In this section of our Colossus Movie Guide for In the Mood for Love, we will explain the film’s ending.
Cast
- Maggie Cheung – Su Li-zhen (Mrs. Chan)
- Tony Leung – Chow Mo-wan
- Siu Ping Lam – Ah Ping
- Rebecca Pan – Mrs. Suen
- Kelly Lai Chen – Mr. Ho
- Joe Cheung – man living in Mr. Koo’s apartment
- Chan Man-Lei – Mr. Koo
- Chin Tsi-ang – Suen’s female servant
- Roy Cheung – Mr. Chan (voice)
- Paulyn Sun – Mrs. Chow
- Wong Kar-wai – Writer and director
The end of In the Mood for Love explained
Recap
Chow secures a job in Singapore and invites Su to join him. Despite agreeing, Su arrives too late at the hotel to meet him. In Singapore, Chow shares an ancient tale with a friend about secret-keeping, involving a mountain, a tree hollow, and mud. Later, Su visits Singapore and Chow’s apartment. She dials his number but remains silent on the phone. Chow later finds a lipstick-marked cigarette, indicating her visit.
Three years on, Su inquires about renting Mrs. Suen’s soon-to-be-vacant apartment as the latter plans to move to the U.S. Chow, back in Hong Kong, visits his ex-landlords, the Koos, who have now moved to the Philippines. On learning a woman and her son occupy the Suen family apartment, he departs.
During the Vietnam War, Chow visits Cambodia’s Angkor Wat. He whispers into a wall’s hollow and seals it with mud under a monk’s observant eyes.
The movie then ends with the following intertitle:
He remembers those vanished years. As though looking through a dusty window pane, the past is something he could see, but not touch. And everything he sees is blurred and indistinct.
And here is a more literal translation of the intertitle:
Those vanished years, as if separated by a piece of dust-laden glass, can only be seen and not grasped. He keeps yearning for everything in the past. Had he shattered through that dust-laden glass, he would have walked back into those long-vanished years.
Meaning
The ending of In the Mood for Love resonates deeply with the film’s key themes, leaving audiences with a profound sense of longing and a poignant reflection on the nature of love, time, memory, and societal norms. Let’s review several facets of this ending and how they increase our understanding of the film.
Chow and Su’s missed connection
The missed connection between Chow and Su towards the end of In the Mood for Love poignantly underscores the film’s central themes of unrequited love, time, memory, and societal norms. Their failure to meet in Singapore symbolizes the culmination of their tragic love story marked by unexpressed emotions and societal constraints. Despite sharing an emotional intimacy, they never manage to align their paths, which lends an air of melancholy to their relationship, underlining the theme of unfulfilled love.
This moment represents of the relentless march of time and its impact on their relationship. They make plans to meet, marking a moment in time that holds the potential for their love story to finally find expression. However, this moment becomes a pivotal point of divergence instead of convergence, as Su arrives too late to the hotel.
Time, thus, emerges as a relentless force, a constant and unyielding entity that shapes their relationship, emphasizing the fleeting nature of opportunities and the transience of love. It becomes a looming presence, not only as a metaphorical boundary that they cannot breach but also as a physical barrier in the form of the clock ticking away their chances of being together.
This missed connection, catalyzed by the merciless passing of time, only amplifies the tragic poignancy of their relationship. It serves to highlight one of the key themes of the film: the way in which societal norms and conventions restrict individuals’ actions within specific time frames.
The omnipresent motif of the clock, a tangible reminder of time’s inexorable march, is particularly impactful in this sequence. The ticking clock serves as a reminder of the characters’ fleeting opportunities for love and companionship. Each tick is a poignant symbol of the seconds, minutes, and hours that keep Chow and Su apart, marking the moments they have lost and can never regain.
Su’s silent phone call
Su’s silent phone call to Chow from his apartment in Singapore is another important element in the film’s ending. This moment encapsulates their entire relationship—filled with unspoken words and suppressed feelings. Su chooses to remain silent on the call, mirroring their mutual restraint throughout the movie. This silence speaks volumes about their unexpressed love, highlighting the immense emotional depth and complexity of their relationship.
Wong Kar-wai’s aesthetic sensibilities are powerfully exhibited in this scene. This sequence, while minimalist in its action, is deeply nuanced in its visual and auditory presentation, and it serves as a microcosm of the film’s exploration of unexpressed love, longing, and the burden of societal norms.
One of Wong’s notable directorial choices is his use of framing and composition. In the silent call sequence, Wong frequently employs tight frames and close-ups to capture Su’s subtle facial expressions and gestures, amplifying the emotional intensity of the moment. His use of shadows and dim lighting helps create a mood of melancholy and longing that mirrors Su’s emotional state.
Furthermore, Wong employs the ‘frame within a frame’ technique in this scene. Su is often shown framed by doorways or windows, symbolizing her emotional confinement and the societal constraints she is grappling with. This aesthetic choice further heightens the sense of isolation and unfulfilled desire.
