Obviously the best place to start analyzing Chinese cinema is with the kissing scene from the movie "Pretty Woman", starring Julia Roberts and China-critic Richard Gere...
Clearly this was a key moment in this love story about a ruthless business man and a prostitute. The piano and violin music of course elevates the whole scene to an even higher level. It's clear what's happening here, and that's the way I like it.
Of course, love is a popular theme in Chinese-language cinema as well. Unfortunately, however, things are not always as straightforward as in Hollywood. Love stories are a little bit more painful here. There is more restraint, more is left unexpressed, not much actually happens and quite frankly I find them confusing. Farewell My Concubine (Kaige Chen, 1993) is such an example, although here the love is between two men. Anyway, I wouldn't recommend it.
Then I met Carolyn and she took me to "In the Mood for Love" (Kar Wai Wong, 2000). The first thing I wanted to know was the length of the movie. Well, I didn't expect it but this film made a deep impression, particularly the following scene showing the loneliness of the two main characters:
Then it suddenly dawned on me that there can be so much beauty in things that are left "unshown", so to speak. The lack of kissing, sex, or fighting scenes is the strength of this film. We as an audience draw our own conclusions - still with music but no piano, only strings...
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