2 February 2000. 

The critic praises the film’s ravishing beauty and its collection of vivid, slowed-down moments that feel like memory. They single out the natural chemistry of Leung and Cheung and the intensification of romantic longing amid social constraints.

[Read the review](https://www.avclub.com/in-the-mood-for-love-1798192280)

## The Guardian

Fi1m's normalised score 90/100 (inferred from the text). 27 October 2000. 

The critic praises Wong Kar-wai’s exquisitely nuanced account of two married neighbours discovering their spouses’ affair and embarking on their own ambiguous, unconsummated relationship marked by tension and restraint. It singles out the tactile, richly textured world created by the cinematography and production design, along with the lead performances that convey emotional depth without overt drama.

[Read the review](https://www.theguardian.com/film/2000/oct/27/1)

## The New York Times — Joan Dupont

Fi1m's normalised score 90/100 (inferred from the text). 10 November 2000. 

The film is a piece of pure, languorous nostalgia set in 1960s Hong Kong, with few words and slight plot, focusing on two lonely neighbors who meet for mah-jongg parties and tea and sympathy. The director creates a sense of stifled drama in cramped spaces, with the rhythm in Maggie Cheung's body movements and exquisite costumes, evoking lost worlds as much as failed loves.

[Read the review](https://www.nytimes.com/2000/11/10/style/IHT-movie-guide-in-the-mood-for-love.html)

## Time Out — TR

Fi1m's normalised score 90/100 (inferred from the text). 23 April 2021. 

Wong's paean to the agony and ecstasy of buttoned-up emotions is a kind-of sequel to Days of Being Wild, shaped and scored as a valse triste. Every charged frame pulses with the central contradiction between repression and emotional abandon; the formalism and sensuality are inextricable, with career-best performances from both leads.

[Read the review](https://www.timeout.com/movies/in-the-mood-for-love)

## Evening Standard

Fi1m's normalised score 85/100 (inferred from the text). 10 April 2012. 

The critic calls it a genuinely wonderful movie that is old-fashioned yet contemporary, subtly erotic and effortlessly cool. Wong's masterful composition, use of colour, sound and actors' expressions are highlighted as creating one of the most affecting and poignant films of the year.

[Read the review](https://www.standard.co.uk/culture/film/in-the-mood-for-love-7433546.html)

## The New Yorker — David Denby

Fi1m's normalised score 75/100 (inferred from the text). 29 January 2001. 

The critic finds the film accomplished but peculiar, praising Wong's mastery of mood, rhythm, and sensual anticipation through restrained visuals and performances, while noting it frustrates viewers by refusing emotional payoff.

[Read the review](https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2001/02/05/society-dictates)

## Sight and Sound — Amy Taubin

Fi1m's normalised score 70/100 (inferred from the text). 

The critic praises the film's vivid recreation of 1960s Hong Kong as a memory piece rather than a straightforward narrative, highlighting its elliptical structure and fetishistic quality that evokes absence and longing. She singles out the subtle performances by Maggie Cheung and Tony Leung, along with the eroticised movement and layered framing that capture the characters' internal conflicts and the art of acting itself.

[Read the review](http://old.bfi.org.uk/sightandsound/review/401)

## Variety — David Rooney

Fi1m's normalised score 50/100 (inferred from the text). 14 June 2000. Festival review. 

Wong Kar-wai's film is an exquisitely fashioned melodrama about love and regret that dazzles with romantic melancholy and ravishing visuals but lacks dramatic complexity for lasting emotional resonance. It establishes a dreamy mood through fluid editing and hypnotic sequences but fails to conjure the depth of classic melodramas it aspires to, despite gorgeous production design and strong performances from Maggie Cheung and Tony Leung.

[Read the review](https://variety.com/2000/film/reviews/in-the-mood-for-love-3-1200462892/)

## Eye for Film — Angus Wolfe Murray

Fi1m's normalised score 85/100 (inferred from the text). 19 January 2001. 

The critic praises the film's subtle, slow, and internalized beauty as an exercise in minimalist restraint. It highlights the leads' painfully polite interactions and the visual emphasis on details like clothing and hair in exploring unconsummated passion.

[Read the review](https://www.eyeforfilm.co.uk/review/in-the-mood-for-love-film-review-by-angus-wolfe-murray)

---
© Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL. Our review: https://film.one/film/in-the-mood-for-love.md