In the Mood for Love

In the Mood for Love (Chinese: 花樣年華; lit. 'Flowery Years') is a 2000 romantic drama film written, produced and directed by Wong Kar-wai. A co-production between Hong Kong and France, it portrays a man (Tony Leung) and a woman (Maggie Cheung) in 1962 whose spouses have an affair together and who slowly develop feelings for each other. It forms the second part of an informal trilogy, alongside Days of Being Wild and 2046. The film premiered at the Cannes Film Festival on 20 May 2000, to critical acclaim and a nomination for the Palme d'Or; Leung won Best Actor (the first Hong Kong actor to win the award). It is often listed as one of the greatest films of all time and one of the major works of Asian cinema. In a 2016 survey by the BBC, it was voted the second greatest film of the 21st century by 177 film critics from around the world, saying "never before has a film spoken so fluently in the universal language of loss and desire". In 2022, the film placed 5th in Sight & Sound's "Greatest Films of All Time" critics' poll, rising from its previous position of 24th in 2012. It is the highest-ranked film since 1975.