In the Mood for Love and 4 Other Most Contemplative Movies to Watch Alone
From tender melodramas to witty science fiction and romantic tales of a friendly genie in a bottle.
Watching movies is a communal activity. We go to the movies and watch them at home with relatives, friends and lovers.
But there are movies that reveal themselves in a new way when you watch them alone, in front of the TV screen.
1. Perfect Days, 2023
Hirayama makes his living cleaning toilets all over Tokyo. And although the job leaves much to be desired and every day is similar to the last, the lonely man is absolutely happy.
This is because Hirayama has learned to enjoy his loneliness and to take pleasure in even the smallest details. Every morning, the toilet cleaner listens to his favorite music, and at lunchtime, he sits on a bench in the park and takes pictures of the treetops.
After watching, you'll want to go outside and sit in a park in complete silence, noticing the little things you don't usually pay attention to.
2. The Worst Person in the World, 2021
For a long time Julie did not know what she wanted to do. She started to study medicine, but soon became disillusioned and tried her hand at psychology, then she tried to become a photographer.
Julie breaks up and gets back together with men just as easily: she doesn't know what she feels for them and painfully tries to find out what her goal is and how she wants to spend the next few years.
It is easy to find oneself in the main character, who takes up various hobbies, relationships and interests – anything to fill the emptiness and uncertainty. Throughout the plot, the woman makes mistakes and reaches dead ends, but never gives up for a second.
3. In the Mood for Love, 2000
Hong Kong, 1960s. Journalist Chow and housewife Su learn that their spouses are cheating on them. Because of their shared trauma, the betrayed partners grow closer and spend more time together. But neither understands what they want and are confused about their own feelings.
In many of his movies, Wong Kar-Wai shows the life and struggles of lonely romantics. In the Mood for Love is no exception.
The melodrama about a man and a woman in love is very fragmented: the narrative is not built according to the laws of logic, but according to the emotions felt by the characters.
4. Three Thousand Years of Longing, 2022
Professor Alithea, a literary scholar who studies narratives, accidentally buys a bottle in Istanbul in which a genie is imprisoned. After releasing it, the woman learns the story of the creature's wanderings, which have lasted for several thousand years.
The director of Mad Max George Miller has made an unusually tender movie. Three Thousand Years of Longing is formally a fairy tale. It has genies, magic, palace intrigue and the insidious machinations of villains.
But when the director reflects on the complex issues of love and relationships, the lightness of children's fantasy evaporates: the story of the romance between a magical creature and a lonely woman takes on tragic tones.
5. Lost in Translation, 2003
Two strangers meet in the bar of a hotel in Tokyo. He is an elderly actor, Bob, who has come to shoot a commercial. She is a faithful wife, Charlotte, who hardly sees her husband, who is always at work. The meeting changes their lives and leaves an unforgettable mark on each of them.
Two lonely characters, unable to find their place in this world. The neon signs of Tokyo, dazzling and infectious with an eerie melancholy. Oppressive skyscrapers, crowds on the streets, spacious and deserted hotel rooms – if the word "melancholy" had a movie version, Sofia Coppola would definitely make it.