Wong Kar Wai’s arthouse credentials are so firmly established it seems surprising the director would make a martial arts film. However Kar Wai comes from a background of writing for genre films and his first film as director was the gangster film As Tears Go By (1988). Kar Wai loved Louis Cha’s martial arts novel ‘The Legend of the Golden Condor’and wanted to make a mainstream film after the box-office failure of Days of Being Wild (1991).
Ashes of Time – Synopsis
Ouyang Feng (Leslie Cheung) has lived in the western desert ever since the woman he loved (Maggie Cheung) rejected him for his brother. Now he acts as the go-between for mercenaries and their clients. These include his old friend Huang Yaoshi (Tony Leung Kar-Fai), a swordsman who downed a magic potion to erase his memories,Brigitte Lin playing dual roles as male and female siblings who hire Ouyang to simultaneously kill and protect an unfaithful lover, and Hong Qi (Jacky Cheung) who seeks redemption by helping an impoverished young woman avenge her brother's death. Most poignant of all is Tony Leung Chiu-Wai (Infernal Affairs) as a lethal swordsman who is losing his sight.
People say when you can’t have what you want; the best thing is not to forget.
Days of Being Wild was an impressionistic drama about a cold-hearted womaniser. Critics loved it, but cinema owners were less impressed. In the 80’s Hong Kong cinemas chose titles on the strength of the star names involved. They heavily booked Days of Being Wild and found it playing to near empty theatres despite featuring Leslie Cheung, Maggie Cheung, and Andy Lau. Kar Wai tried to make amends with Ashes of Time but if anything he made a more elliptical film than his previous work, even though it belongs to a popular genre.
Filmed in Lanzhou China, Ashes of Time proved to be a gruelling desert shoot. During a production break Kar Wai managed to direct another movie in a matter of weeks. Ironically Chungking Express (1994) would become his breakthrough movie and lead to international success. Ashes of Time however flopped. Highbrow critics were no doubt turned off by it being a genre film. Conversely martial arts fans were bored by the lack of action, though the few fight sequences are brilliantly shot by the legendary Sammo Hung.
The end result though is beautiful. Many of the classic 60’s and 70’s martial arts films were filmed on sets, filming Ashes of Time on location makes the landscape part of the story. Cinematographer Christopher Doyle spoke of learning to listen to the rhythm of a place while filming in the desert and “storytelling has as much to do with the space in which it takes place as it does the idiosyncrasies of our working style.” (1)
Ashes of Time – Redux Version, and Farewell Leslie Cheung
Wong Kar-Wai spent a decade trying to restore the film and eventually released a redux version in 2008. The new version is shorter than the original and features a new score. By this time Leslie Cheung had passed away and this tragedy also touches the film and gives it another layer of sadness. Cheung gives one of his best performances here as the loner who is trying hard not to feel anything but is tormented by his memories.
Maggie Cheung also delivers a breathtaking monologue as her character, talks about her wasted life. Kar-Wai places her in the foreground in close-up and does not cut the sequence even when she moves away from the camera and begins to cry. This refusal to cut away from her anguish keeps the viewer in the moment and renders the scene even more intimate.
Ashes of Time may baffle viewers on a first viewing. Western audiences are unlikely to be familiar with the source material and will not understand what they mean to Hong Kong audiences. Imagine a director taking the Alexandre Dumas novel ‘The Three Musketeers’ and turning his heroes into broken-hearted existentially troubled misfits whose fighting prowess cannot ultimately save them and you have some idea of what Kar Wai has done here.
Rating 4/5
- Ashes of Time
- Starring Leslie Cheung, Maggie Cheung, Tony Leung Chiu-Wai, Brigitte Lin
- Written by Wong Kar Wai, Based on a novel by Louis Cha
- Directed by Wong Kar Wai
- Year 1994
- Running time 100 mins, Redux 93 mins
(1) Interview Magazine. 25/11/08
Kevin Sturton - Kevin is a graduate of the 2005 Post-Grad course in Film Journalism run by the BFI and writes mainly about film.
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