To mark its Golden Jubilee, the 50th Hong Kong International Film Festival (HKIFF50) will collaborate with the Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestra for In the Mood for Love – In Concert.
Scheduled for three performances at the Hong Kong Cultural Centre Concert Hall on 2 and 3 April, this special event will give the audience the opportunity to be among the first in Asia to experience this timeless love story with live orchestral accompaniment.
Directed by Wong Kar Wai and starring Tony Leung Chiu-wai and Maggie Cheung, In the Mood for Love is an internationally acclaimed classic of Hong Kong cinema that earned Leung the Best Actor award at Cannes in 2000. The film was ranked fifth in the 2022 Greatest Films of All Time poll conducted by the esteemed British film magazine Sight & Sound, and the fourth-best film of the 21st century according to the New York Times in 2025.
Set against breathtaking visuals by master cinematographers Christopher Doyle and Mark Lee Ping-Bing, In the Mood for Love unfolds as a passionate and poignant tale of two strangers caught in a subtle yet intense struggle between desire and repressed emotions. The lyrical music acts as a character in itself, embodying the distance between the lovers – filled with promise, sorrow, and regret. The film seamlessly blends diverse musical styles – from Umebayashi Shigeru’s waltzes, Michael Galasso’s haunting melodies and Nat King Cole’s Latin rhythms to Rebecca Pan’s classic Chinese ballads – into a soundtrack that beautifully captures the melancholy and nostalgia of 1960s Hong Kong.
During the film-in-concert performance, the Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestra will perform the music from this heartrending masterpiece under the baton of Joshua Tan, the award-winning Principal Conductor of the Singapore National Youth Orchestra.
HKIFF50 will take place from 1 to 12 April. The Hong Kong International Film Festival Society will announce more details about the three performances of In the Mood for Love – In Concert and other festival highlights in the coming weeks, with the full programme available in March.