The scene is also notable for its use of diegetic sound. The absence of any dialogue or non-diegetic music during Su’s silent call underscores the film’s exploration of unexpressed emotions. The quietude of the scene, broken only by the hum of the city outside and the distant sound of the phone ring, enhances the feeling of distance between Su and Chow, making their unfulfilled love all the more poignant.
Wong’s use of colors adds another layer of emotional depth to this scene. The muted, earthy color palette of Chow’s apartment contrasts sharply with the vibrant reds that have been associated with Su throughout the film, symbolizing the emotional disconnect and the unbridgeable distance between them.
Chow’s return to Hong Kong
Chow’s return to Hong Kong, years after his departure, marks another poignant moment of missed connection in In the Mood for Love. By this time, Su has left the apartment where their intimate yet unfulfilled relationship blossomed. As Chow stands in the now unfamiliar setting, the role of memory in the film comes to the forefront, presenting itself as both a comforting sanctuary and a painful reminder of his unrequited love for Su.
Throughout the film, memory is explored as a complex facet of human experience—providing solace through nostalgic reminiscence while simultaneously exacerbating the pain of unfulfilled desires. Upon his return, Chow seeks out the apartment where he and Su spent so much time together. In doing so, he confronts the physical embodiments of their shared past, bringing the role of memory sharply into focus.
The apartment is a physical representation of their shared memories, their shared secrets, and the emotional intimacy they once enjoyed. It is a relic of a past brimming with unspoken love and longing, now made more potent by Su’s absence. The place once bustling with their shared laughter, secret exchanges, and stolen glances, now stands as a silent monument to their unfulfilled love.
This emotional exploration of memory is further enhanced by the recurring motif of the clock. Time, symbolized by the ticking clock, serves as a constant reminder of the impermanence of the present and the ever-changing landscape of life. As Chow navigates the familiar-yet-distant spaces of his past, he is confronted by the relentless passage of time, further emphasizing the role of memory in the narrative.
The whisper in the hollow
Chow’s act of whispering into the hollow at Angkor Wat in the final scenes of In the Mood for Love serves as a powerful metaphor, encapsulating the film’s core themes of unexpressed love, societal restraint, and memory. The exact contents of Chow’s whisper remain unknown, a secret whispered into the hollow of an ancient ruin, leaving the audience with an element of mystery and intrigue that adds significant dramatic weight to the film’s ending.
The act of whispering into the hollow resonates with the earlier story Chow shares about ancient people hiding their secrets in a similar manner. This parallel is indicative of the unexpressed feelings and secrets Chow carries within him—feelings that have been suppressed due to societal expectations and personal restraint. By whispering his secret into the hollow, Chow metaphorically unburdens himself, offering his unexpressed love and longing a form of closure.
However, the ambiguity of what Chow whispers is equally important. This uncertainty invites viewers to explore their interpretations, mirroring the film’s broader approach to the narrative. The suppressed feelings and unfulfilled desires between Chow and Su are often presented through subtleties and ambiguities, compelling the audience to perceive the depth of their emotions through subtext, gestures, and silences.
This deliberate ambiguity also adds a profound emotional layer to the film’s ending. The whisper, unrevealed and unknown, symbolizes the very essence of Chow and Su’s relationship—an intimate bond marked by unexpressed emotions, unfulfilled desires, and shared secrets. The fact that these whispered words remain a secret underscores the film’s central exploration of love constrained by societal norms and personal restraint.
The closing intertitle
The closing intertitle of In the Mood for Love leaves the audience with a thought-provoking quote: “He remembers those vanished years. As though looking through a dusty window pane, the past is something he could see, but not touch. And everything he sees is blurred and indistinct.” This evocative text offers a window into the film’s deeper meaning and the core themes it explores.
Firstly, the intertitle accentuates the role of memory in the narrative, framing it as both a source of nostalgia and a marker of loss. It serves as a metaphor for Chow’s perception of the past—a period he can reflect upon but never reclaim. The act of looking “through a dusty window pane” suggests the distance between Chow and his memories, indicating that they are blurred by time and can’t be touched or changed, thereby underscoring the sense of longing and loss that permeates the film.
The intertitle also helps convey the film’s exploration of time. The “vanished years” imply the passage of time, emphasizing the transient nature of moments, emotions, and opportunities. This reminds the audience of the unseized moments and the unfulfilled love between Chow and Su, lending a poignant, retrospective tone to the narrative.
Finally, the closing intertitle reiterates the film’s exploration of unfulfilled desire and love. The fact that everything Chow sees from his past is “blurred and indistinct” encapsulates the ambiguity and the suppressed emotions that define his relationship with Su. This reflects the film’s central message about the unexpressed emotions and desires that are often blurred by societal constraints and personal restraint.
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