A newly restored, high-resolution version of Wong Kar-wai’s In the Mood for Love will premiere at the Cannes Film Festival to mark the 20th anniversary of the film’s launch.
The Hong Kong director is set to attend the premiere of the 4K restoration of his celebrated film on May 20 at the international film festival in France.
The romance stars Tony Leung Chiu-wai and Maggie Cheung Man-yuk as neighbours in a Shanghainese community in Hong Kong in 1962. The pair form an intense bond when they suspect their partners, both unseen throughout the film, of having an affair.
The 4K film will be released worldwide in June in North America, the UK, Australia, France, Germany, Spain, Portugal, Russia, Japan, South Korea and Taiwan.
The original was celebrated as one of the cornerstones of global cinema. It was voted fifth on The Guardian’s list of “The 100 best films of the 21st century” in 2019 – the highest non-English-language entry – and second on the BBC’s “100 greatest films of the 21st century” in 2016.
Italian film restoration laboratory L’Immagine Ritrovata and American film distributor The Criterion Collection restored the film from the original negative under director Wong’s supervision.
The two companies, together with Sony Pictures Classics, have also restored Wong’s other classics in the 1990s and 2000s, including Chungking Express, Fallen Angels, Happy Together and 2046.
The newly restored version will debut on June 5 at the Film at Lincoln Centre in New York, followed by a roll-out in the United States.
In the Mood for Love won lead actor Tony Leung the best actor award and the grand prize of the superior technical commission at the 2000 Cannes Film Festival.
