Wong Kar-Wai has selected a mosaic of music in this luscious film, creating a sound world of Hong Kong in the 1960s, when immigrants from China (most specifically, families from Shanghai) still retained their own local identities (dialects, food, popular music, and traditional operatic forms). Many of them believed Hong Kong only to be a transient home away from China.In the Mood for Love is a film about radio days. The musical selections, ranging from traditional opera to theme songs from popular films from the 1950s, constitute the backdrop against the romantic tete-a-tete of Chow Mo-Wan (Tony Leung) and Su Li-Zhen (Maggie Cheung). The main theme is borrowed from Shigeru Umegayashi’s "Yumeji’s Theme" (from Suzuki Seijun’s film of the same title). This alluring waltz, entrancing in its string ensemble arrangement, is symbolic of the tentative steps of the male and female dancers in a romantic intrigue. The distinct triple meter (dance rhythm) also embodies the paradox of passion and socially conformist duties of both sexes. What Wong found most intriguing is that only recently did he learn that Nat King Cole’s "Aquellos Ojos Verdes," "Te Quiero Dijiste," and "Quizas, Quizas, Quizas" were but covers of Latin originals. The dance band arrangements, conjugating for the local Hong Kong population the land of "gold mountains," certainly inspired many dreams.
