‘In The Mood For Love’ Trailer: Wong Kar Wai’s Romantic Masterpiece Returns To Theaters For Its 25th Anniversary With ‘ITMFL 2001’ Short Coda

We at The Playlist have extremely fond feelings for Wong Kar Wai‘s master-stroke romantic film “In The Mood For Love” as we once listed it among our 50 favorite romantic movies of the 21st Century and the landmark Hong Kong/French feature, along with the coda short film are heading back to theaters this summer to celebrate the 25th Anniversary courtesy of the fine folks over at Janus Films.

First debuting at the Cannes Film Festival in 2000, it starred beloved Asian cinema actors Tony Leung and Maggie Cheung as they play two characters from the early 1960s who discover their spouses are having an affair while spending time with each other, and their romantic journey together blossoms.

READ MORE: Summer 2025 Movie Preview: 50 Films To Watch

Experiencing “In The Mood For Love” for the first time on the big screen is certainly a chance a film-obsessed audience shouldn’t pass up. It is said to be the middle installment of a loose trilogy that also includes “Days of Being Wild” and “2046,” bookending it.

Here’s the “In The Mood For Love” synopsis:

Hong Kong, 1962: Chow Mo-wan (Tony Leung Chiu-wai) and Su Li-zhen (Maggie Cheung Man-yuk) move into neighboring apartments on the same day. Their encounters are formal and polite—until a discovery about their spouses creates an intimate bond between them. At once delicately mannered and visually extravagant, Wong Kar Wai’s In the Mood for Love is a masterful evocation of romantic longing and fleeting moments. With its aching musical soundtrack and exquisitely abstract cinematography by Christopher Doyle and Mark Lee Ping-bin, this film has been a major stylistic influence on the past 25 years of cinema.

Here’s the synopsis for “In The Mood For Love 2001.”

Initially conceived as one-third of a triptych about food, In the Mood for Love was expanded into a stand-alone feature that won immediate recognition as a modern-day classic. Another third—intended as the “dessert,” as Wong Kar Wai has put it—was, until now, only screened during his masterclass at the 2001 Cannes Film Festival. Now available in wide release for the first time, In the Mood for Love 2001 demonstrates the director’s masterful ability to generate palpable atmosphere and striking characterizations on a miniature canvas—with In the Mood for Love stars Tony Leung Chiu Wai and Maggie Cheung Man Yuk once again providing the sizzling chemistry— evoking the mystery of transient, unexpected connections in the modern city through his inimitable romantic touch.

Support independent movie journalism to keep it alive. Sign up for The Playlist Newsletter. All the content you want and, oh, right, it’s free.

“In The Mood For Love” opens Friday, June 27, in New York at IFC Center and Film at Lincoln Center and opens Friday, July 4, in Los Angeles at Laemmle Royal and Glendale. You can see the full playdate schedule here as it’s also playing all over North America, Canada, and the U.K.

You can view the 25th Anniversary trailer for “In The Mood For Love” below.