41 - Ashes of Time Redux (2008)

Ashes of Time (1994) is a Hong Kong film written and  directed by Wong Kar-wai, and loosely based on Jin Yong’s Wuxia (martial hero) novel, The Legend of the Condor Heroes. Rather than following Yong’s book’s plot, Wong has taken the names of four characters and created his own story.

Almost ten years after the release of the film, Wong had been informed by the people who were storing the film that it was in bad shape with no quality edition available. Eventually Wong re-edited and re-released a shorter version of the film, calling it Ashes of Time Redux, which is the film I watched.

Both films involved lengthy and arduous desert shoots for the crew. The plot is characterized by episodic story telling.

The film, set in an unspecified ancient time in a Chinese desert, revolves around Ouyang Feng, the Venomous West (Leslie Cheung) who lives alone in the desert and acts as a go-between when people want to hire professional killers. He narrates the film based on Tung Shu predictions. The first killer is Huang Yaoshi, the Malicious East (Tony Leung Ka-fai, not to be confused with Tony Leung Chiu-Wai who starred in Happy Together). He drinks a wine that makes one forget and when a young man, Murong Yang (Brigitte Lin) asks him to marry his twin sister Murong Yin (played also by Lin) he agrees and then forgets. Murong comes to Ouyang to hire a bounty-hunter. A Blind Swordsman (Tony Leung Chiu-Wai) is hired and hopes to reach his home so he can see his wife before he is killed in battle. Hong Qigong (Jacky Cheung) is a barefoot swordsman who travels with his wife.

One of the motifs of the film is how each character has been rejected by others and become cold and heartless because of it. Often Wong uses slow motion in the martial arts sequences which sometimes makes it difficult to tell which actors we are watching. While I found Wong's Happy Together a stronger personal story, the visual images and the epic scope of this film makes it one to see.

Ashes of Time Redux (2008) ****