In the mood for a hotel

February 3, 2008 8:25 AM

Does anyone know the name of the hotel in Wong-Kar Wai's magnificent In the Mood for Love?

The one with the room number 2046 where Chow Mo-Wan (Tony Leung) falls in love with Su Li-zhen (Maggie Cheung). I have read somewhere that it was shot on location.

posted by MrMerlot to Media & Arts (6 answers total)

I remember reading something about it being shot on location as well; I think that I found the source of that comment in "Mood music", a Guardian interview with Wong:

Much of the work was a matter of historical reconstruction: shooting partly in Hong Kong, partly in Bangkok, Wong and his regular designer William Chang used real buildings, but made the interiors look like highly stylised sets. "The hotel is actually a British army hospital - you know, in the good old days," says Wong, and you can't quite gauge how much nostalgia or irony there is in that phrase. "I liked that hotel: architecturally it was wonderful. But it's gone now."

posted by yz at 9:00 AM on February 3, 2008

According to this article it was a set, not a real hotel.
posted by O9scar at 9:11 AM on February 3, 2008

Looks like yz beat me to it!
posted by O9scar at 9:12 AM on February 3, 2008

Wasn't the hotel also only in 2046 and not In the Mood for Love? It was the setting for the former, but I don't believe appeared in the latter.
posted by mikeh at 7:01 AM on February 4, 2008

Wasn't the hotel also only in 2046 and not In the Mood for Love? It was the setting for the former, but I don't believe appeared in the latter.

You may be thinking of two different hotels: In the Mood for Love's hideaway (with room 2046) and 2046's Oriental Hotel (Chow's residence).
posted by yz at 7:52 AM on February 4, 2008

Response by poster: I meant the hideaway, room 2046. Thanks so much for such erudite replies
posted by MrMerlot at 3:24 PM on February 11, 2008