Ashes of Time (1994)

"Ashes of Time" was an audacious project but ended up being a pretentious movie. This film is a good example of how to tell a simple story in a complex manner. The plot of "Ashes of Time" is fairly simple and comes down to two words: "love triangle". Because of those "love triangles" crossing stories, jealousy, hate and love are the main dynamics displayed by the characters. The narrative part is seen through Ou-yang Feng's eyes (Leslie Cheung). Ou-yang Feng lives in the desert, where he acts as middleman to various swordsmen and becomes the tool of Destiny through which vengeance is achieved. Unfortunately "Ashes of Time" fails in telling these simple stories of love and hate. Wong Kar-wai lost himself driven by a desire to make each frame of the film a painting and an aesthetic experience. In fact beside the casting of beautiful actors (men and women) everything else is a failure in this movie. Dialogs are minimalists and not original at all. Picture's quality is very much unequal, the editing is one of the worst ever seen (at least by me) in the "swordplay" genre and finally the filming of the rare sword fight is very confusing and unappealing. Even the attempt of building artistic scenes is not always achieved: the so call erotic "women on a horse" scene is ridiculous, not erotic and useless. Wong Kar-wai wanted to deliver 100 minutes of pure aesthetic experience and forgot that a film is first about how a plot is told. By forgetting that he delivers an awkward movie that doesn't even fulfill its artistic objective.

Fmovies: (May contain spoilers) This film is definitely no typical martial arts film. Dealing more with a warrior's psyche rather than physical prowess (although there are plenty of interesting action scenes for those interested). The beautiful desert scenery made me think of an hour glass where the sand is time. The characters in the film all symbolically slip through Leslie Cheung's fingers like sand because they all fail to connect with one another and isolation and loneliness prevail.The film shows how memories can be used as weapons, to manipulate, empower or weaken. Great camera work and performances, (Tony Leung Chiu Wai at his most tortured as a blind swordsman, Brigitte Lin gives a powerful voice to all our inner duels with our Yin and Yangs) Wong KAr Wai-as always, has produced a real work of art. The themes of memory and loss can also been seen in (the amazing) Chungking Express, which KAr Wai shot and completed while editing Ashes of Time.The many story lines may be hard to follow, however Ashes of Time is still definitely well worth the watch.

I saw this at the New York Film Festival in which Bridgette Lin, who was in the first segment of the film, was there. She still looks beautiful. This film is not a remake, it is a redone version of the film, a 1992 drama set and shot in the Chinese desert in which Ouyang Feng (the late Leslie Cheung) plays a person for hire, mostly to kill others. Through the film, you see various people enter his life, and their stories are told in the passing of the seasons. This absolutely stellar casts includes Maggie Cheung, both Tony Leungs, Carina Lau and Jacky Cheung, along with Bridgette Lin and Leslie Cheung. The film chronicles tales of love, lust, betrayal, vengeance, pain and yearning admirably. There is also excellent swordplay in this film, but the real brilliance of this film is the cinematography by Christopher Doyle. The desert is punctuated with wind & sandstorms, and many images are purposely blurred. Really, if you are a film buff of any kind, this film is essential viewing for the cinematography alone. The film is more dramatic than violent and you are filled with a sense of foreboding throughout, wondering what will happen next. I never saw the film in its original incarnation, so I can't compare, but if you did see the film and liked it you have to see this. If you're a fan of director Wong Kar Wai, this is also essential viewing. Do yourself a favor and try to catch this film in a theater, where you can enjoy the overall majesty of it. Not a perfect ten only because at times it is a bit hard to follow, but stay with it and you'll be rewarded with a great cinematic experience.

Ashes of Time fmovies. Kar-Wai is one of the three best directors working today. Many feel this is his best work. Surely it is the greatest leap since his previous, but I find the Mood-2046 pair more important, even lifealtering.

If you come into this expecting a story that unfolds in good order and makes sense, you will be disappointed. The overlapping of layers, the folding of narrative, the merging of images is what we're in for.

There are two famous stories about this. The first is that at some point he quit work, then quickly went off to make "Chunking Express," during which he "found himself" ...

The other story has to do with "Pulp Fiction." Tarantino is a huge borrower of ideas. Having already written a couple "raw" movies that people admire, he stumbled upon Kar-Wai in the midst of making this — a long affair. All the clever bits in the structure of "Pulp" are from this, just as surely as all the clever bits in "Star Wars" are from Kurosawa.

What are those bits? Multiple persons in one body. Multiple bodies for one person. Circular storytelling where any part is the beginning. Nested narrative where one story tells another. Characters that imagine and forget each other, bringing them into our world and out.

Death, love, yearning, accident, encounter.

All of this at the beginning of a luscious partnership between Kar-Wai and Christopher Doyle. They are today what Greenaway and Sacha Vierny were: dangerous adventures in cinematic imagination coupled with mastery of cinematic expression.

This takes a few too many chances and you can see precisely where Kar-Wai abandoned it to search for sense. (He always shoots in order of what you see.) But if you are ready for the transcendental thrills of his later work, you might want to start here.

Ted's Evaluation -- 3 of 3: Worth watching.

Without a doubt, Ashes of Time is the most special film I have ever seen. It is also the most artistic, which naturally means it is more challenging than entertaining. Indeed, I was not comfortable watching it for the first time, but I was so mesmerized that now it has become the movie I have revisited the most. Nevertheless, Ashes is still a very difficult piece to sit through in its entirety. In my opinion, due to its disjointed storytelling, it is a film where parts are better than the whole, and those parts simply take my breath away.

Interestingly enough, the most breathtaking and spellbinding film to me is not one I so much "like" or enjoy, but is one that I cherish for its evocative artistry. This majestic collection of disjointed heartbreaking tales is complemented to perfection by unrivaled and unforgettable imagery, music, and performances that penetrate the soul.

"Ashes of Time Redux" is Wong Kar Wai's venture into the martial arts genre. However, energetic action and narrative clarity take a backseat to the visual poetry that contemplates wounded hearts, loneliness and the memories of lost love that cut deeper than any sword. Best appreciated as a sensory experience, "Ashes of Time Redux" unfolds as a series of beautiful yet melancholic images like the soft brush strokes of a Chinese landscape painting. Even the sword fights are shot as swirling, hallucinatory dreamscapes. The haunting desert landscape gorgeously captured in saturated colors by cinematographer Christopher Doyle, a brooding cello score by Yo-Yo Ma and the beauty of the actors (an all-star Hong Kong cast) contribute to a movie experience that both pleases the senses and engages the heart.