Christ Almighty, the intimacy.  

I didn’t deserve gold doubloon. This piece of treasure.

Each frame looks like a photograph.

Every camera angle and movement is intentional. The slow motion takes right before the score drops. 🔥🔥🔥

I’d love to have a one-on-one with the tailor and cinematographer of this film.

If I could/would ever teach a film class, this is definitely a film I’d introduce.

The two leads-where are their roses? Give 👏🏾 them 👏🏾  their 👏🏾 things. Give it all to ’em!

A violin solo as part of an intoxicating score has a way of gut-punching one right in the soul, and does so so eloquently right up until the film’s conclusion when that solo transforms to what sounds like a quartet of strings (violins and a cellist, maybe), a mighty conclusion. Blurred and indistinct.  

王家衛 (Wong Kar-Wai) created a beautiful landscape–exemplary style with color, specifically the overuse of red for wardrobe and fabric furnishings, and light jade for the plates, teacups, and other ornamental figurines. I usually associated reds, gold, and light jade/greens with Chinese culture so it wasn’t surprising to see these used aesthetically throughout. But I think it’s the overuse and the color’s symbolism that makes it especially stringent. 

Maggie’s signature red coat matching the films iconic red curtains from the hotel is just…🔥.

Things to note: 

🥀 Prominence of timepieces—clocks, wall clocks, and discussion of time as a construct; Mr. Chow makes a statement to Mrs. Chan after they figure out they have feelings for each other—he says about his wife and her husband’s affair, 

“It’s not my fault. I can’t waste time wondering if I made mistakes. Life’s too short for that…” 

🥀 Overuse of red–symbolism for love/eros;

🥀 Framing/perspective from hidden spaces: in the shadows of an alleyway, underneath a bed, slow pans left and right with the two leads missing each other’s gazes;

🥀 Mid-drift shots while they role-play. Then, while confronting the true nature of their relationship, we see the leads faces and their subtle interactions. 

🥀 Those red curtains are a physical representation, a symbol, of the leads’ secretive and ‘platonic’ affair while their spouses engage in an actual extramarital affair. Fucking brilliant. The bellowing of the otherwise still curtains could symbolize something going awry; not as stagnant and platonic as they had hoped the relationship would remain. They didn’t want to be like their spouses, but things changed so rapidly.

🥀 The emphasis of lingering cigarette smoke—used less for its aesthetic merits, but for symbolism, maybe. What is to come of this foggy, lingering platonic relationship with a neighbor. The silhouettes meld with the stimulating score.