In the Mood for Love: Day One

Chow Mo-wan and Su Li-zhen become each other’s regular company as they share walls and late-night silence. Their spouses are rarely home, leaving them alone with the apartment's quiet and the neighbors' constant mahjong games. A quiet loneliness settles over their early days in British Hong Kong.

Clues begin to align: Su notices her husband owns a handbag that Chow's wife owns a similar necktie, and Chow notices Su's husband wears a tie identical to one from his wife. The revelation shifts their polite distance into shared shock. They realize their loneliness is tied to a larger betrayal between the couples.

Together they reconstruct how the infidelity might have started, comparing small details and missed chances. The exercise becomes a way to process their hurt without directly accusing their spouses. A bond forms from their shared curiosity and guarded pity.

Chow and Su begin to reenact scenes from their spouses' relationship, testing possibilities and observing how things could have happened. The exercise pulls them closer while maintaining a careful distance. Their own loneliness starts to mirror the stories they tell.

Chow invites Su to help write a martial arts serial, recognizing how much time they will spend together. To avoid interruptions from neighbors, they rent a hotel room where they can work in private. The arrangement marks a turning point toward a closer, more intimate collaboration.

As days pass, their collaboration deepens into mutual attraction, even as they refuse to admit the shift. Proximity and shared secrecy pull them nearer while social norms keep them apart. They begin to face what their relationship could mean for their lives.

The emotional weight unsettles Su; they sometimes fall silent for days, only to reconnect later with a cautious tenderness. Their conversations grow sparse and loaded with subtext, reflecting a love that cannot be openly acknowledged. The tension between desire and propriety shapes their days.

Chow receives a job offer in Singapore and invites Su to join him, seeing a path to start anew together. She agrees to go, hoping for a future beyond the hotel room and their neighbors, even as doubts linger. The decision marks a turning point in how openly they might pursue their feelings.

Su travels with Chow's invitation, but when she reaches the hotel, the room is already empty and he is gone. The moment shatters the promise of an immediate union and highlights the distances between them. The scene underscores the fragility of their fledgling plan.

Chow tells a friend an old parable: when someone holds a secret, they climb a mountain, carve a hollow in a tree, whisper it inside, and seal it with mud. The story mirrors the secrets they’ve held and foreshadows the distances that time can create. The tale blends memory with longing as they navigate their unspoken bond.

Su visits Chow's apartment in Singapore and, after a phone call, remains silent, revealing the weight of what they share. A lipstick-stained cigarette butt in his ashtray shows she had been there, confirming her lingering presence. The moment intensifies the ache of separation and distance between them.

Three years pass before Su visits Mrs. Suen, who is preparing to emigrate to the United States, to inquire about renting the Suen apartment again. The search rekindles memories of a possible shared future and keeps a fragile hope hanging in the air. The encounter underscores how far apart life has moved them.

Chow visits his old landlords in Hong Kong and learns that the Suen home now has different occupants: a woman and her young son. He leaves unaware that Su and her child are living just next door. The revelation highlights the divergent paths their lives have taken.

During the Vietnam War era, Chow travels to Cambodia and visits Angkor Wat, reflecting on memory and longing in a distant land. The journey frames his inner search for meaning beyond the intimate but unattainable bond with Su. The temple grounds echo with quiet contemplation.

In Angkor Wat, a monk looks on as Chow whispers a secret into a hollow in a wall and seals it with mud, completing a personal ritual of closure. The act embodies the distance between memory and present reality. It seals his willingness to carry the past alone, separate from Su.