Fa yeung nin wah (2000) Ending Explained
TL;DR:
The ending of In the Mood for Love (2000), directed by Wong Kar-wai, is a poignant and ambiguous conclusion to the story of two neighbors, Chow Mo-wan and Su Li-zhen, who discover their spouses are having an affair. Instead of acting on their growing feelings, they restrain themselves, ultimately parting ways. The film ends with Chow whispering a secret into the ruins of Angkor Wat, symbolizing the unspoken love and repressed emotions that define their relationship. The finale leaves viewers with a sense of melancholy and unresolved longing, emphasizing the film's themes of missed connections and the passage of time.
Detailed Explanation of the Ending
The final act of In the Mood for Love is a masterclass in emotional restraint and visual storytelling. After years of unspoken attraction and shared loneliness, Chow and Su part ways without ever fully acknowledging their feelings. Chow moves to Singapore, while Su remains in Hong Kong. Years later, Chow visits the ruins of Angkor Wat in Cambodia, where he whispers a secret into a hollow in the ancient stone and seals it with mud. This act is deeply symbolic-it represents the burial of his unexpressed love for Su, a secret too painful to share but too precious to forget. The ruins themselves serve as a metaphor for the remnants of their relationship, something beautiful but irrevocably broken by time and circumstance.
The film's ending is deliberately ambiguous, leaving viewers to interpret whether Chow's whispered secret is a confession of love, a regret, or even a fictionalized version of their story (as suggested by Chow's career as a writer). The lack of closure mirrors the characters' own unresolved emotions, reinforcing the film's central theme of ineffable longing. Wong Kar-wai's use of slow-motion cinematography, haunting music (particularly Shigeru Umebayashi's Yumeji's Theme), and recurring motifs (like the cheongsam dresses and cramped hallways) amplify the sense of yearning that permeates the finale.
Unresolved Questions
What does Chow whisper into the ruins of Angkor Wat?
- A confession of love for Su.
- An apology for never acting on his feelings.
- A fictionalized version of their story, as he is a writer.
- A prayer or wish for Su's happiness.
Do Chow and Su ever reunite?
- The film suggests they do not, as their paths diverge permanently.
- The epilogue implies they might have met again off-screen, but their relationship remains unresolved.
Why do they never act on their feelings?
- Fear of becoming like their unfaithful spouses.
- Cultural and societal expectations of propriety.
- Personal guilt or a belief that their love is doomed from the start.
Personal Opinion
The ending of In the Mood for Love is one of the most heartbreaking and beautifully crafted conclusions in cinema. Wong Kar-wai's decision to leave Chow and Su's love unfulfilled is devastating but thematically resonant. By denying them a traditional romantic resolution, the film becomes a meditation on the nature of desire, memory, and the weight of societal constraints. The whispered secret at Angkor Wat is a perfect encapsulation of the film's mood-intimate yet distant, fleeting yet eternal. The ambiguity of the ending ensures that the film lingers in the viewer's mind long after the credits roll, much like the unresolved emotions of its protagonists.
Final Thoughts
In the Mood for Love is a film that thrives on what is left unsaid and undone. Its ending is not about answers but about the ache of missed opportunities and the quiet tragedy of restraint. The visual poetry of the final scenes - Chow alone in the ruins, the recurring motif of doorways and hallways, the slow-motion shots of Su-creates a sense of timeless melancholy. It's a film that demands multiple viewings, each time revealing new layers of meaning in its silences and glances. The ending, like the rest of the movie, is a masterpiece of understated emotion, leaving the audience with a profound sense of longing that mirrors that of its characters.
In summary, In the Mood for Love concludes not with resolution but with a whispered secret-an echo of love that was almost, but never quite, spoken aloud. It's a film that lingers like a half-remembered dream, its beauty lying in what remains unfulfilled.