The impact of the outfits was deliberate. Kar Wai had conceived of a much longer concept and filmed enough material to take the characters through the 1960s and into the late ’70s. In the final cut however, he edited things down to only include a single year. The abbreviated story meant a greater focus on the costumes. “My purpose at first was to try to show the film in a repetitious way. Like, we repeat the music, the angle of a location, always the clock, always the corridor, always the staircase. Because I want to show nothing changes, except the emotions of these two persons,” he told IndieWire in 2009. “We had 20 to 25 dresses for Maggie for the whole film. Because we cut the film short, it becomes like a fashion show; she changes all the time.”
Naturally, the fashion community responded to such eye-catching designs. In the years since its release, the film has become a popular reference amongst designers and photographers, making its mark on the runways of Roberto Cavalli, Erdem, and Derek Lam to name a few. Just last month, the Mulleavy sisters name checked it on their list of films to watch for isolation inspiration.
The story may be bittersweet, but In the Mood for Love hasn’t lost its luster. The news that Kar-Wai’s next project, Blossoms, will serve as a thematic sequel should introduce a whole new generation to the beauty of his most famous creation.