In The Mood For Love (2000)

A man (Tony Leung Chiu Wai) and woman (Maggie Cheung)  who are neighbors discover that their spouses are having an affair.

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Shooting a period piece in a rapidly modernizing locale like Hong Kong can be tough when your budget is small. Add to this countless scenes set in cramped hallways and apartments, and things can get downright claustrophobic. But for Wong Kar-Wai and the aching tales of longing he seems to specialize in, such limitations become assets. He and cinematographer Mark Lee Ping-bin (along with Christopher Doyle) even double-down by employing extremely long lenses to further compress space and crowd the frame. How better to immerse an audience in this long-ago world of strict social mores and suppressed passion?  I am perfectly fine with this film being the highest ranking film of the 2000s on Sight & Sound's most recent poll. In the Mood for Love yearns like no other film I can think of. It's a secret worth sharing.