Round of 64 (Tier 4): In the Mood for Love vs. Fargo

Round one is here. 61 years of film with 3 convenient ties. What film will come out on top?

For this round, we start with:

IN THE MOOD FOR LOVE, a luscious tale of a forbidden romance between two married people adrift without their spouses. It stands as one of the most sensual films ever made; the colors feel like they are coming off the screen, and it is more erotic to imagine what could be rather than a graphic depiction of what is.

Against...

FARGO, the nihilistic masterpiece from the Coen brothers. What starts as a simple kidnapping and payoff turns into a deeper and deeper web of side deals, betrayals, and matter-of-fact violence to deal with the problem. Like NO COUNTRY FOR OLD MEN, the tone can be pitch black but it is filled with so many odd characters that you cannot help but laugh.

The winner will move on to the next round. The full bracket is attached below.

 

I rewatched Fargo this summer with my girlfriend, who had not seen it but was interested in the show, which I also haven't seen. The movie is perfect, I adore every second, but it's nowhere near In the Mood for Love. The mastery of physical spaces Wong Kar-wai has is unparalleled, he lays out the geography of the apartment building and the hotel room and the streets so precisely that you feel like you're in the space with these characters portrayed by incredible actors who are required to communicate most of their performances on a subtextual level, often without dialogue, and it's astounding.

 

I need to return to In the Mood For Love. I wasn't in the right....mood....when I watched it

 

I had never heard of Mood for Love.... Ill have to check it out - the write up looks good!

But boy... Fargo was superb....

 

In The Mood for Love is the most deceitful and intoxicating film. It gives the impression of being a romantic film, partly because Tony Leung and Maggie Cheung are beautiful and likeable, partly because of the hazy, colourful way the film is shot, and partly because of the wonderful evocative music that plays. On my first few watches, I got caught up in the romance of it too, the idea that they're secretly perfect for each other, mostly because they're unhappy, beautiful and living in the same apartment block.

Their relationship though is deeply unhealthy, acting out and pretending to be one another's spouses, pretending to be having an affair, while committing their own form of an emotional affair. We're watching these gorgeous actors, shot sensually, acting out an extremely unstable and destructive relationship, and also acting within the world of the film as each other's spouses. It's a really interesting film for me that shifts and changes every time I watch it.


Also, worth mentioning this deleted dancing scene, which would have basically changed the whole film;

 

Ultimately, I can get that flavor of Coens from other Coen films, but there is nothing quite like In the Mood for Love. Two amazing films but one is a more unique experience.

 

abstaining

 

In the Mood for Love for sure.

 

Will be shocked if In the Mood for Love ends up winning this one but it deserves to

 

Watching Leung in In the Mood for Love makes me want to smoke and I’m not a smoker.

 

This is a surprise.

 

Sorry, Fargo.

 

It physically hurt to vote against Fargo

 

Lightly swaying the folks who havent voted yet, to remember Steve Buschemi and William H Macy in this.... and how funny they were.

And Frances McDormand - without Fargo, there would be no 3 Billboards.. vote with your heart.

 

It's no disrespect to the immense talents of McDormand, Buscemi, and Macy to say that Tony Leung and Maggie Cheung are in their own class in In the Mood for Love. Also the less thought one gives Three Billboards the better.

 

It would be a better world without that movie.

 

Maggie Cheung is an incredibly versatile actor. While I guess she’s known internationally for these melodramas and her work with Assayas and Wong Kar Wai, or Hero with Zhang Yimou, she did lots of knockabout comedies in the late 80s and early 90s, and has fantastic comic timing.

She was incredibly prolific in the early part of her career, and even in deeply mediocre movies, is almost always able to elevate the material she’s given. Any film she is in is worth watching, no matter how poor it sounds on paper.

 

No Three Billboards? Launch Fargo into the freaking sun!

 

yeah i would take a universe with no three billboards, thanks.

 

With 54 percent of the vote, In the Mood for Love will face The Godfater in the Round of 32.